2023, d. Jonah Feingold -- AmazonPrime(/Freevee?)
The Draw:
THEIRstory:
Ali dumped her fiancee Graham six months ago. Having lost her parents young, she grew pretty attached to his family and, at Christmas, really misses them. So when Graham tells his parents he's got to work (a Christmas deadline to finish the new video game update) they call Ali up and invite her to Christmas in his place... not telling Graham, of course. As one might expect, Graham hastily decides to return home two days before Christmas and definitely doesn't receive the warm welcome he thought he would, quickly learning the woman who broke his heart now has dibs on his childhood bedroom with his posters of Pamela Anderson and Wolverine.
Graham learns that Ali has been talking with his sister regularly since they broke up, and his younger brother has been getting help with his college math courses from her. Graham definitely has as sense of his place in the family hierarchy, and it's just below the Baby Jesus in the manger scene at the front of the house. (There's a whole subplot about the baby Jesus keeps being stolen from the manger, and they have to keep replacing it that doesn't really have anything to do with anything)
Graham pulls Ali aside and they bicker, with each swearing to have the other kicked out the house before Christmas day. This involves Ali setting Graham up to flood the toilet, Graham setting Ali up to disappoint his parents on game night, and Graham literally getting Ali's goat by sticking feed in her pockets and letting the goat loose at his dad's used car lot Christmas party.
Also at the party Graham's high school rival Brady starts hitting on Ali, while Graham's getting picked up by a random hottie. Brady is the #1 sales guy at Graham's dad's lot, and is a clear point of Brady's inferiority complex with the family. They all wind up at a bar together (Graham's sister and brother in tow) and it's awkward as the exes get pretty snippy. Ali's flirting with Brady is hilariously awful (she boops him on the nose at one point... when we see Ali when she's out of her element, we really get why she gets along with Graham's parents so much, they're all kind of dorks).
On Christmas Eve Ali's doing all the Christmas baking and Graham learns that she's now a full-time baker, having quit accounting (she's such an accountant). Graham brings up the bake-truck that he was supposed to find for her when they were together, and it's clearly a touchy topic that she wants to avoid. Christmas eve dinner winds up with Brady and party hottie in attendance, and turns out Ali made the cookies with THC butter, getting everyone stoned, and Graham's sure his straight-laced mother will be outraged, but she's into it. After accidentally spilling that his sister and her girlfriend split up, Graham leaves dinner with the hottie to a club, only to learn that hottie want him to join her and her male roommate in a three-way... which, no judgements, just isn't for him. Meanwhile, Brady takes Ali "someplace special" which is the car lot, and he tries to sell her a car.
Graham gets home drunk and by default goes to his room instead of the couch and wakes Ali up. They bicker, argue, make out, have sex and sleep . Waking up together on Christmas day they kind of get a real conversation in, only to be interrupted by Graham's mom who gives some nice advice about partnerships. They go to church where they try to inappropriately continue the conversation much to the disgust of other parishioners. They open presents and Brady stops by, and they all go play hockey (which Brady beat Graham out as team captain in high school). But during play, dad has a heart attack. Graham saves his life with CPR. He realizes that he's wasted so much time trying to work and build a life for himself and Ali (that she didn't actually ask for) that he's missed out on so much family, that clearly Ali has made time for. He apologizes (quits his job when his boss calls), and the two come to amicable terms. Ali agrees to leave and Graham wishes her to find only the best guy in her life.
The next morning, Dad is home, and Ali departs for the airport. Playing a board game, Graham realizes he can't let her go and there's some "race to the airport" shenanigans that never gets the family out of the driveway. Ali has returned on her own and the couple are reunited. A postscript has them engaged again and living in LA and hosting Christmas. Graham is working freelance, and returns to surprise Ali with that food truck. There's a 2-years later post-postscript that is funny, but far-fetched.
The Formulae:
This isn't a Hallmarkie, so it doesn't exactly fit the formula, except... it's almost the same story as Hallmark's fun An Unexpected Christmas from 2021.
Unformulae:
Sex, drugs, production values, no "local hires" playing tertiary characters, good comedy editing and performances. Even the "Christmas deadline" that Graham has is pretty much a non-story.
True Calling?
I honestly can't believe there hasn't been a movie called "EXmas" before [correction: there was "Merry Ex-mas" in 2014 with Dean Cain and Kristy Swanson, and two different "Merry Ex-Mas" films since]. I can't believe Hallmark just left that title sitting on the table and went with "An Unexpected Christmas" instead. Foolish.
The Rewind:
Very early in the film, after Graham gets exhausted with talking with his parents and basically hangs up on them, the TV starts playing an ad for a drug (so it's a parody of usual drug commercials in the US where they have to be all cagey and vague about what it's for), and Graham's screaming at the TV (the ad read saying "Tired? Stressed? Single?"): "What is this ad for? Who is this ad for? Who made this!?" and I had to rewind twice to get the name of the drug.
It's called "Alileftamane"...and it's only now that I write it down I even get the actual joke of it being close to "Ali left me" (or "Ali left a man"?). Amell's line reading is hilarious on its own, but I like it even more with the silly, relevant drug name.
The Regulars:
Hottie Donna Benedicto (her character's name is "Jess" apparently) has been in a few non-Hallmark non-holiday Hallmarkies, and even one holiday actual Hallmark produciton. I know here from a recurring role as a DEO agent on Supergirl.
Leighton Meester's haircut is "the Danica McKellar", so that counts as a regular too.
No other Hallmarkie regulars, but I love this cast. While the script is only marginally punched up from a regular Hallmark movie, the cast delivers in a way that your typical Hallmark cast cannot, if for lack of talent, experience, or time and budget to do enough takes to get it right.
Amell is really, really great, hitting every comedic beat just right and even creating a few of his own. Meester delivers a subtle, goofy performance that your typical Hallmark actress would send into over-the-top, try-too-hard quirk.
Mom is played by Canadian comedy mainstay Kathryn Greenwood and dad is played by Michael Hitchcock, best known as one of Christopher Guest's repertory players, so there's a lot of comedy history and character acting under their belts.
I think my favourite, though, is Veronica Slowikowska as Mindy, Graham's sister. She doesn't have a huge amount to do in this film but she makes her presence known in every scene she's in. She's like Carrie Coon in Gone Girl (the gold standard of sister side-characters in film) or Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm... just stealing focus (in a good way) every time she's on screen. She doesn't have a huge resume, and I've only seen her before on What We Do In The Shadows in a recurring role, but were this film not basically buried on Amazon she should really break out.
How does it Hallmark?
I really did quite enjoy Hallmark's An Unexpected Christmas but that was still a Hallmark movie, with all the Hallmark-like things that ultimately drag it down to a Hallmark level. This is a movie, with real production values, good looking camera work, well timed editing, good lighting, music that doesn't sound like one guy trapped in a soundbooth with a synth keyboard for 4 hours...and on and on. In other words, it's got some money in it.
How does it movie?
As a movie, this is oddly a level above direct-to-video, but a level below theatrical release. It's obviously a direct-to-streaming film and that seems about right. It's charming, with a very likeable cast, a lot of laughs, but I think what drops it down from being great is how forced some of the comedic scenarios seem...like the toilet flood or the ice fishing hut. Even the stolen baby Jesus subplot is kind of go nowhere (in a Hallmark film it would be mercifully welcome irreverence...in a proper studio comedy it needs to be something a little more).
There's "elevated horror" can we coin the term "elevated Hallmark"?
Strangest thing about this is it's a product of "Buzzfeed Studios".
I don't think this will be one I want to watch all the time (it's no Holidate, but then, nothing is), but if it's on, I wouldn't turn it off.
How Does It Snow?
I presume this was shot in Vancouver, and it looks to be early spring or so. The snow is fake and some kind of batting or whatever, but the good stuff. They dirty up the batting to make it look like it's snow that's melted and been around a while, and they don't hold back on the spread. They got a good batting budget.
It does not look like Christmas in Minnesota out there (nobody is ever dressed for Minnesota winter), though. Christmas in Seattle maybe. All the greenery we see, though, is not summertime foliage, it's evergreens. The other trees and things (if we see any) are bare or brown. The ground is always wet looking, like the snow has been melting, which, again, gives this a very northern west-coast vibe (if not a beginning of March vibe).
"Leighton Meester's haircut is "the Danica McKellar", so that counts as a regular too."
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