Christmas Under the Lights

I enjoy Heather Hemmens in most of her Hallmark movies. I thought this one was good, and she played the emotional story beats very well, mostly in trying to grapple with her mom's death and the regret associated with that. The romance as usual was a slow build over the course of maybe two weeks (lol), but I liked that it wasn't your typical "I'm in love with you" but rather "I really like you and want to see where a relationship could go".

For my first '24 Hallmark offering, this fit the bill. But it wasn't anything particularly groundbreaking. Still, even the most casual of Hallmark fans will find something enjoyable in this one, so I say give it a watch!

I really enjoyed the stars Heather Hemmens (Emily) and Marco Grazzini (Luke). The film was supposed to be set in a small town near Seattle and in Seattle, which it so clearly and annoyingly was not.

Emily heads home to help her brother run their family farm Christmas carnival, the first since their mother passed. There she meets the famous artist Luke. The two initially have conflict, but then come up with the brilliant idea for Luke to do a "special" Christmas art installation for the carnival.

The conflict in this one seemed very manufactured and artificial. Luke's divorced and lost his artistic muse...he's helping on the farm to find himself and discover his next chapter...and Emily has guilt for not going home to help out her mom, but her home town is not big enough to support her successful career (talk about first world problems).

I did enjoy the hallmark actor cameo, that was fun but there was very little Christmas besides the white elephant gift party. I loved seeing the alpacas and goats...but their is no way they were drinking fresh out of the goat milk, and they certainly weren't whipping up goat milk eggnog that quickly!

For me this was very unrealistic and kind of middle of the road for a Hallmark holiday romance and I can't recommend it unless you have a crush on Marco Grazzini, he really is the best part of this film.

Liked the actors and the plot well enough, strongly dislike whoever wrote in scenes of 6 pack of beer/ale as a Christmas gift even if it is for a white elephant party, a departure of family values. It's one thing for adults to stand around drinking wine in a glass, thankfully no labels to display, so parents can tell little kids it's just juice but another thing to present can with the word "ale" on it as a Christmas gift on a network that is supposed to have family values. What kind of message does that send to kids who might be watching a Hallmark Christmas movie with Mom and Dad? Hallmark, for Christmas movies stick to your hot cocoa scenes with whipped cream. Otherwise don't claim to be a family channel.

The male actor was great, The female actress I was not a fan of She felt dry and whiny. The leads did lack chemistry as far as I could see from a home or perspective Sterling could have been a lot better put together as well. Felt like it was missing a lot. The story had potential and the lead actor was good for it but the female actress just didn't feel right for the roll. For me this was a Hallmark want to miss not something I would care to see again. Was helping for more emotion and story and development and I felt like it was missing a lot of that The co-stars were nice but the lack of development and not feel dry and bored after a A period of repetition.

This is an example of a Hallmark movie that seems to be made with a low budget so it is just a series of endless scenes where the characters just talk on and on and nothing really happens. Plus, the scenes are very repetitive with the lead character, Emily, constantly agonizing over the loss of her mother. At times, Heather Hemmins, as Emily, even seems bored with the script herself. Usually, a very good actress, Hemmins just appears to get lost in all the word salad. Marco Grazinni, as Emily's love interest, Luke, tries valiantly to breathe some life into the story - but there's little he can salvage from this weak script. Sharon Taylor plays Emily's mother in flashback and she is the most interesting of all of the characters - she manages to add some spark to what is, ultimately, one of the biggest disappointments of this 2024 Christmas season at Hallmark.