My Christmas Love

My Christmas Love

Starring Meredith Hagner, Bobby Campo, Megan Park, Aaron O'Connell

Directed by Jeff Fisher

Tis the season for Hallmark Christmas specials, and after being challenged by a friend to watch and review three of them, I figured it'd be no hard thing, especially with another friend wisely choosing the films she thought would be most entertaining.  Fortunately she made a wise choice for the first film, "My Christmas Love," which is pretty much what you'd expect from a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie, but with a sweet little twist that'll tug at your heartstrings - at least for a minute.

The film follows lovesick Cynthia (Meredith Hagner) who believes in all the whimsy and wonder of romance, but unfortunately her choices of boyfriends (and there was a lot of them) have been lackluster to say the least.  She can't even find a boyfriend to go back to her small hometown to attend the wedding of her sister Janet (Megan Park), so she brings along her co-worker and best buddy Liam (Bobby Campo).  After arriving home she's met with twelve days of mysterious gifts from a secret admirer, and she sets out to find who's behind the thoughtful presents before the wedding.

In preparation for my first Hallmark Christmas movie, I did exhaustive studies into what makes one tick (actually, I just read a lot of memes, and the one I find most humorous is this one):

To my complete non-surprise, the first movie I saw involved all blonde beautiful women (who may or may not be in the image above, I honestly can't tell the difference) who has a successful job in the big city but has to return to her small town home for some special event where she finds her former loves and also brings along her "just friends" employee who harbors romantic feelings for her that's so obvious it's painful to see her not notice it (which I guess also plays to the ditzy blonde stereotype, shame on you Hallmark!) and through a string of wrong choices (because, after all, it's supposed to be a movie, and it can't be resolved by the simplest of ways) realizes love was right in front of her the entire time.

The main mystery (or "Christery" as Cynthia called it...which I guess means the writers got so bored they made up their own words, so I'll make up my own word for this movie right now...Snoozery) centers around what dastardly villain is sending her loving, caring gifts centered around the twelve days of Christmas, and this Nancy (Non)Shrewd will stop at nothing until this person is brought to justice by any means necessary - even if she's forced to go undercover on dates with all her past boyfriends (seriously, she gets around so much in this small town her clap is more like applause) to conduct FBI-grade interrogations on each of them which include (but not limited to) going on romantic dates to restaurants who only serve cupcakes and the idea of putt putt (since that's the ultimate winter activity).  Surprisingly, it doesn't go as I expected it to, and was pleasantly surprised by the reveal, even if I expected it to be a bit more emotional than it was.

The best thing about the film is the setting, as I personally love Christmas and all the decorations that come with it.  Even though they film in summer (and you can clearly tell as some of the trees aren't as snow-covered as they should, and especially a final scene where you literally hear crickets in the background, and also the fact that no actors have their breath being visible as they're outside), they do a decent job with the decorations on the buildings and the bright white snow on the ground. 

The acting here is, from what I understand, consistent with a Hallmark Christmas movie.  Meredith Hagner plays Cynthia like she should - lovelorn, a wannabe romantic, and a high-pitched squeaky voice that makes nails on a chalkboard sound like Beethoven - but also has a whimsical charm about her, even if she's nailed every single guy in her small town.  Bobby Campo's Liam is your typical friendzoned friend who's dying to get out of the zone who pines for Cynthia so obviously yet she treats him so terribly until she ultimately realizes the most obvious thing ever, but he's fun and is rather enjoyable to watch.  In fact, all the actors are bright, happy, vibrant, and colorful, who only suffers momentary sadness before opening up a bottle of wine and really getting into the moment.

Offering enough charm to make it tolerable, "My Christmas Love" isn't one that'll be memorable, but at least it gives a nice little story that's quickly wrapped up with an emotional climax.

The Score: C-