Boyfriends of Christmas Past

Boyfriends of Christmas Past
Starring Catherine Haena Kim, Raymond Ablack, Jordan Kronis, Jon McLaren
Directed by Don McBrearty

Remember the time you wanted to watch a movie that was a mix of a gender-swapped "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" and Charles Dickens' beloved tale A Christmas Carol? The thought never crossed your mind? Well, tough, because that's exactly what "Boyfriends of Christmas Past" is - another classic Hallmark Christmas movie centering around a clueless attractive woman whose equally attractive male best friend harbors not-so-secret feelings toward her, but she's totally oblivious to it due to the fact that otherwise there wouldn't be a story to be told. Yet this time, the lovelorn woman is visited by four ghosts of boyfriends past to show her how to really open her heart and get with the man of her dreams - the one who was there the whole time - and free him from the eternal bondage of the "friendzone."

Lauren Kim (Catherine Haena Kim) hasn't really had a good track record at finding love. Every time one of her boyfriends wants to get more serious - mostly during the Christmastime season - she balks and breaks up with them, and she feels it could be due to the fact that her mother left her and her father during the holidays. Yet through it all, her supportive best friend Nate (Raymond Ablack) has been by her side, and has helped her through each breakup, all the while fostering a loving feeling toward her that he could never express fully, but exhibits all the signs that any rational person would pick up on.

One night Lauren is visited by her first boyfriend, Tyler (Jordan Kronis), who tells her that she will be visited by three boyfriends past to help her in finding true love before its too late. Meanwhile, she juggles trying to find the right idea for an advertising job as well as helping Nate with his charitable work, so when she's visited by her boyfriends Jake (Karn Kalra), Henry (Ish Morris), and Logan (Jon McLaren), she feels like she doesn't have time for it - until she slowly opens up and realizes the mistakes she's made in the past, and hopefully can rectify those mistakes before she misses out on her one true love.

As it goes with Hallmark Christmas movies, you know exactly how everything will work out (I feel like I say that after every Hallmark review), so the movie relies heavily on the performance value. If the actors can't pull off their job, it turns into a boring, humdrum mess - but if they achieve expectations or go beyond it, it turns into an enjoyable, re-watchable film for the holidays. "Boyfriends of Christmas Past" meets expectations in that department, and is a fun, funny, sentimental film that celebrates diversity and gives you the warm fuzzies you crave during the Christmastime season.

For a while Hallmark was criticized for having a flurry of films featuring attractive white people with no minority representation, but the last year or so they've become more inclusive to include attractive minority people (I'm still waiting for a real Average Joe Hallmark love story when an overweight woman and overweight man fall in love set in one-room apartments, like most American citizens - maybe 2022?), and "Boyfriends of Christmas Past" does more than just pander to those ethnic communities, but really celebrates them. The main character - Laura, played by Korean-American actress Catherine Haena Kim) - celebrates her Korean heritage, as she visits her father and new wife as they prepare a more traditional Korean Christmas as opposed to abandoning their heritage for a more traditional Americanized Christmas. It was a fun little aside to the story and really established her as a well-rounded character.

The story itself obviously draws parallels to A Christmas Carol but instead of Ebenezer Scrooge being visited by three holiday specters, he would've been visited by three girlfriends past to help him find true love instead of finding the meaning of Christmas, which obviously would've led to a much different story. "Boyfriends of Christmas Past" does well when they introduce the new boyfriends and the stories they tell, and it's refreshing in the fact that there was no animosity between Lauren and her previous beaus - they just didn't understand why she up and left them without notice.  Catherine Haena Kim does a great job at being a sympathetic character while also showcasing some really irritating behaviors such as when she balks at the mention of commitment, but there's a deeper reason as to why it happens over and over. It was also annoying how she kept ignoring the obvious signs of Nate's affections, but again that's how the script went, so it wasn't her fault. To his end, Raymond Ablack plays Nate with an effervescent charm that's infectious, and portrays the Hallmark standard of best friend-wannabe more character, being someone anyone would love to have as a best friend.

Yet there are some drawbacks to the movie that detracts from the viewing experience, and that comes from the surprisingly cheap effects used in the film. When Lauren and Nate are enjoying a carriage ride, snow is falling - but never hits the ground, or even touches them, and obviously looks like it was computer generated, but by a program made in the early 2000s. Then there's Lauren's past selves, who were also played by her, but she dons wigs that look like they came from a bargain bin at the local Wal-Mart. Still, despite these small kinks, the story itself ran like a well-oiled machine, and as far as Hallmark movies go, it gets the job done.

While celebrating diverse heritages as well as supplying the traditional sappy Christmas love story we've come to know and love, "Boyfriends of Christmas Past" is an enjoyable Hallmark Christmas movie filled with humor and heart - but not real snow.

The Score: C+