A Toast to HallmarKent: Eight Gifts of Hanukkah - 2021, d. Mark Jean - Hallmark
The Draw:
I only watched one-half out of three Hallmark Hanukkah movies form the past two years {that would be Holiday Date (2019), but not Double Holiday (2019) or Love Lights Hanukkah (2020)] and the general gist of these movies is "let's explain Hanukkah to the non-Jewish crowd" (I mean, that is me, buuuut...). Effectively their previous Hanukkah efforts seemed like they were basically appropriating the holiday into a Christmas movie and just end up being a very lazy effort at being representative.
The Deck the Hallmark podcast gave this year's entry, Eight Gifts of Hanukkah, gave big marks for being a typical Hallmark romance set during Hanukkah without needing to so much as acknowledge Christmas (the only XMas injection is putting under the "Countdown to Christmas" banner and the commercials in-between). They rather effusively praised the movie itself though, so I thought I'd give it a watch.
HERstory:
Seattle-based Optometrist Sarah (Inbar Lavi) has been single for four months and is ready to get back on the dating scene. She goes on a bunch of really poor, poor dates (all at the same cafe, likely for filming budget reasons) in the opening montage, but then manages to find a decent guy in Micheline-rated, tv-famous chef, Nigel (played by Oliver Rice, an even better Chef name) , his Scottish accent providing an immediate, differentiating charm.
Back at her business, her friend-since-childhood Daniel (Jake Epstein), is busy building new shelves in a tarped-off half of the storefront, trying not to listen in on Sarah's dating exploits. She's paid yet another visit from Adam (Andrew Zachar - think Seth Rogen when he got fit for Green Hornet), who has once again lost his glasses. He's really rich after selling his tech firm, and he's been coming in buying new glasses trying to muster up the nerve to ask Sarah out...which he finally does. She says yes.
Sarah and Daniel are part of the planning committee at the Jewish Community Center working on this year's fundraiser (The Mazel Ball, as well as the childrens' event, Hanukkah Hunt), where Sarah's lawyer ex-fiance Paul is also on the board, making things not uncomfortable at all.
Sarah hosts her family for the first day of Hanukkah, with her friend-from-work Keisha providing the role of someone to explain things to. It's all fairly brisk shorthand, and not invasive. Sarah's judge mom, her dad, and her brother is there with her niece, as is Daniel who, we learn, was raised by her family after his mother died and his dad took off. So Daniel is kind-of brother like, but not a brother, like Barry and Iris on The Flash. As Keisha is leaving, she finds a gift of white roses on the front porch. The card is unsigned and a mystery is afoot.
Except it's obviously Daniel.
She has more dates with Adam and Nigel, and she receives more gifts - a basket of her favorite chocolates, a picture frame, a nice watch - and more guessing about who the possible sender could be. An uncomfortable encounter with Paul after another planning meeting indicates he's trying to reconcile which Sarah's really not okay with.
Sarah and Daniel spend a lot of time together. Their vibe sort of has a playful familiar dynamic but with some real steam under it. They play chess at Daniel's obscenely-huge-for-a-single-guy home, they make food together, dancing, and obviously they're spending a lot of evenings together with family for the holidays. It's clear something is unspoken between them. Daniel is the first to admit his feelings, but to his employee who wonders why he's so distracted.
Daniel is making a grand gesture, his big play for Sarah after being off the market for so long with Paul. But with Sarah now dating both Nigel and Adam, he's feeling inferior. But it's clear to him, and everyone, that the intimate gifts that Sarah is receiving are having their intended wooing effect, and she has a lot of conversations about who it could be, with everyone, Daniel included...only Daniel is never even a possibility on her list, which wounds him more and more.
The thing is, Daniel is a coward. Even nervous nerd Adam worked up the gumption to ask Sarah out, and seeing all this competition, rather than stepping up, Daniel withered, and receded into the shadows.There was a perfect, beautiful moment, where the two meet at Bubbe Rose's memorial bench and they're both crying, both vulnerable. She leans into him and he holds her. That, Daniel was a perfect gift of a moment to tell her you love her you dummy, and you, dummy, said nothing.
Day 7 Sarah receives the gift of glasses just like Bubbe Rose's (which she'd been trying to find everywhere, they're the emblem of her optical shop). Something so intimate she is so taken aback. Once more she talks "who could have done this in earshot of Daniel" and, with about 20 minutes to go, Daniel can't hold his tongue anymore. He's hurt that Sarah doesn't consider him a possibility on her list so he tells her how he feels but with anger and storms off. But given their almost-familial relationship, it's understandable why she wouldn't put him on that list. She gets ready for the ball, only to first stop by Daniels and tell her how she feels, but with anger at him for hiding his emotions for so long. It kind of makes Daniel's earlier outburst worthwhile, if only so Sarah can have one as well.
At the Ball, in her blue dress, she tells her other suitors that she's in love with someone else, and Paul immediately knows that it's Daniel, while Nigel, who is catering the event, the good secular guy he is, just wants Sarah to be happy. (Adam was probably cut for time).
Daniel enters, asks Sarah to dance, having gotten the band to play their tune (Howie Day's "Collide" \). They instantly fall back into their old rhythms but without that unspoken thing between them... then Daniel gives Sarah her final gift, it's Bubbe Rose's promise ring... as if Bubbe Rose knew they would always wind up together. Kissy kissy time. Credits.
The Formulae:
The wonderful thing is this being steeped in Hanukkah traditions and Jewish culture, most of the hoary old Christmas cliches are absent. It is a breath of fresh air in that regard, for sure. As noted, I've not spent enough time with the other Hallmark Hanukkah movies to know if there are now new Hannukah tropes that Hallmark is teeing up.
But outside of the holiday feels, there's, well, party planning. Sigh, always so much party planning in these bizHallmarkies.
There's the POC best friend/confidant. Both Sarah and Daniel have one (and if it sounds like I'm being reductive it's because these characters are barely characters...and they're both employees of the leads) and their head-tilt look of sympathy.
There's the 20-minutes to go complication. They kind of double down on it with Sarah finding out that Daniel has an offer to build 30 homes in Denver or something.
Telling the ex/current boyfriend know they're in love with someone else and the ex/current bf being reasonable and accepting.
The big ball/gala/event, and the sexy-but-tasteful blue (or red, but in this case blue) dress.
Daniel's got a dead mom.
Unformulae:
Well, we don't usually get someone "playing the field" in a Hallmark. Here we have a woman with four or more possible suitors, but she is actively dating.
The characters yelling their true emotions at one another in frustration. Kind dug it.
A live band (Sarah's brother is the drummer in "the Bean Counterz") playing kind of pop-tunes, not Christmas carols. Like in the real world. (People don't dance to Christmas carols, Hallmark).
Daniel and Sarah are never identified as a couple in advance by anyone (though both the POC best friends inquire with the "well did you guys ever...?")
A steamy eye exam? Can that be a thing? Hallmark seems to think so.
True Calling?
This may be the most apt title of any Hallmark ever.
Alternative title: My Stupid, Cowardly Childhood Crush.
The Rewind:
I didn't actually have a rewind moment, except for catching what exactly Nigel wanted to do to Sarah's mom's kugel with raisins. He respectfully asks" I, if there's no objections, might add some currents plumped in port for the Mazel Ball." That sounds like a genuinely good addition, like something a polite chef might do. Sarah's mom, twice established as a judge, says "Objection overruled." Hah.
Oh, and when Daniel goes to Sarah's to finally tell her how he feels (mid way through Hanukkah), but then chickens out, and they dance...she's barefoot and he's in his shoes and I worry so much for her feet. Take your shoes off in her house, you savage. Jake Epstein's a good Canadian boy, he should know that you take your shoes off when entering the home.
The Regulars:
Inbar Lavi makes her Hallmark debut with this one and, man, she's good. I can see why the guys are falling all over her. She's striking, and her mousy voice belies the fierceness beneath. Lavi handles every scene beautifully, often conveying much without saying anything. She hasn't been beaten down by the Hallmark grind like so many of the regulars have. There's still a full tilt performance going on here.
Former Degrassi: The Next Generation star Jake Epstein has been in quite a few of these holiday romances, both of the Hallmark and non-Hallmark variety starting with Charming Christmas in 2015, and he has Candy Cane Christmas also coming out this year.
Mom Sheila Tyson is a Vancouver-area bizHallmarkie regular, last seen in Christmas Sail.
Dad Barry W. Levy has also been in about a half dozen bizHallmarkies since 2017.
Brother David Kaye was last seen in The Santa Stakeout and Love, Lights, Hanukkah.
Sarah's best friend/employee Keisha Natalie Malaika makes her second appearance in a Hallmark after last year's Cranberry Christmas.
Daniel's best friend/employee Jimmy has been in nearly a dozen Hallmarks. He appears as the game show host in this year's The Christmas Contest
How does it Hallmark? (How does it fare as a Hallmark movie?)
This really is a cut above most Hallmarks, and easily the most appealing of their Hanukkah movies to date, the first not to seem like a tossed-off "there you go" offering. There's still a minuscule amount of non-invasive explaining the holiday
or specific traditions to secular guests, but in a way that probably
rings true. If I don't sound more effusive about it, it's because it could have reached a little higher, a little further outside the Hallmark romance formula. That it sits so snugly into it dulls its shine.
How does it movie?
Not so much .
The set-up is a really fun idea, a woman who receives a gift from a secret admirer every day of Hanukkah, while she is also dating multiple guys, has an ex that wants her back and a close guy friend from childhood who's always around.
What it needed was to make the mystery a viable one. Yes, obviously the guy she's ending up with is Daniel, but you need to play the game of making it seem like any of these other guys are even passibly a threat to him and their happiness. This movie is just not interested in establishing Nigel, Adam or Paul as real characters with inner lives or wants or desires or personality. There's never an inkling that they are someone Sarah is going to wind up with. The dates she has with them are terribly scripted (they basically only talk about dating and next dates).
That this whole thing is just Daniel being a bloody coward in telling Sarah how he feels is so frustrating. I think it would have been interesting had there been another suitor to start who was dropping gifts off but then Daniel, realizing that he does have feelings for Sarah and needs to be making a play, then sabotages the other guy's gifts and replacing them with more intimate ones... and then the other guy starts taking credit... yeah, there's a romcom.
[Toasty, I think I found an angle for our tv movie romance podcast: Fix This Hallmarkie - where we run through how to turn a bizHallmarkie into a real movie]
How Does It Snow?
There is...snow, but I think it's all melting away (there's a lot of wet sidewalks), so they covered it with cotton batting. I'm guessing they shot this in north Vancouver in March. It looks wet, and cool, and grey, but not very snow-laden. It passes amicably as Seattle.
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