I’m going to review Gems like This

My Southern Family Christmas   

2022

Staring:  Jaicy Elliot (Alyssa says from Grey’s Anatomy)  Bruce Campbell (has been in everything)  Moira Kelly (girl half of the dynamic duo from  The Cutting edge) and Ryan Rottman (nothing of note except racking up on the Hallmark credits now)

 

              Ok, here we go.  This is something that I have wanted to do for a few years now, and now that I have a website that at least half a dozen people know about, I thought what the hell, let’s do this.  So, for this film and the four or five others I will do this yuletide season I will try to follow the same format.  Plot review WITH spoilers, because if you can’t tell how all these movies follow the same path and are sometime nearly identical, well then, I should sell you some magic beans or something.  After a brief plot review, I will give my review.  They will often actually be less of a review and more of a litany of questions I have about the Hallmark universe.  Let me pour a cup of hot cocoa and put on my footed Christmas pajamas, and let’s do this.

              The movie opens with two sassy journalists gabbing in what can only be described as, the most low stakes journalistic bullpen I have ever seen in film.  You will come to find out they work for an airplane travel magazine so maybe I’ll give them some credit that they didn’t try (or have the budget) to have them at the Dallas Times.  Oh yea, they are in Dallas.  Yada Yada Yada, and it’s revealed that our main character’s name is Campbell and she lives a charmed life with her mom and stepdad.  But oh no we as the audience sense some angst.  Big Christmas sized angst!!  It is revealed her birth dad ran out on them when she was just two years old.  And at Christmas I think for an extra kick to the proverbial Chestnuts. 

              Campbell gets a dramatic returned call from her birth father’s new wife and let’s her know that her husband Everette is in fact the same man that ran out on her and her mom 28 years prior, and that he is a good family man now and was just selected to be the Pere Noel of their small town of Sorrento, Louisiana.  If you are like me you probably don’t know what the hell a Pere Noel is….I gathered in the movie that it’s like a Cajun Santa Claus.  Way more on this in my review.

              Anyhoo, Campbell decides to tell her boss that she is going to Sorrento, Louisiana for her next big scoop for their little magazine to do a profile on Cajun Santa and this little Hallmark (META) hick town.  So, she rolls up to Sorrento, LA and the first thing they pan to is two gators and a bayou.  Amazing.  Moira Kelly (I forgot her movie name) welcomes Campbell in and let’s Everette (Campbell’s real dad) know that hey this journalist is just gonna embed with us like a war reporter or something.  He thinks it over for about 3 seconds before just going with it.  They also have two daughters (Campbell’s long lost half sisters!) who treat her like a best friend from the start.

              Anyways, this is getting pretty long so I’m gonna fly through the end like Pere Noel on his sleigh pulled by gators….yea that’s a real thing in this movie.  Campbell stays with a young hunky innkeeper who is also the town record keeper, I think?  He figures out her secret, that Everette is her dad.  They slowly fall for each other.   This group does Christmas themed stuff all day every day for a clean two weeks.  Campbell loses the nerve or gets interrupted a baker’s dozen times when trying to spill the Christmas beans that he is her real dad.  Ummm…what else…Oh the townspeople painstaking avoid saying that the reason Everette left his family was drugs and/or jail, but that’s what it seems to have been.  He is a changed and nice man now.  After some hijinx and more Christmas themed stuff, Campbell winds up at Everette and family’s house on Christmas morning where she gives him a present of a baby picture of them together.   His dumbass finally puts it together that this girl who looks like him and his other daughters, is the right age, and is from Dallas where he dipped out on her, is his daughter.  Maybe a gator slapped him in the head it’s tail to make him that dumb.  She is accepted with open arms into the family, keeps her love interest, and the movie ends with a nice Christmas selfie.

 

              Ok, here is my review, followed up with a sort of stream-of-consciousness of questions I had.

              This movie worked pretty well for a Hallmark production.  It had three major plots that had equal gravity and were all wrapped up properly.  Saucy journalist needs a big story.  Check.  Love interest in a handsome mom and pop Christmas Innkeeper.  Check.  Girl needs to find her biological dad and rebuild 28 years of trauma and heartache in one high stakes Christmas season.  Check and mate. 

              My main thoughts in this film kept going back to “Cajun Santa Clause.”  I had questions.  Does he smell like slim jims?  Would he often be seen housing natty light?  Does he spend a lot of time scratching lotto tickets at the counter of a Lil Cricket? What else, What else.  Talking slow and saying “y’all” a lot makes a southern accent, not.  Living in South Carolina for my first 25 years gives me some authority on the matter, and this film struggled with the accent.  The daughters didn’t even try and sounded like neutral newscasters which was kind of funny.  Other than that, the acting was actually pretty good.  The love story between Jackson (the inn keeper) and Campbell was pretty funny.  It wasn’t the boy meets girl, loses girl, gets her back in last 90 seconds which was refreshing.  It was basically boy gets girl quickly and just hangs around and gets way clingy way fast.  Like, I got some major, Joe Goldberg, vibes from him.  “I want to know where your next journalistic assignment is, because I’ll be there too”  Calm down, Jackson, don’t you have a damn Inn to run?

              Last thoughts before my questions.  Big Nutmeg Industry might have sponsored this film, because it was mentioned about 20 times.  At one point to start their big Pere Noel festival, the townsfolk all chanted this form of Cajun/French/Voodoo phrase to get the bayou to light up so Everette could start his mechanical sleigh pulled by robo gators.  I’m not sure how I felt about all that.  Scared maybe?  Everette also ran a meatpie food truck and wouldn’t shut the hell up about meat pies in general.  There was a wise mayor that didn’t work on the 2023 budget or public safety, or education.  No, he just sat around and enjoyed Christmas themed events for about 17 days.  Tax dollars hard at work, folks.  Solid movie though

I give it 7 out of 10 gingerbread men

Questions:

In this universe, houses have about 10k worth of Christmas decorations…do they do one big year of a sunk cost and then just store it all year?  Do they buy a little each year and just use the hoarder method?

Lighting bills?  These lazy townies can’t be bothered to work in December, so how do they also afford their $2500 power bills for going all Clark Griswald on their houses?

I have two favorite quotes from the movie that I will leave you with

“Look what the reindeer dragged in”

“I could tell you the secret ingredient (it was nutmeg) but I’d hafta feed ya to the gators”

#Xmas

Starring: Clare Bowen (Nashville), Brant Daugherty (Pretty Little Liars and a ton of Hallmark Xmas movies), Karen Kruper (legit like 30 Hallmark movies, my new hero)

 

          Alrighty, so after looking at some Christmas lights with one of our dear friends and fueling up on some Chic Fil A (God’s chicken) we decided to head back to the house to watch a Hallmark Christmas movie last night and I thought this to be an excellent time to review HCM #2 for the season.  #Xmas (This isn’t me throwing out random hashtags, actual name of movie)

          So, the movie opens with Jen T., and boy will I have thoughts on her in the review part, casually flirting/bickering with some dude in a coffee shop as they took pictures of fancy hot chocolate and Christmas ornaments.  I thought it was her brother at first and they had a weird Monica/Ross or Derek and Julianne Huff thing going on; but was relieved to find out it was just her partner in their influencer business that is tied to her design store.

          The next scene takes place in said design store that can only be described as Santa’s work shop on crack.  Like it is 1000% Christmas products for purchase.  Hopefully they have a good storage setup because they are not unloading all that inventory in the next three weeks. It’s revealed she runs the store with her sister Allie who is married and has a newish baby boy (Reid).  They mention that the store isn’t doing so hot and they should enter this influencer contest that this famous design couple Zoey and Charlie are putting on out of their fancy New York office.  Oh yea, this story is set in Astoria, Oregon. 

          For reasons only that only make sense in the Hallmark universe, they decide Jen T should pretend her coworker Max is her husband and that baby Reid (her nephew) is her baby to make a video for the contest as a designer family that could be influencers.  Why in the hell they didn’t just have Allie do the video with her real family sans charade is beyond me, but oh well.

          The videos keep going well and Jen and her fake family keep getting further into the contest until, alas, they make the top 3 and Zoey and Charlie decide to come to Astoria to visit this family and see if they want to choose them to win the contest.  Jen and Allie’s narcissistic mother sees the video and thinks Jen got married and had a kid without her knowledge so she decides to come to Astoria as well to investigate.  She brings Pete her new husband and it’s revealed the girls’ dad died years back.  *Not sure why Hallmark Christmas movies require at least one widow/widower per movie, but must be in contract or something.

          The mom is filled in on the ruse, and jumps right on the lying wagon and offers her rental house as a fake house Jen can use to trick the Influencers into thinking that it’s her family house.  When the influencers arrive, Jen changes the babies name to Leo Ansel for some weird reason and we as audience just go with it without asking too many questions.  Early in the influencers visit it becomes clear their marriage is failing.   Zoey is a workaholic and just cares about appearing to have a great marriage.  Charlie wants less selfies and more real love.  Angst builds.  They have an awkward visit with Jen, Max, and their fake baby and different brands of hijinx ensues.

          I was getting slightly bored of the movie at this point and when I shook myself outta a Chic Fil A induced day dream they were at this huge barn.  Apparently, the town (were they all in on this lie?) wanted to have a huge barn party for the influencers.  But wait.  They only had 24 hours to turn this barn from drab to totally fab.  So, within 24 hours the town magically cleaned out this 10,000 sq foot barn, laid polished concrete floors, wired in electricity, added plumbing, made custom oak wet bars, hired catering featuring tray passed appetizers, and so much more.  Seems realistic. 

          The party is going great but while Jen is speaking to the crowd with her nephew/son in hand she has a Hallmark change of heart and comes clean about the big lie.  The influencers disqualify her from the contest and leave.  Ooops, also all through the movie sparks have been flying between Jen and her fake husband, Max.  It was revealed that they went to college together and actually dated a little back then. She had been scared of it moving too fast and broke it off.  Now she is just awkward and they have been best friends and business partners for a few years.  That was important and sorry for burying that headline. 

          Jen makes a heartfelt hubgram (the movie’s play on Instagram) video coming clean about what she did and how her heart is in design and she shouldn’t have even needed to pretend to have a family to show that.  Zoey and Charlie forgive her and hint that she could still work with them in the future.  They also say their years of marital troubles were instantly solved somehow by living with the fake family for two days.  Okay??? But whatever.

          Jen works it out with her mom and they are all good now.  She had thought that Max had grown frustrated that she was not committing to giving their relationship another try, so he moved to Portland (in the 2 days since the big barn party).  Also, Portland is only about 90 minutes away, so I don’t know how that was that big of an issue?

          Anyways, Max has not moved and shows up on her doorstep on Christmas.  They express their mutual love and kiss.  I thought the movie would pan out and end like 99% of HCM movies, but we were in for one last treat.  They took a Christmas selfie and now I am 2 for 2 on HCM that end in a # XmasSelfie.

 

          Overall, I didn’t care for this one too much.  My first thought is that I have to address Jen.  Her mannerisms can only be described as William Shatner on cocaine.  Like maybe the director asked her to be quirky and this was her attempt at it?  She looked perpetually worried and had this short-clipped way of speaking while gyrating her body and looking in different directions.  If her character was supposed to be on the Autism spectrum, that is quite alright…but maybe they should reference that early on?  I feel like I have seen her in other movies where she doesn’t act like this, so maybe just an interesting choice of how to play this character. 

          One thing that worked really well though was the film showing that there is little correlation between increased followers on social media and happiness.  They kept referencing their followers going up with each video and the store making money, but they seemed more and more stressed and grinchy which is an interesting point.  I mean the real reason for the season is family and love…amiright?

          These characters may look like fitness models, but I swear they eat like sugar addicted 10 years that just busted outta fat camp.  Like I get that it’s a Christmas movie and you want to reference hot cocoa and gingerbread cookies; but I swear these townfolk eat like Buddy the Elf for the 93 meals of December.  Like, seriously Becky…put the gingerbread cookie and yule log down…it’s December 10…Eat a damn salad.  Not fat shaming at all here, just don’t want the whole town of Astoria to have diabetes by New Year’s Day.

          Last week I talked about Christmas lights/decoration budget, this week I want to talk about coat budgets.  I’m not a fashion expert by any means but can recognize a nice $500 coat when I see one.  These leading ladies tend to rock about 15 of them per movie.  Like, maybe I’m lazy or old fashioned but when traveling for Christmas I have never had the urge to pack for multiple jacket changes per day. 

          Besides the weird acting from Jen, the rest of the cast did a decent job on a subpar script.  It gave us the happy ending we needed, but I’m already looking forward to my next review which boasts two of my favorite Hallmark actors:  Mario Lopez and Jana Kramer

 

Favorite quote:  Well how much space does she (the daughter) need Pete (The stepdad)…..like outer space?

 

Pete then had a dumb/confused look on his face after that quota….I’m sure so did I

 

I give this one 3 outta 10 selfie sticks.

Steppin’ Into the Holiday 2022

Mario Lopez (Slater), Jana Kramer (Friday Night Lights, One Tree Hill, Hallmark movies, a podcast where she only talks about her ex-husband cheating on her), Cheri Oteri (SNL), Courtney Lopez (married Slater)

 

            Let me start the plot summary but just stating that the title is like a triple entendre, which is amazing.  1) Main character’s name is Billy Holiday (Lopez) 2) Steppin’ is what they do for a large part of this dance movie.  3)  Holiday again as this is, you guessed it, a Hallmark Christmas Movie.  Coming in hot, Hallmark….I love it!

            The film opens with Rae (Kramer) and Billy dancing some sort of waltz in the empty streets of an oh so small, Hallmark style middle America town.  There is a brooding tension between them and right as I wanted to make fun of the street for being so conveniently empty, a car plows towards them and they clear the road.  It seems like they are about to speak and give some context to what is going on, but then it flashes: “ two weeks earlier” and places Billy back in Hollywood where he is hosting a generic version of Dancing With the Stars.  *Bravo Hallmark…You have mixed up with format of this movie and I am now intrigued. 

            Billy quickly gets fired from the show when it is revealed he and his cohost Joanna (played by his real-life wife, Courtney) have broken up.  She is still polling well with the fans and he is not so he is axed.  He mills around his nice ass Hollywood Hills home for a day or so, before he gets calls from his madre, sister, and nephew asking him to use his newfound free time to come home for the holidays.  Only after his mom promises to make her famous Christmas cookies does he acquiesce.  This is ironic because my man Mario, looks like he hasn’t eaten a sugar or carb since he left Bayside.  Upon entering his hometown of Garnet, random Midwest state…his zany sister greets him.  Timeout to say she is played by Carla Jimenez who is absolutely hilarious in everything she does.

            At the 12-minute mark of the movie as he is just getting into his hometown, he walks by the dance studio and lays eyes on Rae leading a dance class to some local young townies.  One of the little townies being Billy’s tik tok dance obsessed nephew.  This will be one of four times in this film where Rae and Billy become entranced watching each other dance while the dancer doesn’t know the dancee is spying on their moves.  (This previous sentence makes sense in my head, but not sure if any of my six readers will understand…oh well).  They go back to Billy’s mom’s house where they will all be sharing the holiday season together.  It is revealed Billy’s dad has passed (has to be at least one widow per HCM movie!)  Billy’s mom lets him know that he and his sister will be sharing a bedroom with side-by-side twin beds this holiday season.  Hijinx will ensue, I’m sure.

            Other stuff happens and then most of the characters wind up at a Christmas tree farm.  A huge old barn is shown.  Within .3 seconds of seeing that old barn I thinks to myself “Holy shit they are gonna refurbish that barn for the big Christmas recital.”  I was spot on and Billy and Rae start kicking around that idea and I’m loving it because this is now my 2nd HCM in a row where the town hastily fixes up a barn (maybe the same actual one) for a major plot point/recital.  Anyways, this recital is huge because they need to raise money for Rae’s dance troop so all the little dancers can take a trip to NY to dance on Broadway or something.  Oh yea, Rae used to Dance on Broadway and went on tour with Katy Perry but missed small town townie life and came back home.

            My summary is getting long again so let me just list a bunch of facts that don’t need much explaining.  Billy’s agent is played by Cheri Oteri and she isn’t that funny but does always have a dog with her named Shakira.  I like Shakira references whenever, wherever. Rae’s sister runs the town diner.  Rae drinks like 12 of these holiday candy cane milkshakes throughout the movie, which gave me 2nd hand diabetes.  Billy’s nephew was flunking school because all he did was try to get tik tok dance famous.  Billy had some good talks with him about following his dream but school being important as a backup and stuff. Well done, Slater. 

            They fix up the barn, again from decrepit to Winsor castle level in like 18 hours.  They add a talent show component to get the town more involved.  At 90 minutes they have their first kiss as snow starts falling, as their love starts growing.  Shortly after, his famous ex shows up and says Hollywood and her want him back.  This sends Rae into a small tizzy.  Billy finds her in her studio dancing to Worth it if it Hurts by Tom Bromley.  The funny thing is Rae seems to be doing this really odd interpretive dance which made me laugh out loud.  And if you are playing at home, this is the fourth time one of them secretly watches the other dance.  Dance voyeurs much?

            Let’s bring this dance number home.  They have the big recital, money is raised for kids to hit up NY and although Rae won’t let Billy explain before the show that he is in fact staying in small town USA with her, he eventually tells her mid dance, I think.  They share a nice kiss and boom all the plotlines are tied up and everyone ends up a dance winner.  

 

            This movie rocked and was the equivalent of a viral tik tok dance hit (Think the Wednesday dance, from the show of the same name).  I loved so many things about this movie.  One thing that stuck out was that Billy’s mom house had the appropriate amount of Christmas decorations.  I feel like she stopped decorating well before she could appear on Christmas hoarders like the rest of the Hallmark universe.  I also laughed that they kept using the same stock drone video of the town after every commercial break.  I get it Hallmark, this little town is whimsical.

            One thing that is great about Mario Lopez Christmas movies is he loves putting in little Meta things.  In his agent’s office an assistant was taking down a poster of one of his other HCM which was funny.  Later in the movie his sister says he would be great on Access Hollywood after a commercial of it came on.  That is funny because I think he is on that show in real life. 

            I’ve got to revisit this whole refurbish a barn thing.  Do these towns not have rec centers?  I know that decorating a rec center can be a little bit of work…but maybe just maybe a little easier and less zoning and OSHA fines than overhauling a major barn project in two days? 

            One thing that is far from a plot hole is Jana Kramer and Mario Lopez falling for each other.  I mean, Hollywood muscle hunk meets angelic dance teacher…yes please.  And, while we are back to dancing….those moves.  Mario Lopez definitely incorporated some of the spin movies and jazz tap that he highlighted in the Max many a time on Saved by the Bell as AC Slater.  In real life he studied dancing in our very own San Diego suburb of Chula Vista.  The only thing that could have made that any better was if he rocked those damn acid washed jeans or referenced a preppy sociopath from high school that was always stealing his girlfriend. 

            This movie absolutely rocked.  It was everything you need in a HCM.  Some genuinely funny parts.  Very famous, very attractive leads.  Simple plot.  Meta jokes.  A barn to refurbish.  Dancing like nobody watching, even though someone was always watching.  Great Stuff.

 

“I’m not here to a make another speech, I’m here to dance!”

“What a commute…it took a plane, a train, and an automobile” (great reference to the 1987 Christmas classic)

“Your sister and her firefighter friends are life savers….well barn savers”

 

I give this a 10 outta 10 jazz/tap shoes  

Hanukkah on Rye   2022

Jeremy Jordan (ton of Broadway, Supergirl, a few HCM), Yael Grobglas (Jane the Virgin), Lisa Loeb (badass folk singer of Stay)

 

            Let me preface this by saying we watched this movie on a full stomach of a steak dinner plus dessert and our diet cokes….and not even hungry I’m craving all the loaded lox bagels, latkes, and corned beef on rye after seeing this Hallmark Hanukkah movie.  DZ Akins soon, for sure

            The movie opens on the lower east side of Manhattan at Gilbert’s Deli.  The first line is literally, “ok Bubbee.”  I had a good laugh because when Hallmark does a Hallmark Hanukkah movie they go fast and hard on everything Jewish culture, and don’t get me wrong, I am here for it.  It is revealed that young Molly (maybe early 30’s) will be soon taking over the family deli from her parents who are joining the grandmother (Bubbee) in retirement. 

            It splits over to LA where young Jake of Zimmer’s Deli in Los Angeles is being volun-told that he will be traveling to Manhattan for the family to open up it’s second location.  The family has immigrant ties to NY from his bubbee’s parents and in these three minutes it’s clear that these young members of the tribe will be our star couple for this movie.  Jake heads to NY and runs into Molly right away in their building’s mailroom right away.  Thomas the front desk guy is really creepy and just kinda lurks watching them the whole movie as, for some reason, these two love hanging out in the mailroom. 

            To add another layer of fun, and Seinfeld level coincidence, both of their Bubbees have signed them up for the old school Jewish matchmaking.  The rules of this are that they can only letter write and use an alias.  Oh yea, it’s also night 1 of Hanukkah and all this action will take place in 8 crazy nights (I don’t know how to do the copyright symbol ☹) 

            Jake and Molly keep running into each other and hit it off quite a bit.  They banter about her deli being old school and never changing.  She doesn’t know he is in town to potentially sign a lease for a new deli/competition on her block.  She also doesn’t know that she is writing letters to him in the match making thing since they have to use aliases.  Small hijinx and misadventures happen because of those plot points. 

            She eventually figures out that he is in the Jewish deli game and they have some fights.  Then he figures out she is the girl he has been writing to via match making.  By night 4 of Hanukkah, they are at a somewhat friendly place and for some amazing reason Molly organizes some sort of Jewish American Idol to happen in Gilbert’s deli that night to drum up some business.  A bunch of terrible acts stink up the joint worse that expired onion kugel.  Then what can only be described as a Hanukkah miracle happens.  Lisa freaking Loeb shows up and just jams out on her acoustic while singing a nice Jewish song.  I honestly don’t know if the movie meant her to be playing a character or just herself, but she rocks like she has been since the early 90’s.

            By about night seven of Hanukkah, Molly and Jake both know that they are the ones that have been writing to each other and that having rival delis on the same block could tear them apart like challah bread straight from the oven.  But in a zany twist, Jake’s family from LA all show up and are miffed he hasn’t signed that lease and locked in the deal for the deli.  The rival bubbees meet and decide to have a latke-off to see if Zimmer Deli can really open up a place right by Gilberts.  They make it seem like this bet would be legally binding, but I don’t think that’s how it works in real life.  It’s billed as “The battle of the Bubbees.”  Amazing.

            During the Latke-off it’s discovered that all the latkes are exactly the same.  How could this be you ask?  Well, the bubbees break out their recipes and realize their parents were friends that came over on the same boat in 1914.  The families decide to break (Jewish) bread and that there is room on the block for an old school Jewish deli and one that has more of a modern flair. 

            Molly and Jake go outside to the giant Menorah and decide to talk.  They end up realizing that of course they are perfect for each other and share that obligatory Hallmark kiss as all the Hebrews and Shebrews from the dinner creepily watch. 

 

            I thought this movie worked on a lot of levels.  Every year we watch at least one Hallmark Hanukkah Movie (HHM for the rest of this review) in addition to the Christmas ones.  Yes, they go way overboard with some Jewish themes, Yiddish words, decorations, etc….but hey that’s what Hallmark does and it’s part of the simple charm of these movies. 

            One kind of funny thing about this one was how fast the love story had to happen.  In the Christmas movies it’s usually about 2 weeks so simple math the couples had 14 days to fall in love quickly.  Hanukkah is only 8 nights and this couple met on night 1, so this was quick even for Hallmark standards.  In a lot of the HHM I joke that they really lean hard on all the Jewish folk using Yiddish words, but in this case with real Manhattan Jews it did seem more natural (along with the accents)

            Can we talk about Lisa Loeb for a second?   I couldn’t stop laughing that they threw her in kind of early in the movie and I was pumped to see what her character was up to, and then like a slow dance to Stay at a middle school dance with your crush…poof…she was gone for good 4 minutes later.  I still don’t know if she was supposed to be playing herself but it was fun she showed up at a random Jewish deli talent night.  I also realized after the movie that I always confuse her and Sophie B Hawkins, but let’s just agree they both put on some good angsty middle school dance music. 

            Unlike the HCM, the HHM don’t overdue the seasonal decorations to that same level.  The weird/amazing thing this movie did was its stock images.  Every 20-30 minutes and at some scene changes random stock pictures of Jewish food stapes would pop up.  Loaded bagels, corned beef, Matzo ball soup, Sufganiyot, etc. would just appear even after scenes that weren’t food related.  I didn’t care; I was figuratively eating what they were selling. 

            I was a little confused about the Latke off.  This could be a hot take as I married into a Jewish family that cooks great latkes, but here is my issue.  Latkes are a delicious comfort food but I feel like they would be kind of hard to mess up and all latkes I’ve ever had are amazing, so how can you judge them against each other?  But, I might have to defer this question to my Jewish wife to get a more educated opinion on the matter.  

            My only other stray thought is a trope I feel like I see in a lot of good tv shows too.  It was established that Jake and Molly had each other’s cell phone numbers.  Yet, every time they got in a pickle and needed to find each other they just ran around the lower Manhattan neighborhood in a panic looking the old school way.  Didn’t quite understand that, but oh well.

            This was a solid HHM, that I would recommend to all Jews and non-Jews alike.  I really liked how they showed how strong Jewish traditions can be, and how tight the family bond stays from generation to generation.  The Jewish deli as a safe space is a really touching aspect that I hadn’t really thought of before seeing this movie.  It reminds me of hearing older black generations telling me how the barber shop became a safe space and hangout in the Jim Crow South.  In times like these with so much hate and violence out there, spaces like these need to be celebrated for being so much more than just places for food or a haircut.  Whether Hallmark meant to bring up this point, or I am just reaching…it worked either way.

 

Favorite quotes

“ I don’t have time for dating during Hanukkah!  Just Dreidels, Latkes, and Menorahs”

“Am I on some sort of Jewish candid camera?”  (Jake to Molly when she shows him an out of the box way to stack her lox bagel)

 

I give this movie 8 out 10 latkes