Meine Nachbarn, Weihnachten und ich

I love Hallmark movies. And I think we can all agree that Lacey Chabert is now the undisputed Queen of Hallmark movies. And Wes Brown is one of their most handsome and likable stars.

But this movie was like watching upside down Hallmark, especially given all the great Hallmark Christmas movies that I've recently watched:

Family for Christmas (with Lacey in a much better movie); Three Wise Men and a Baby; Next Stop Christmas; The Royal Nanny; Ghosts of Christmas Always; Christmas By Starlight; On the 12th Date of Christmas; Just in Time for Christmas; The Christmas Secret; Lights, Camera, Christmas; and Christmas at the Golden Dragon

Emily's boyfriend was a bit of a caricature, but I was ready to get past that and into the rest of the movie. But then we get a flashback of little Emily's parents preventing her from opening presents on Christmas morning because they need to go work at the carnival??? What? That's not comedy, that's just really messed up. Strike 2

And then Emily is invited by her parents to come spend Christmas at home, only to have them pack up and leave the moment she gets there. What??? Strike 3

At this point, I was thinking the movie was intended to be some sort of satire or farce or something (the trailer made it seem like it would be funny), but I wasn't finding it funny- just annoying. But I thought that at least Emily seemed normal. She was understandably incredulous at seeing both her parents leave the way they did. And when her childhood friend Jared came by to start applying weird HOA rules, she pushed back. Good for her. So I stuck with it.

But then Jared came over again, in stalker mode, crawling around her deck. What?? And then he issued some sort of silly violation that required her, as punishment, to spend two hours helping the neighbors set up their decorations. And, for some reason, she agreed.

All this after she made it perfectly clear that she just wanted to chill during the holidays.

This is where my hope for a movie turnaround began to evaporate, especially when Emily starting going along with the HOA planning which, aside from being creepy and obsessive, seemed a little late (it was supposedly just one week before Christmas). A community this bonkers over decorations would have been prepping right after Halloween. I almost turned it off, but I almost never turn off a Hallmark movie. So I kept watching and hoped, somewhat desperately that, like so many Hallmark movies, Emily would wake up from this nightmare, and realize it was all just a bad dream. But no.

There have been several Hallmark movies that, unfortunately, seem to celebrate over the top competitive decorating (Making Spirits Bright comes to mind). Those kinds of movies seem to miss the Spirit of Christmas. And this movie was the antithesis of what I've come to love about Hallmark which normally celebrates love, family, kindness, helping others, good values, a fulfilling career, and a HEALTHY sense of community. As a lawyer, I've been involved in a lot of litigation involving HOAs which are often torn apart by discord. It can really get ugly. This was an unpleasant reminder of the kind of control freaks who sometimes take control of HOAs.

The movie did have some interesting aspects and better moments. For example, I loved the shout out to the classic Notting Hill ("I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy...")

Eventually, Emily and Jared had some fun banter halfway through with some fun jokes about Nickelback and Creed

Pamela bragged about having a "Phd in arts and crafts and a minor in scrapbooking".

One of my favorite Hallmark stars Kristopher Polaha showed up and bragged about telling his unfiltered daughter "see something, say something". And I liked his daughter's answer to "have you been naughty or nice?"- "A little bit of both"

But the rest? Ugh.

At first it was fun to see Stephen Tobolowsky, who played Ned Ryerson in the classic Groundhog Day, playing another Ned in this movie (points for that). Ned asked to use rebar for one of the styrofoam snowmen, which were obviously fake (more so than they usually are). I kinda liked that. But his character was more often an over the top joke who talked about wanting to build a retractable roof so he could grow a 60 foot tree in his living room. Huh?

Hallmark knows how to make funny movies, as this year's big hit Three Wise Men and a Baby demonstrates. But Paul Campbell can't write all their movies. This was a disappointment for me, especially given how likable the 2 leads are. But as they said in The 12th Date of Christmas, "they can't all be winners".

This was a disaster. They tried to do Christmas comedy with romance but failed. This is a story about a woman played by Lacey Chabert hallmark house name who isn't the most Christmas cheerleader going back home to a place that is all Christmas joy. This was supposed to be a movie about finding the joy and happiness of Christmas. But instead it became unbearable to watch. All the characters were over the top cliche that were too annoying. It wasn't funny or magical . They tried to do romance story but it didn't work. I love the actor another hallmark actor but the character was as annoying as everyone else in this movie.

This could have worked better but when most of the characters including the awful parents are annoying there is nothing to make you enjoy the movie.

There is a little thing that I noticed. I think I saw Lisa Chabert Wearing the same white sweater in a Christmas movie before. Look in "Time for Us to Come Home for Christmas" from last year. It's the same.

Lacey Chabert is one of our favorites, so we looked forward to this. We're not the only big fans ... that's why they made her their new spokesperson for Christmas movies after other stars signed with GAF.

However, this movie just annoyed me from start to finish. The writers went for zany and quirky and slapstick. Three swings, three misses.

The HOA part of the plot seemed overbearing and intrusive and ALWAYS over the top. The movie wasn't full of "Christmas spirit", but anti-social, antagonistic, controlling neighbors I might have been driven to burn out.

I was ready to bag it by the "set up the reindeer" scene, but my wife held on to desperate hope for improvement for somewhat longer. A few minutes later, she succumbed to the desire to stop the pain.

Watching this as I'm searching to buy a home & this movie reinforces,my hate for HOA or similar associations.

Imagine paying a mortgage/owning a home & dealing with a person or association,way more annoying than a landlord.

No thanks! Why do people choose this? Unless an association is formed after your an owner,but still why agree to such things.

Being ticketed for holiday standards not being followed? This movie actually gave me anxiety,wasn't almost anything cute about it.

Look at Naughty or Nice & even Christmas with the Kranks,dealt with neighbor issues but in a comedic way.. This movie went in an unhealthy direction,calling it satire still doesn't excuse it.

Oh sure many feel an HOA is useful from preventing nearby Sandford & Son type homes,but bullying a person that doesn't follow Stepford protocol is ridiculous.. I have ran across many HOA communities that only allow D. I. N. K-Double Income No Kid,that's a whole other level of crazy to avoid.

Sure it was a bit different storyline & acting like the houses over the top,but nothing worth watching again.

Casting was ok & cinematography,is always decent.

Thankfully not another sickly sweet Christmas movie. A refreshingly different Hallmark holiday film, that was funny and quirky. The plot and script worked and the dialog was good, plenty of repartee. Lacey Chabert is always reliable, it was obvious that West Brown was enjoying himself acting it up as Jared and he was funny. The standouts were Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned and Melissa Peterman as Pamela, they were very funny. A character actors' dream and there were plenty of character actors who gave very good performances. The pace was perfect from the encounter between Lacey Chabert and Jake Stormoen (Dan) to the very end. Good script, good acting and enjoyable to watch.

Good to see Kristoffer Polaha and Eric Mabius.