2020 Hallmark Christmas Movie Review – Jingle Bell Bride and Christmas Tree Lane

Photo Credit: Crown Media

The wait is over and the 2020 Christmas season has officially kicked off with Hallmark Channel’s and Hallmark Movies and Mysteries (HMM) Christmas movie premieres Jingle Bell Bride and Christmas Tree Lane. Now, I am not a believer in rushing holidays. Halloween is next week and Thanksgiving is still a month away. I like each holiday to have its own time in the sun. And since I LOVE all three of these equally, I hate walking into a store on October 1st and seeing Santa Claus figurines instead of scary ghouls and goblins. But I am going to be a hypocrite and say, because of what we’ve had to endure this year in 2020, I needed a little schmaltzy Christmas cheer as soon as possible. So yes, this year, the year from hell, the Christmas season kicked off on October 24th. We even made it more fun with my parents visiting and playing Christmas movie bingo while watching the two premieres. Needless to say there was some fierce yet good natured debating on what exactly constituted an insufferable office mate or a montage moment. I can do a stand alone post on that later but for now, let’s get into what we thought of our first two movies!

Jingle Bell Bride – Hallmark Channel – Starring Julie Gonzalo (Dallas and Eli Stone) and Ronnie Rowe Jr (Star Trek Discovery) – Adapted by Marcy Holland and Directed by Allan Harmon.

JBB tells the story of Jessica Perez (Gonzalo) who is a high powered event/wedding planner to the stars. She is planning the wedding of music star Renee (Donna Benedicto) while she is also pushing for a huge promotion that would transfer her to her company’s London offices. Renee, ever the difficult celebrity bride, is asking a bit of the impossible from Jessica. When her grandmother got married, she has these rare flowers in her bouquet called Jingle Bell flowers. Since Renee is getting married at Christmas, she absolutely must have these flowers in her bouquet. Renee is getting married in New York but guess where you can only get these flowers? That’s right, Tapeesa, Alaska! Fun fact: the jingle bell flower is a real flower called Penstemon Barbatus. It’s native to rocky slopes and open woodland areas so it is grown in placed like Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. Safe to say Jessie could have probably found a place a little easier to get to and closer to NYC to find these easily grown flowers but then where’s the fun in that?

Jessica is off to the fictitious town of Tapeesa to find this rare flower and get it back in time for Renee’s wedding so she can secure her promotion. Here she meets Matt (Rowe Jr) who was kind enough to pick her up at the airport and drive her to the flower shop where he is the florist. They come to an agreement on the amount of flowers she needs, the package them up, and she is headed back to the airport to catch her flight back to NYC. Since Tapeesa is a town of only 112 people, there is only one flight in and out each day to Anchorage. So nothing will go wrong right? Enter the dreaded moose crossing. (Did she just say moose crossing?). Yes, I said moose crossing. Apparently in Alaska, even if there are no moose in the area, you stop in the snow just in case. What happens with Matt’s Dodge Ram 4×4? It gets stuck in 4 inches of snow. Jessica misses her flight and needs to stay overnight. Since there are no hotels, she is going to stay with Matt and his Aunt Mary (BJ Harrison) until she can leave in the morning. But how will they fall in love if she leaves in the morning? Not to worry! The one plane has mechanical issues and the part won’t come for three days!!! Guess that means Jess is staying for the town Christmas festival.

Jessica spends the next few days with Matt and his family and becoming town royalty as the festival princess, and starts to create a really nice friendship with Matt. She is also starting to learn that all she does is work and while she spends most of her time helping other people’s dreams come true, she spends no time doing anything for herself or spend time with her sister and niece. Her eyes are really opened to this fact when Matt takes her to see the Northern Lights. The last night Jessica is in town, they all go to the Tapeesa festival dance and Matt and Jessica are really getting closer at this point. Derailing this lovely moment is Jessica’s boss, Barbara (Kehli O’Byrne), calling to say the insufferable co-worker Rebecca (Emma Barratt) will be taking over Renee’s wedding since they have run up against the clock and can’t wait for her to get back. Matt sees the devastation in Jessica’s face and springs into action. He gets the pilot to agree to take her that night to Anchorage so she can get back to NYC in time for the wedding. Jessica is incredibly grateful and hops the puddle jumper to save her promotion and hopefully slap Rebecca in the face while she’s at it.

Just when bitch face Rebecca is trying to steal her thunder, Jessica comes back with the flowers and saves the day. As such, Barbara offers Jessica the promotion she’s been working so hard to receive. But come on people. This is Hallmark. Y’all know what happens right? She turns down the promotion because she wants to spend more time with her family. But where does Matt fit in? Well, turns out Matt has been hiding out in Alaska, away from a broken heart and away from….New York City! Mary convinces him that his offer from the university to return to teaching and the chance meeting with a beautiful wedding planner, should be all he needs to stop hiding and start living again. He agrees. After Jessica presents the flowers to bridezilla, I mean Renee, she leaves the wedding and bumps into Matt! What are the odds? He tells her he’s moved back and will start teaching again. She tells him she’s not moving to London because her life is in NYC. They commit to being together, they kiss, and all is right with the world!

I really liked this movie. This was a great kickoff to the holiday movie season. What I loved most, aside from the insane notion that only this shop in a remote part of Alaska would have these flowers, is that it felt real. Matt and Jessica seemed to form a very believable friendship and the chemistry Gonzalo and Rowe shared was very natural and sweet. I also appreciated that there was a genuine reason for them to make the choices they did. Instead of Jessica turning down a huge promotion for a guy she met 4 days ago, she did it to be near her sister and niece. Instead of Matt moving to NY from Alaska for a girl he met 4 days ago, it was place where he had history and was longing to go back to anyway. He just needed a push. I felt like whether or not Matt and Jessica worked out (and we all know they will) they made the right decisions for them and that they would be just fine regardless of this new forming relationship. This is certainly one I will watch again over the holiday season and it doesn’t hurt that I’ve always adored Gonzalo and have now found a new leading man in Rowe who is just as charming and delightful as some of my other favorites on Hallmark.

Rating: 7 1/2 out of 10

Re-watch Chances : most likely later on in the season

Christmas Tree Lane – Hallmark Movies and Mysteries – Starring Alicia Witt and Andrew Walker – Written by Michael J Murray and Directed by Steven R Monroe.

This one won’t be as long. I wasn’t feeling Christmas Tree Lane. I think this will be one movie many Hallmark fanatics will love, but I won’t be one of them. I didn’t hate it. I actually loved the premise. But more on what didn’t connect for me in a moment. Christmas Tree Lane tells the story of Meg Reilly (Witt) who is a singer/songwriter but is currently working in her dad’s music store on Christmas Tree Lane. The vendor community is rightfully upset as the big bad corporate conglomerate is coming in to buy up their businesses, knock them down and rebuild a more “thriving” industry. Enter Nate (Walker) who’s father is behind the horrible takeover yet he sides with Meg and local business owners to save Christmas Tree Lane. They eventually save it and Meg and Nate fall in love. It’s a Christmas miracle!!!

I don’t know what it is, but I just never connect with Witt in these movies. I find her very stiff and I feel as though she’s always trying so hard to fit into the Christmas leading lady role that actors like Ashley Williams, Candace Cameron Bure, and Rachel Boston fill so effortlessly. Earlier when I said Jingle Bell Bride felt so natural, this one didn’t. I didn’t feel it between Witt and Walker. I love Andrew Walker from other Hallmark movies and I found him super charming in this. But I just didn’t feel any chemistry with Witt. I felt more of a friend vibe between them than a romantic one. I want my Hallmark leading loves to ooze the romance. Some of them do….Paul Campbell and Kimberley Sustad, Jesse Metcalfe and Autumn Reeser, Ashley Williams and everyone, Luke MacFarlane and everyone. I’ve seen Andrew Walker with Nikki DeLoach in two movies and they are magic. Most times, Hallmark nails these pairings. And what I like, is when they see a formula that works, they go back to it. I think Alicia Witt is sweet. But in the movies I’ve seen her in, I think she fits the sassy best friend role better than the romantic lead.

I’m disappointed because I loved the premise behind this one but I think with a different female lead, I would have liked it so much more. Like a Jessy Schram or Laura Osnes may have worked better here. And I know I’m probably going to get some “ARE YOU INSANE” comments, that is if anyone even reads this, because I know the Alicia Witt fans are long and fierce. And I keep trying. This is the third movie I’ve watched of hers and I get the same feeling every time….meh. Not horrible but nothing special.

Rating: 3 out of 10

Re-watch Chances: not even as background filler

For those of you that saw the first two premieres, what did you think? Love them? Hate them? Nothing them? Let me know!