Hanukkah on Rye

I really liked this movie. I loved Yael in Jane the Virgin so was interested to see her in another role. I was not disappointed. She acts in such a natural way, she draws you fully into the story. Her character was very likeable. The same with lead actor Jeremy. I thought he played a down-to-earth nice guy and I thought he aced it. The story was good, too. The typical miscommunication/plot twist felt natural, not contrived and I appreciated that. It shows respect for the fan. I learned a lot about the Jewish faith and it was interesting and fun. This was a fun movie and I recommend it whole heartedly!

It is very tempting to write than I like it. In fact, I expected it , as History teacher talking to students about the winter as frame for Christmas and Hanukah , as Greek Orthodox discovering , in childhood, the very small comunity of Jews from Gura Humorului , as grandson hearing the stories of my grandmother about her Jewish friends and the mornings of the trains to Transnistria.

Sure, a special Hallmark- my tears of emotion at final are reasonable proof - but the gift of this film is not the subject or the acting but the atmosphere , from the prayers lighting menorah, to the bubble authority, accents, way to New World at youth of XX century, letke recipe and the ...humor.

The romance becomes one of elements , not the axis and the result is charming at whole.

Sure this is a knock off on the famous movie You've Got Mail, but it is well done. And Jeremy Jordan and Yael Grobglas have sizzling chemistry. I really like Grobglas as Molly. There are so many parallels to the other movie, but about half way through things start going differently and get a little crazy. It occurred to me briefly how it might all turn out with the delis but I was like "nah".

The acting is good. The dialogue is excellent. There are a lot of funny moments. I really like how straightforward Molly and Jacob are about everything with each other.

This will be worth watching again.

I don't say that as critical of Hanukkah on Rye, it's just that the guy moving in with a "more modern business model" and the anonymous correspondence angle can't help but remind you of You've Got Mail, which reminds you of The Shop Around the Corner. :-)

This movie is great fun, with many warm moments and many amusing moments, including laugh out loud moments. It's also the first Hallmark Hanukkah movie I recall that was all Jewish. The other had one of the romantic leads pretending to be Jewish, or vice versa. We liked those movies too, as it turns out.

Watching this movie WILL make you hungry, as great looking and sounding food is displayed constantly in the delis represented. By the way, we're not Jewish, but we enjoyed this movie and will watch it again, more than once.

For a Hallmark film, I would give it an 9 out of 10, but rating on an overall film scale I would rate it a 7/6.5. Hallmark films tend to have the same test formula. This film does breaks the mold in several ways. The dialogue was much better and the plot was well executed. The film uses many of the same plot elements of "You've got mail."

The positive aspects of the film includes the following: The plot moves forward fast after the first 15 minutes, the main characters have a lot of chemistry, the small supporting characters worked well, such as the Apartment reception person, the delivery person, and the matchmaker. The movies does attempt to deal with issues that you would not normally associate in a Hallmark film, such as the decline of the Deli in New York City. Most importantly, the film delivers on what Hallmark movie fans, which is a fun romantic film with a holiday theme.

My many problem with the film is that it does not pay attention to details, such as labeling prayers are in Hebrew, not in Yiddish. In my opinion, there was too much use of Yiddish words that were forced and not correctly pronounced. In an age where the movie "Menache" was successful (which was in Yiddish and used all Jewish characters), I don't understand whey they can't cast all Jewish people for Jewish characters in a Hanukah film, use real dialogue that Jewish people would speak, and get the details correct.