Sunrise, Sunset
A delayed farewell to the 2022 Countdown to Christmas.
Hey, uhhhhhh sorry this kind of fell off? This last weekend of movies sat in my “My Recordings” on my Frndly account for a while. I was preoccupied by family Christmas stuff and then the whole return-to-work-post-vacation thing and also this whole new year thing. These are all excuses, but it all boils down to the fact that I didn’t do it right away and then it was easy to not get around to it because I had mentally moved on from the holiday season. But I need to put a bow on all this! Pun intended!
Holiday Heritage
The promos for this movie used the tagline: “3 generations, 2 holidays, 1 family.” Let’s use that to guide us into the synopsis for this movie.
3 generations, from youngest to oldest: Ella (Lyndie Greenwood) is a graphic designer in Boston who is planning to start her own business. Her mother, Micah (Holly Robinson Peete), still lives in their hometown of Mary’s Town, Pennsylvania, but wants to branch out on her own. The matriarch, Tess (Darlene Cooke), runs the family bakery and, even more than the other two is grieving the death of her husband. While she tries to figure out what she wants for her own future, Ella works to mend the rift that has formed between the very rigid traditionalist Tess and the more experimental Micah who are struggling to run the bakery together.
2 holidays: After Christmas (which happens halfway through this movie) there is Kwanzaa. As someone who did not know anything about Kwanzaa, I felt like I was the target audience for this movie. I cannot say how well they did at portaying Kwanzaa celebrations, and I will admit to it feeling a little exposition-heavy at time. But there was an entire holiday to exposit! So I can’t critique that too much.
1 family: The Chapel family, made up of these three women. Riley, Tess’ husband and Micah’s father and Ella’s grandfather, used to be mayor of Mary’s Town, and the Chapels are an important family to the community.
What does Christmas mean? Christmas is an opportunity to get your feuding family together so that you can make them spend all of Kwanzaa together so that they are forced to confront their issues through the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
Is the title a pun? No, but I’m not sure what Kwanzaa-related puns are out there.
How many other Hallmark movies have the two three leads been in? Holly Robinson Peete: 2 non-Christmas movies and 8 Christmas movies; Lyndie Greenwood: 1 non-Christmas movie and 1 Christmas movie; Darlene Cooke: 1 Christmas movie
Last minute plans/impending deadline? I could not remember Micah mentioning when she wanted to move to Chicago, but Ella has decided that she has until the end of Kwanzaa to convince her to stay.
Chemistry check? They have good family chemistry, if not the best. The romantic chemistry between Ella and her compulsory love interest (Griffin, who took over as mayor after her grandpa Riley died) was nonexistent.
Christmas Grump/Christmas Enthusiast? Ella takes on her grandfather’s mantle of Kwanzaa Enthusiast for the sake of bringing the family back together.
Quaint town? Mary’s Town is very quaint. Even the name, “Mary’s Town” is quaint.
Dialogue highlight? “Dreams don’t have zip codes.”
How white and straight? Very straight, but another addition to Hallmark’s efforts to make more movies with an all Black main cast.
Pet peeve? Not exactly a pet peeve, but it’s kind of weird that when her family is encouraging Ella to get back together with her ex, Griffin, they point out how similar he is to her dead grandfather.
Hot cocoa? What better beverage for mother/daughter heart-to-hearts on Christmas Eve?
Rating? 3.5 out of 5 Kwanzaa cookies
Final verdict? I liked getting to see more Kwanzaa representation, but I found the plot and the acting to be very meh. Not even that boring, just very middle-of-the-road.
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas
I was not prepared for this to be a legal drama with ghosts? I don’t really know what I expected. Madison Rush (Torrey DeVitto) is a former child actor who wants to break into directing and has written a play with her best friend about the authorship controversy surrounding the classic poem ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas (originally published as A Visit from St. Nicholas). Between a budding romance with her former co-star and current star of the play Connor (Zane Holtz) and teaching her leading lady how to actually act, Madison also has to contend with the literal ghosts of Clement Clark Moore and Henry Livingston Jr. arguing for themselves as the true author of the poem.
What does Christmas mean? Weirdly this movie was not that focused on the actual holiday of Christmas, in spite of being all about a Christmas poem.
Is the title a pun? It’s just the title of the poem that it’s about.
How many other Hallmark movies have the two leads been in? Torrey DeVitto: 1 non-Christmas movie and 4 Christmas movies; Zane Holtz: a first-timer
Last minute plans/impending deadline? Opening night (and the only night of this one-night play) is on Christmas Eve, and Madison’s producer Jefferson asks for a lot of last-minute changes in the week leading up to the performance. Also the ghosts keep messing with the flow of rehearsals.
Chemistry check? Pretty good! I liked when Madison asked Connor to flirt with her and he very seriously told her about how great their kiss was in the movie they did together. And then she told him that she meant she needed help with writing romantic banter for the play.
Christmas Grump/Christmas Enthusiast? Not really a part of this movie, since, as I said, the celebration of Christmas is not part of the plot. But Connor is Team Moore while Madison is Team Livingston, so there is some minor conflict there.
Quaint town? Troy, NY is the actual home of A Visit from St. Nicholas — the poem was first published in The Troy Sentinel in 1823. And they do actually have the Victorian Stroll shown in the movie!
Dialogue highlight? “She doesn’t need to be Meryl Streep. She just needs to say her lines and not bump into the furniture.”
How white and straight? Very straight and mostly white.
Pet peeve? Jefferson the producer is very excited about the possiblity of free labor from the ghost authors. Pay your actors, Jefferson!!
Hot cocoa? Every Christmas market worth its salt has a cocoa stall.
Rating? 4 out of 5 gingerbread houses
Final verdict? This was surprisingly fun!
Hanukkah on Rye
Has Hallmark finally made a genuinely good Hanukkah movie? It’s essentially You’ve Got Mail, but with Jewish delis instead of bookstores and an old-fashioned matchmaker instead of an AOL chatroom. It’s funny! The leads are charming! It will make you hungry!
Molly (Yael Grobglas) is set to inherit her family’s deli, Gilbert’s, on the Lower East Side. Jake (Jeremy Jordan) has been sent from Los Angeles to open a New York location of his family’s deli, Zimmer’s, right down the street from Gilbert’s. Both of their grandmothers sign them up for an old-fashioned matchmaker (they communicate only through letters using the aliases Beth and David) and they spend the movie falling for each other through the letters while flirting and sparring in real life. I already told you it’s You’ve Got Mail, so you know how this goes. But, spoiler alert, it avoids the infuriating small-business-being-forced-to-close ending. Everyone wins!
What does Christmas Hanukkah mean? Hanukkah is time to embrace tradition while also looking toward the future.
Is the title a pun? They do actually eat pastrami on rye in this movie! It’s Hanukkah, it’s about delis, Hanukkah on Rye works.
How many other Hallmark movies have the two leads been in? Yael Grobglas: another first-timer; Jeremy Jordan: 1 non-Christmas movie and 1 Christmas movie
Last minute plans/impending deadline? Jake is only in town to get the deal signed for the new location of Zimmer’s.
Chemistry check? Excellent. Both of these actors are CW veterans, and they know how to elevate this kind of material. Christmas Hanukkah Grump/Christmas Hanukkah Enthusiast? Molly wants to use their neighborhood’s Hanukkah celebrations as an opportunity to draw people back to Gilbert’s, while her parents are more skeptical.
Quaint town? Like most of the other Hallmark movies set in a big city, this zeroes in on a specific neighborhood. In this case, the Lower East Side of Manhattan is getting the Hallmark small town treatment.
Dialogue highlight? “What is your type?” “Men who can open a mailbox without help.”
How white and straight? Very very, even though it is set in New York.
Pet peeve? How are you going to have Hanukkah song contest and multiple Fiddler on the Roof references and NOT have Jeremy Jordan sing??
Hot cocoa? Many hot beverages are consumed, I assume all hot beverages in Hallmark movies are cocoa unless otherwise identified.
Rating? 4.5 out of 5 secret family recipe latkes
Final verdict? I know Hanukkah is over, but please treat yourself to this movie if you have not already!
There! I did it! I want to gather some data from the past three years of reviews to see if my sense that this year’s crop was lower quality-wise overall is correct. I have previously thought about doing more with this newsletter in between January and October, so keep and eye out for whatever that ends up looking like. Happy 2023!