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Deliver by Christmas – Hallmark Movies & Mysteries – Starring Alvina August (Nancy Drew) and Eion Bailey (Once Upon a Time) – Story by Jill Bartlett – Written by Mike Mariano – Directed by Terry Ingram
I just need to start off by saying how much I love the diversity coming to the Hallmark network. It’s so wonderful to see a broader representation of couples and families in America on the Hallmark network of channels. Probably a little late to the game but better late than never!
I loved this movie. Molly (August) is a bakery owner who starts conversing with a mysterious client and they build a pretty special bond over the phone having never met each other. Josh (Bailey) is a widowed single father who just moved to town and has had several run ins with the lovely Molly in various parts of town. There’s a bit of a spark there but with Josh so focused on the happiness of his son, Charlie (Kesler Talbot) and Molly running around with her round the clock bakery business and helping with the Christmas festival, neither really has time for romance.
I enjoyed the fact that we had a bit of a twist from the normal Hallmark formula. Molly and Josh, save for a few meet cutes, didn’t really spend time together. Their bond formed over the phone instead of the traditional the face to face we usually get. This can be very hard to buy as believable because creating character chemistry distantly is challenging. Yet August and Bailey do a wonderful job of building that chemistry that makes their love story very real and one I completely bought into. What makes it so believable is that both have struggles in their life and found an odd comfort in letting down their guard and opening up their feelings to a complete stranger. As weird as it sounds, sometimes that’s easier to do. When you open up to someone you know, and who knows you, sometimes instead of someone just listening to you, they want to fix it for you or feel compelled to give advice. When you don’t know the person on the other end, you can’t help but just listening and taking time to really understand where they are coming from versus someone who knows you jumping to conclusions and assuming they know what’s in your head and heart. As a result, you see that sweet bond forming and it’s all the more special when they finally meet and realize they are the persons they have been bumping into all over town. That relief of “oh thank God you’re adorable and amazing!”
Deliver by Christmas was an absolute joy and I highly recommend you watching when it’s on or DVR it to watch at a later time. You won’t be disappointed!
Rating: 8 out of 10
Re-Watch Chances: Absolutely
Cranberry Christmas – Hallmark Movies & Mysteries – Starring Nikki Deloach (Awkward), Benjamin Ayres (Saving Hope and Suits), and Marci T. House (iZombie) – Written by Joie Botkin – Directed by Linda Lisa Hayter
I just adore Nikki Deloach. I didn’t know her work before anything Hallmark related but she is just a true delight on screen and pretty much works with any leading man they cast with her. She and Ashley Williams have this amazing ability to be so happy and charming at all times that you feel like this is how they would be in real life if you had a glass of wine and shot the shit with them. It’s very real coming off of them. Sometimes overly happy people like that can come off as super sappy or forced and you just want to hit them with a broomstick to calm their joyfulness down a bit. Not those two. I can’t get enough of them, especially this time of year!
Dawn (Deloach) and Gabe (Ayres) Hughes are the King and Queen of lifestyle brand “Cranberry Lane.” They also own a cranberry farm that was passed down from Gabe’s family over the years. At the beginning of the story, Dawn and Gabe are separated because they realized their business dreams have grown apart…she wants to travel and promote the Cranberry Lane brand and he wants to stay home and focus more on growing and expanding the farm. Pamela Franks (House) hosted Dawn on her national TV show and wants to work with more with Dawn and Gabe. She shows up at Cranberry Lane and decides to stay in town for the annual Cranberry Christmas Festival. This forces Dawn and Gabe to pretend to be this happy in love couple for the sake of Pamela’s visit and the potential of what she can do for their brand.
Later in the movie, Gabe reveals to Dawn that he bought the neighboring property and he is moving forward with his farm expansion. At the same time, Dawn is offered a TV show of her own with Pamela’s backing to make it happen. The Hughes are now at a cross roads in their professional and personal lives. Both Gabe’s parents, Dawn’s sister and grandmother are being very supportive of whatever the couple choose, with them all secretly hoping they stay together. But it’s Pamela that gives Dawn the eye opening advice. Life is a series of choices and sacrifices. Pamela chose her career which means she lost her fiancé and doesn’t ever see the rest of her family. She loves what she does and accepts her choice, but it’s lonely and it’s not for everyone. Dawn realizes that what she really wants is Gabe and decides to pass on the TV job and stay in Maine to make it work with Gabe. She and Gabe recommit to each other and share ideas on how they can make the farm even more exciting for the town and for tourism. In the end (when they finally meet under some mistletoe) Gabe informs Dawn that he had a great chat with Pamela. They will be hosting a TV show after all but instead of going to NYC, they are staying on the farm and the show will highlight all the Cranberry Lane goodies while showing their progress on the farm expansion and all their new ideas.
One of things I liked most about this movie, was that this was a couple that was already married and in love that needed to find a way to reconnect. I love the fact that this wasn’t an ugly situation. These weren’t two people who fell out of love and were fighting and somehow came back together end that didn’t make sense. These were two people who still loved each other very much but just grew apart in terms of how they wanted their business to grow. There was some perfectly played awkward run ins with each other and ideas on how to keep up the farce going with Pamela until they figured things out. But I never felt like I was watching a doomed couple. It always felt like they were going to get there they just needed some help in finding their way. Deloach and Ayres had wonderful chemistry and banter with each other and they did an excellent job of playing loving spouses in a weird rut that believably found their way back together. Shout out to the supporting cast as well, although I didn’t really care whether or not grandma moved back in with the sister. I thought that was an unnecessary storyline with plenty going on already. If you haven’t already seen it, I would certainly put Cranberry Christmas into your movie rotation.
Rating: 7 1/2 out of 10
Re-Watch Chances: it will be in the rotation closer to Christmas
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