In which I blather about holiday movies
Jan. 9th, 2022 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impyI believe I've mentioned that I watch (and try to enjoy) holiday Hallmark/Lifetime movies. I figure it's a variation of Mom reading just about every Christmas romance she can get her hands on, or at least trying the ones that look interesting, only I have less tolerance for books sucking.
Anyway, 2021's holiday season never did feel like Christmas, but that doesn't mean I didn't try watching some holiday cheese to get in the mood. I don't limit my watching to only Hallmark/Lifetime, it's just that they're the more well known.
I figure I might as well blather on a bit about the movies I watched this past season, though I think I still have one more I recorded that I might add in later.
Going sort of in order watched, sort of not.
First up:
Christmas a la Mode is about Emily trying to save her family's dairy farm after her father's death. Her sister wants to sell the farm and Charlie, our love interest, is part of the sell the farm side, but with a twist.
I'd like to say I have a formula for these things and can grade accordingly, but like life, my likes and dislikes work in mysterious ways. Some movies feel like they had no budget and this one definitely had that feel, but it still worked. Honestly, while Hallmark has the name recognition, I think in general the holiday Lifetime movies are usually better. They're also just harder to find when you're looking for them.
Oh, back to the movie. I liked Emily and Charlie and their dramatic third act fallout was something you knew would happen as soon as he showed up with her sister, particularly once sister made it clear she didn't give a shit what happened to the farm so long as she made her money. Sister dear is where the movie does fall flat. We're not really given a reason as to why Emily's cool with working her butt off on the farm but Dorothy (sister) is making big bucks (I guess?) in the city but is still all "SELL THE FARM. DESTROY DAD'S LEGACY" though at the end we're supposed to buy that she really just wanted to set each of the women in her life up with a nest egg. Like, ma'am, your mom and sister don't want the money, they want their home. However, movie needs some drama that's easily solved.
Enjoyed this one and while I'm not saying I'd watch it again, I wouldn't run screaming. Will make you desperately want ice-cream, though. So much ice cream.
Christmas at Castle Hart Brooke Bennett goes to Ireland for Christmas to search for her Irish roots. While there, she meets Aiden Hart. Mistaken for an elite event planner, she's hired to host his castle's epic Christmas party.
There, we'll use the official descriptions. Uh, this one is a weird ride. LC's movies are hit or miss for me, but they're rarely a miss because of her, and I freely admit I had a thing for Stuart Townsend in LGX (swoon) and that might be a huge reason I watched this. Thing is, I think I watched this while very much in the darkest part of my Ozma grief so my mind was all over the place and it didn't hold my attention in many good ways. So your enjoyment may be more than mine, but here are the problems:
LC is airbrushed to hell and back to the point that until she makes a comment about being divorced, I'm not quite sure how young she's supposed to be (she works at a catering company when we meet her so that really didn't help the age ID), meanwhile ST is most decidedly only airbrushed in the promo stuff. Sooooo that was weird.
I spent the entire movie thinking they'd CGI'd the castle in, only to learn today that no, they did not. To be fair, I'm still not entirely convinced they didn't CGI some of the aeriel shots as those are the ones that look the most... off.
When Brooke and Aiden click, they really do click. But when they don't? The whole thing feels off.
I swear to god, you can tell numerous times during this thing that ST has realized "ohshit, I'm in a Hallmark movie" and promptly lost the will to live, and I honestly cannot tell if that's a pro or a con.
I might've sent Cass a series of texts while watching this.
A Christmas Star An astronomer predicts that a new meteor shower will appear over a tiny town. Can she convince the locals to help with her discovery at the expense of a Christmas tradition?
I didn't realize this was a GAC movie. I guess that would explain the shoehorning in the titular Christmas Star, huh? Ignoring that, I watched this one while working on my doomed Christmas wreath that I now wish to launch into the sun, which means I mostly listened and looked up occasionally until the third act drama when I gave up on the wreath and watched.
I like my holiday movies being a little snarky and this one qualifies. I get the Daniel Lissing appeal and Sara Canning has a soft spot in my heart, so this pairing worked. They worked so friggin' well that this one had to work really, really hard to manufacture some fuckery to break them up. I don't get why the mayor kept freaking out about the meteor shower not happening each night. Ma'am, you sell this as an experience and if they don't show up Monday, dude, you hype up the rest of the week as a possibility and each night they don't arrive? Means the next night is even more hopeful. Thursday is when you get antsy about maybe it won't happen and maybe you'll look like fools, but you don't pull the plug on Friday because you hope you'll go out with a goddamn bang.
Which they did because duh, movie. But no, it made no sense to make Madeline miss the thing she'd been working for all week (and all her life) just to secure the guy who didn't/shouldn't have needed an apology for her wanting to name the damn thing after herself since she's the one who found it. Yeah, she came to town to see the meteors, but she found you and brought you along for the ride and you're being shitty about it just because we need the drama and it was annoying. Ignore that aspect, and I'm on board.
A Year From Now In a twist on "A Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day" a woman experiences seven years of her future over the course of one week.
That movie poster is better than the movie. There are some movies where the premise isn't bad, it's just that maybe the person (or people) executing the idea was maybe not the best choice. This had the feel of "written, directed, and produced by..." annnnnnnnnd you can take that any way you like. It was another I watched during my wreath!fail and I could choose to blame all the fail on the movie but it was basically what it said on the tin so eh. It's not great, it's not terrible, but it's probably one that could be remade better.
A Cookie Cutter Christmas Two schoolteachers take their rivalry to a new level, while they scramble to win a holiday baking contest and the affections of a handsome single father.
Literally watched because Erin Krakow's adorable but this just didn't do much for me. You're welcome for me sparing you the poster Hallmark is (was?) pushing as that's just some serious graphic artist fail going on. Surprise Alan Thicke was surprise, though him chewing the scenery did liven things up. Hated Penny, couldn't figure out why anyone wouldn't hate Penny, and the dramatic breakup moment was stupid. Try the cookies, realize it wasn't your recipe and accept that Penny is the wooooooooooorst.
The Spirit of Christmas 12 days before Christmas, Kate is trying to close the sale of a historic inn, only to find Daniel, the ghost of a man who died a century ago, and he needs her help to unravel the mystery of his annual holiday haunting.
Did I rewatch this simply because I needed something to give me the will to live and I knew this would do it?
I mean
yes. I did.
It's ridiculous and that haircut is definitely a choice but my glob, it's snarky and funny ( This is shaping up to be the worst Christmas since I died. ) and has more charm than any holiday movie has a right to so... yeah. Would watch again. Would recommend.
'Tis The Season for Love A small-town girl who moved to New York to pursue her dreams returns home for the holidays, only to realize that maybe her dreams aren't miles away, but right in her hometown.
That is the most generic write-up ever. Thanks, IMDB. Beth is an actress who has failed to make her big Broadway break and whose roommate sends her home for Christmas. Beth visits a Christmas Tree lot Santa, gets a key and dreams of what her life might have been like if only...
Yeah, uh, those dreams are about thirty seconds long, Beth acts like she's getting anything more out of them than we are, and the trailers made it seem like she'd be living this dream life. She is not. She's getting glimpses of a possible future and she's trying to figure out if changing her life is worth the hassle and honestly if you wrote out the dream bit, this thing would be 100% better as it doesn't add a damn thing besides a knowing Santa look here and there.
Beth's hometown is very, very small and while her ex-boyfriend looks super punchable, he's not played that way til the third act breakup which didn't need him to add anything to it. The setup already had it built in, movie. Actress loses out on big part, runs home to nurse her wounds, and of course she's going to get a call saying she got the part after all just when hometown is looking good. Seriously, if this isn't your first movie like this, you saw it coming a mile away. Even more, you saw her hating every second of being just the understudy, which is what she agreed to when she got the call.
I tried watching this last year or the year before and gave up about halfway through for one reason or another. This one is just boring and because you know exactly what will happen and when, the only surprises are the weird Santa thing and the fact that her old friends aren't really the worst. I mean, eh.
Every Time A Bell Rings Three reunited sisters discover their late father planned one last scavenger hunt -- an annual holiday tradition when they were young. As their sisterly bond gets rekindled, they soon learn important lessons about what they want in life and in love.
FUCK YES. I'm not sure the movie itself truly deserves that level of love, but it's so many things I love in one little space and the one review I just stumbled across was definitely a fangirl whinging about the lack of their fave that I feel I must overcompensate. But yeah, this one is more about the broken family picking up the pieces and less about the love story. Which I appreciated. Ali Liebert has been a fave since Bomb Girls and watching Brittany Ishibashi and Ryan Sands reunite (they were two of the best adults on Marvel's Runaways) as this couple that clearly adored one another and deserve a sequel? Yeeeeeeeeeessssssssss. No, seriously, Hallmark. Gimme a sequel. I will watch ASAP. Watching Paul bond with mama while the sisters ran off around town was adorable, but I need more. Nora and Maizy could stand with some sequel airtime, too. Charlotte's storyline about finding her birth mother but being afraid to tell her family was interesting and I don't get the dislike for Charlotte/Liam because if anything was obvious, it was that they were meant for each other as soon as she stopped needing to run away.
I also loved that it was set in the South and didn't bother trying for snow.
A Gift to Remember An accident between a sweet bookshop worker and a handsome stranger leaves him without his memory. Determined to help him figure out who he is, she finds herself stepping outside of her comfort zone. In the process, she discovers taking risks can sometimes lead to the greatest rewards.
After Bell Rings, I remembered that Ali Liebert was in a few other Christmas movies and went poking around to find them. Found this one, which apparently got a sequel and also was based on a book. It was super cute and I could probably go back and nitpick things, my only real issue with it is that since I knew AL from Bomb Girls, it was kinda weird to see her being this total "ack, stepping up and taking control? No, thank you!" type. Which I know, is ~acting~. But she's charming, he's charming, there's no contrived mixup, just the one setup by the premise (he can't remember who he is, they get him to remember enough, they both assume he's got someone else since that's what their sleuthing tells them, and also he's got a life in an entirely different state) and the red dress she wears at the end is fantastic.
Sister Swap: Christmas in the City and Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday Two sisters find a new sense of purpose and discover what they both truly need in life during the holidays.
These two are getting reviewed together because they're basically one movie split, weirdly, in two. City follows Meg as she heads to SLC to visit her sister, Jennifer, and winds up running big sister's restaurant and figuring what to do with her life after the death of their uncle Dave. Hometown follows Jennifer who heads to their hometown of Hazelwood to be their parents for the first Christmas after Dave's death. Jennifer's a bit of an expert with grief since her husband passed and with Meg running the restaurant, she's got the time.
I normally like both actresses and the casting here is fine (better than fine in general), but the movies really do shine best when we get the sisters together. They clearly light up around one another and the stories are instantly lifted by their natural chemistry and yet both movies go out of their way to keep them apart. I get it, it's in the name but the movies definitely suffer for it. I liked bits of both and yes, I did happily squee at getting to see Jim Byrnes (oh, Highlander, you are truly the gift that keeps giving) so there's that. I deduct points for the kid being named Madzie (wtf) but points are given back for empathizing with Meg not knowing wtf she's doing in life and Jennifer for being clearly in the dark about her old crush also having a crush on her.
Had I been in a jollier mood, these two might've fared better.
Window Wonderland A department-store window decorator learns there is a vacancy for her dream job in the run-up to Christmas, only to find a professional rival has his eye on it too.
I've seen this one before and I watched it between the Sister Swap movies because I had to wait for the second SS movie to air again. It's cute and snarky and honestly, it deserves better promo material for it because that poster is just bad. There's a love triangle set up but it's one I don't mind as much because our obvious hero is just the kind of slacker snarker you want to root for and you get why she's with the tool she begins the movie with, and the moment he shows her his true colors she's like yeah, no, fuck that guy. Annnnnnnd I love the premise. So yeah, also suggest this one.
I'm guessing I either watched other movies and blocked them from memory, or the lack of holiday spirit just prevented me from the joy of the cheese watching season as most of these were worth my time. Some, clearly, were worth the time to watch again.
Oh! I knew I watched one on Hulu!
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas A woman is left with unfinished business when she accidentally dies on the way home from a first date. With the help of her best friend, she endeavors to move on to the afterlife.
I might've rambled about this when I first watched it but we'll end here (for now, clearly my memory is iffy) with Ghosting, which is fitting. This might be the only one I will give actual spoilers for because the twist is what makes this one.
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Eh, you get the idea.
Almost.
Maybe.
Okay. So Ghosting sets up an adorable thing between Jess and Ben but it's not their relationship keeping her tethered to this world. Nope, the relationship, the love she needs to acknowledge, is her friendship with Kara. And given that we're almost to the anniversary of my best friend basically becoming a different person, this one punched me in the gut and left me crying in the corner. And it did this even though it was probably the second holiday movie I watched in November, so I can't even blame it on Ozma.
There were parts that made you want to scream, especially if you've lost a friend in any way beyond "we're just not friends anymore" but I distinctly remember wanting the love to be their friendship and then it was, and it was adorable. They fought and bickered like actual friends and I definitely recommend this one if you're curious. It's not really all that holiday-y, and the ending is seriously a WTF (we're in spoiler country anyway, so here goes: Jess goes into the light and a year later you find out she can come back to earth and spend a day with Kara, which they act like is a given thing she's done before even though it's literally been ONE year so it couldn't have happened before, only before she can leave the bar in the afterlife, she runs into Ben. Who just died due to a fluke heart condition, I think. Which is just great since that abandons his sister, Mae. Like wtf.) but if you end it before that bit? Fluffy and lovable.
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now we're done.
Anyway, 2021's holiday season never did feel like Christmas, but that doesn't mean I didn't try watching some holiday cheese to get in the mood. I don't limit my watching to only Hallmark/Lifetime, it's just that they're the more well known.
I figure I might as well blather on a bit about the movies I watched this past season, though I think I still have one more I recorded that I might add in later.
Going sort of in order watched, sort of not.
First up:
Christmas a la Mode is about Emily trying to save her family's dairy farm after her father's death. Her sister wants to sell the farm and Charlie, our love interest, is part of the sell the farm side, but with a twist.
I'd like to say I have a formula for these things and can grade accordingly, but like life, my likes and dislikes work in mysterious ways. Some movies feel like they had no budget and this one definitely had that feel, but it still worked. Honestly, while Hallmark has the name recognition, I think in general the holiday Lifetime movies are usually better. They're also just harder to find when you're looking for them.
Oh, back to the movie. I liked Emily and Charlie and their dramatic third act fallout was something you knew would happen as soon as he showed up with her sister, particularly once sister made it clear she didn't give a shit what happened to the farm so long as she made her money. Sister dear is where the movie does fall flat. We're not really given a reason as to why Emily's cool with working her butt off on the farm but Dorothy (sister) is making big bucks (I guess?) in the city but is still all "SELL THE FARM. DESTROY DAD'S LEGACY" though at the end we're supposed to buy that she really just wanted to set each of the women in her life up with a nest egg. Like, ma'am, your mom and sister don't want the money, they want their home. However, movie needs some drama that's easily solved.
Enjoyed this one and while I'm not saying I'd watch it again, I wouldn't run screaming. Will make you desperately want ice-cream, though. So much ice cream.
Christmas at Castle Hart Brooke Bennett goes to Ireland for Christmas to search for her Irish roots. While there, she meets Aiden Hart. Mistaken for an elite event planner, she's hired to host his castle's epic Christmas party.
There, we'll use the official descriptions. Uh, this one is a weird ride. LC's movies are hit or miss for me, but they're rarely a miss because of her, and I freely admit I had a thing for Stuart Townsend in LGX (swoon) and that might be a huge reason I watched this. Thing is, I think I watched this while very much in the darkest part of my Ozma grief so my mind was all over the place and it didn't hold my attention in many good ways. So your enjoyment may be more than mine, but here are the problems:
LC is airbrushed to hell and back to the point that until she makes a comment about being divorced, I'm not quite sure how young she's supposed to be (she works at a catering company when we meet her so that really didn't help the age ID), meanwhile ST is most decidedly only airbrushed in the promo stuff. Sooooo that was weird.
I spent the entire movie thinking they'd CGI'd the castle in, only to learn today that no, they did not. To be fair, I'm still not entirely convinced they didn't CGI some of the aeriel shots as those are the ones that look the most... off.
When Brooke and Aiden click, they really do click. But when they don't? The whole thing feels off.
I swear to god, you can tell numerous times during this thing that ST has realized "ohshit, I'm in a Hallmark movie" and promptly lost the will to live, and I honestly cannot tell if that's a pro or a con.
I might've sent Cass a series of texts while watching this.
A Christmas Star An astronomer predicts that a new meteor shower will appear over a tiny town. Can she convince the locals to help with her discovery at the expense of a Christmas tradition?
I didn't realize this was a GAC movie. I guess that would explain the shoehorning in the titular Christmas Star, huh? Ignoring that, I watched this one while working on my doomed Christmas wreath that I now wish to launch into the sun, which means I mostly listened and looked up occasionally until the third act drama when I gave up on the wreath and watched.
I like my holiday movies being a little snarky and this one qualifies. I get the Daniel Lissing appeal and Sara Canning has a soft spot in my heart, so this pairing worked. They worked so friggin' well that this one had to work really, really hard to manufacture some fuckery to break them up. I don't get why the mayor kept freaking out about the meteor shower not happening each night. Ma'am, you sell this as an experience and if they don't show up Monday, dude, you hype up the rest of the week as a possibility and each night they don't arrive? Means the next night is even more hopeful. Thursday is when you get antsy about maybe it won't happen and maybe you'll look like fools, but you don't pull the plug on Friday because you hope you'll go out with a goddamn bang.
Which they did because duh, movie. But no, it made no sense to make Madeline miss the thing she'd been working for all week (and all her life) just to secure the guy who didn't/shouldn't have needed an apology for her wanting to name the damn thing after herself since she's the one who found it. Yeah, she came to town to see the meteors, but she found you and brought you along for the ride and you're being shitty about it just because we need the drama and it was annoying. Ignore that aspect, and I'm on board.
A Year From Now In a twist on "A Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day" a woman experiences seven years of her future over the course of one week.
That movie poster is better than the movie. There are some movies where the premise isn't bad, it's just that maybe the person (or people) executing the idea was maybe not the best choice. This had the feel of "written, directed, and produced by..." annnnnnnnnd you can take that any way you like. It was another I watched during my wreath!fail and I could choose to blame all the fail on the movie but it was basically what it said on the tin so eh. It's not great, it's not terrible, but it's probably one that could be remade better.
A Cookie Cutter Christmas Two schoolteachers take their rivalry to a new level, while they scramble to win a holiday baking contest and the affections of a handsome single father.
Literally watched because Erin Krakow's adorable but this just didn't do much for me. You're welcome for me sparing you the poster Hallmark is (was?) pushing as that's just some serious graphic artist fail going on. Surprise Alan Thicke was surprise, though him chewing the scenery did liven things up. Hated Penny, couldn't figure out why anyone wouldn't hate Penny, and the dramatic breakup moment was stupid. Try the cookies, realize it wasn't your recipe and accept that Penny is the wooooooooooorst.
The Spirit of Christmas 12 days before Christmas, Kate is trying to close the sale of a historic inn, only to find Daniel, the ghost of a man who died a century ago, and he needs her help to unravel the mystery of his annual holiday haunting.
Did I rewatch this simply because I needed something to give me the will to live and I knew this would do it?
I mean
yes. I did.
It's ridiculous and that haircut is definitely a choice but my glob, it's snarky and funny ( This is shaping up to be the worst Christmas since I died. ) and has more charm than any holiday movie has a right to so... yeah. Would watch again. Would recommend.
'Tis The Season for Love A small-town girl who moved to New York to pursue her dreams returns home for the holidays, only to realize that maybe her dreams aren't miles away, but right in her hometown.
That is the most generic write-up ever. Thanks, IMDB. Beth is an actress who has failed to make her big Broadway break and whose roommate sends her home for Christmas. Beth visits a Christmas Tree lot Santa, gets a key and dreams of what her life might have been like if only...
Yeah, uh, those dreams are about thirty seconds long, Beth acts like she's getting anything more out of them than we are, and the trailers made it seem like she'd be living this dream life. She is not. She's getting glimpses of a possible future and she's trying to figure out if changing her life is worth the hassle and honestly if you wrote out the dream bit, this thing would be 100% better as it doesn't add a damn thing besides a knowing Santa look here and there.
Beth's hometown is very, very small and while her ex-boyfriend looks super punchable, he's not played that way til the third act breakup which didn't need him to add anything to it. The setup already had it built in, movie. Actress loses out on big part, runs home to nurse her wounds, and of course she's going to get a call saying she got the part after all just when hometown is looking good. Seriously, if this isn't your first movie like this, you saw it coming a mile away. Even more, you saw her hating every second of being just the understudy, which is what she agreed to when she got the call.
I tried watching this last year or the year before and gave up about halfway through for one reason or another. This one is just boring and because you know exactly what will happen and when, the only surprises are the weird Santa thing and the fact that her old friends aren't really the worst. I mean, eh.
Every Time A Bell Rings Three reunited sisters discover their late father planned one last scavenger hunt -- an annual holiday tradition when they were young. As their sisterly bond gets rekindled, they soon learn important lessons about what they want in life and in love.
FUCK YES. I'm not sure the movie itself truly deserves that level of love, but it's so many things I love in one little space and the one review I just stumbled across was definitely a fangirl whinging about the lack of their fave that I feel I must overcompensate. But yeah, this one is more about the broken family picking up the pieces and less about the love story. Which I appreciated. Ali Liebert has been a fave since Bomb Girls and watching Brittany Ishibashi and Ryan Sands reunite (they were two of the best adults on Marvel's Runaways) as this couple that clearly adored one another and deserve a sequel? Yeeeeeeeeeessssssssss. No, seriously, Hallmark. Gimme a sequel. I will watch ASAP. Watching Paul bond with mama while the sisters ran off around town was adorable, but I need more. Nora and Maizy could stand with some sequel airtime, too. Charlotte's storyline about finding her birth mother but being afraid to tell her family was interesting and I don't get the dislike for Charlotte/Liam because if anything was obvious, it was that they were meant for each other as soon as she stopped needing to run away.
I also loved that it was set in the South and didn't bother trying for snow.
A Gift to Remember An accident between a sweet bookshop worker and a handsome stranger leaves him without his memory. Determined to help him figure out who he is, she finds herself stepping outside of her comfort zone. In the process, she discovers taking risks can sometimes lead to the greatest rewards.
After Bell Rings, I remembered that Ali Liebert was in a few other Christmas movies and went poking around to find them. Found this one, which apparently got a sequel and also was based on a book. It was super cute and I could probably go back and nitpick things, my only real issue with it is that since I knew AL from Bomb Girls, it was kinda weird to see her being this total "ack, stepping up and taking control? No, thank you!" type. Which I know, is ~acting~. But she's charming, he's charming, there's no contrived mixup, just the one setup by the premise (he can't remember who he is, they get him to remember enough, they both assume he's got someone else since that's what their sleuthing tells them, and also he's got a life in an entirely different state) and the red dress she wears at the end is fantastic.
Sister Swap: Christmas in the City and Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday Two sisters find a new sense of purpose and discover what they both truly need in life during the holidays.
These two are getting reviewed together because they're basically one movie split, weirdly, in two. City follows Meg as she heads to SLC to visit her sister, Jennifer, and winds up running big sister's restaurant and figuring what to do with her life after the death of their uncle Dave. Hometown follows Jennifer who heads to their hometown of Hazelwood to be their parents for the first Christmas after Dave's death. Jennifer's a bit of an expert with grief since her husband passed and with Meg running the restaurant, she's got the time.
I normally like both actresses and the casting here is fine (better than fine in general), but the movies really do shine best when we get the sisters together. They clearly light up around one another and the stories are instantly lifted by their natural chemistry and yet both movies go out of their way to keep them apart. I get it, it's in the name but the movies definitely suffer for it. I liked bits of both and yes, I did happily squee at getting to see Jim Byrnes (oh, Highlander, you are truly the gift that keeps giving) so there's that. I deduct points for the kid being named Madzie (wtf) but points are given back for empathizing with Meg not knowing wtf she's doing in life and Jennifer for being clearly in the dark about her old crush also having a crush on her.
Had I been in a jollier mood, these two might've fared better.
Window Wonderland A department-store window decorator learns there is a vacancy for her dream job in the run-up to Christmas, only to find a professional rival has his eye on it too.
I've seen this one before and I watched it between the Sister Swap movies because I had to wait for the second SS movie to air again. It's cute and snarky and honestly, it deserves better promo material for it because that poster is just bad. There's a love triangle set up but it's one I don't mind as much because our obvious hero is just the kind of slacker snarker you want to root for and you get why she's with the tool she begins the movie with, and the moment he shows her his true colors she's like yeah, no, fuck that guy. Annnnnnnd I love the premise. So yeah, also suggest this one.
I'm guessing I either watched other movies and blocked them from memory, or the lack of holiday spirit just prevented me from the joy of the cheese watching season as most of these were worth my time. Some, clearly, were worth the time to watch again.
Oh! I knew I watched one on Hulu!
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas A woman is left with unfinished business when she accidentally dies on the way home from a first date. With the help of her best friend, she endeavors to move on to the afterlife.
I might've rambled about this when I first watched it but we'll end here (for now, clearly my memory is iffy) with Ghosting, which is fitting. This might be the only one I will give actual spoilers for because the twist is what makes this one.
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Eh, you get the idea.
Almost.
Maybe.
Okay. So Ghosting sets up an adorable thing between Jess and Ben but it's not their relationship keeping her tethered to this world. Nope, the relationship, the love she needs to acknowledge, is her friendship with Kara. And given that we're almost to the anniversary of my best friend basically becoming a different person, this one punched me in the gut and left me crying in the corner. And it did this even though it was probably the second holiday movie I watched in November, so I can't even blame it on Ozma.
There were parts that made you want to scream, especially if you've lost a friend in any way beyond "we're just not friends anymore" but I distinctly remember wanting the love to be their friendship and then it was, and it was adorable. They fought and bickered like actual friends and I definitely recommend this one if you're curious. It's not really all that holiday-y, and the ending is seriously a WTF (we're in spoiler country anyway, so here goes: Jess goes into the light and a year later you find out she can come back to earth and spend a day with Kara, which they act like is a given thing she's done before even though it's literally been ONE year so it couldn't have happened before, only before she can leave the bar in the afterlife, she runs into Ben. Who just died due to a fluke heart condition, I think. Which is just great since that abandons his sister, Mae. Like wtf.) but if you end it before that bit? Fluffy and lovable.
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now we're done.