Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas

I watch "The Voice" and I find Blake Shelton to be the funniest part of that show. When I heard that he and his mother were responsible for this Hallmark holiday film, I made a point of checking it out. I was not disappointed.

If you are a fan of Hallmark films, this one will seem fairly conventional in the early going. A young woman (Holland Roden) confronts difficult feelings every Christmas, due to past events. This holiday is different, because she becomes involved in a search to solve a romantic mystery. She is assisted by an old friend (Tyler Hynes) who had dropped out of her life years ago.

Together they go on a quest that causes old feelings to re-emerge. But there is more to this story, which is actually a tale of two relationships. Stick around for the final act, because it delivers a narrative surprise and packs an emotional wallop.

The entire cast is good, but Holland Roden has the meatiest role and is the emotional linchpin of the story. She displays a range of emotions and convincingly anchors the complicated but enjoyable storyline.

I grade Hallmark movies on a curve, but I really loved this movie, and I love the trope where 2 people try to track something (or someone) down and become close during the search. It's a great way to see whether the leads have good chemistry or not- and there was lots of great chemistry in this movie. Tyler Hynes, who plays Josh, has become one of Hallmark's biggest stars- with good reason (he was part of the All Star cast in this year's big hit "Three Wise Men and a Baby").

But Hallmark rookie Holland Roden, who plays Elizabeth, was unknown to me. She was in Teen Wolf which I've never seen (but which my daughter assures me was very good). There's usually a greater range of acting required in these HMM movies and she effectively conveyed all sorts of different emotions. She was also very appealing, as was her character.

The movie reminded me of a Hallmark movie called "A Little Christmas Charm" with jewelry designer Ashley Greene and reporter Brendon Penny trying to to track down the owner of a charm bracelet. It also reminded me of "A Christmas Ring" with Nazneen Contractor as a reporter trying to locate the owner of an antique engagement ring with David Alpay. I loved both of those movies but this one was much more powerful and unique.

Equally powerful was a Christmas Eve classic called "The Christmas Secret" and a really good new Hallmark movie called "Long Lost Christmas" (both of which involve trying to track down a lost sibling). Anyone who liked those movies is sure to love this movie.

A good test for whether one is a Romantic at Heart is how one reacts to the effort that Elizabeth (and Josh) put into tracking down Madelyn. Some may regard the effort to be a waste of time. Hallmark addicts like me will be impressed.

This is the latest movie in the Blake Shelton produced "Time To Come Home For Christmas" franchise that Sheldon's mother, Dorothy Shackleford, helped write. But this 5th installment was written by Marcy Holland and it's a gem (she also wrote the far more breezy "Sailing Into Love"). The dialogue rang true and some of the lines really stuck out for me:

"I think it's romantic; one last grand gesture to the one who got away."

"I don't believe in signs. I believe we notice things because they're important to us."

Nice Guy: "Is there someone else?" Wishful Woman: "A memory." Nice Guy: "Those can be real hard to let go of."

I like all the other franchise movies, but this one may be the best. Although some things in the movie are easy to predict (like the details of a "misunderstanding" of an overheard conversation), others are not, which is refreshing given the inherent limitations of Hallmark's hugely successful formula. This was crisply and warmly directed by David Winning, who also directed Falling For Vermont, my favorite Hallmark amnesia movie. And the other actors were also quite good including Hallmark vet Steve Bacic (who has been in over 30 Hallmark movies). He played the guy who dialed the wrong number. I also like fellow Hallmark vets Karen Kruger and Iris Quinn, who played the mothers, and Dion Karas who played the "nudge nudge, tell her you love her" sister.

I knew and liked Tenille Townes before this movie but, as another reviewer noted, her anticlimactic performance of the franchise song "Time For Me To Come Home" seemed out of place.

But that's a minor complaint. This was classic Hallmark.

I've been watching Tyler Hynes for a few years now on Hallmark and he is wonderful in all of them. He is so down to earth and so talented and I literally enjoy all of his movies and I make sure I catch them all. (He could be my son, lol, I adore him.) This past week, his performances in "Three Wise Men and a Baby" and the one I just watched "Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas" were fantastic and touched my heart. His co-star in tonight's movie was excellent as well.

The subject matter was different and so touching and so true, everyone deserves a second chance.

Tyler you did it again. Happy holidays to all!

Unquestionably, Tyler Hynes holds down this second chance holiday romance which is the latest in Blake Shelton and his mom's Time to come home for Christmas series (2022). It started with a song and then a book written by his mom and has lead to a mother-son annual Christmas movie collaboration, which is sweet and everything Christmas should be.

This may be my favorite in the series, in large part thanks to the two leads Tyler Hynes and Holland Rolland (it was great to see Teen Wolf's Lydia in a new project). The story was very tightly written and intertwines two overlapping second chance romances. Also, it reminded me why I like Tyler Hynes so much. He is fantastic and was an excellent choice for this film. He and Holland Roland have excellent chemistry together and really make the romance and misunderstanding work in this film.

Elizabeth Athens (Holland Roland) receives a voicemail by mistake. The caller's voice is filled with regret and is clearly desperate to reconnect with a woman named Madeline. Unfortunately, the call was placed from a local hotel and without even a name to go by...Elizabeth embarks on a very interesting search for a mystery woman named Madeline or for the caller who left the message. Having wanted to be an investigative reporter in the past, Elizabeth is joined by her friend Josh Hart (Tyler Hynes) who is back in town for the holidays and who has a secret regret of his own. The story is filled with loss, regret, forgiveness, second chances and most importantly with love. Unlike some of the other holiday films that Hallmark rolled out this year...this film is able to navigate the tricky landscape of being about a sad topic and yet still filling the story with enough hope and love that it does not turn into a maudlin and morose story. Instead it is a beautiful holiday love story that I can highly recommend to all those romantics like me out there!

Now for my one rant...skip if you are uninterested: As a native Seattle girl, I was excited to hear that this year's film would be set in Seattle...but I was once again utterly disappointed that it contained nothing but a couple of aerial shots of Seattle and was filmed somewhere else with ZERO local flavor. I would never presume to set a story in Oklahoma and then proceed to not do ANY research or include ANY local detail in my story. Believe it or not, Seattle is gorgeous at Christmas (in fact it is a beautiful winter wonderland right now in my backyard...with big snowflakes drifting down all amongst the evergreens giving our world the appearance of being inside a snow globe) and it is rich with lots and lots of holiday traditions...Pike Place Market, Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest, the glorious Bon Marche Star, and yes, we have some gorgeous hotels and some great and famous confectioners old and new. Frankly, like most true northwesterners, I am happy to keep our treasures a secret...I just wish film makers, particularly those in the Hallmark stable, would stop fake-setting their films in Seattle. Stick with what you know. (And that is clearly not Seattle.)

This past year, Hallmark movies have been very disappointing. The writers just have not been able to get out of their own way, continually falling back on tired stories and too often used tropes. There were two different stories that were intertwined, both revolving around lost love. Tyler Hynes, a longtime Hallmark leading actor was paired with Holland Roden, an excellent addition to the Hallmark family. Elizabeth (Roden) receives a voicemail that was intended for Madelyn (Meghan Gardiner), which was from Madelyn's former boyfriend, Carter (Steve Bacic). Elizabeth teams up with longtime friend Josh (Hynes) to try to find Madelyn. The acting was excellent and the way the writers tied together the two stories kept my interest throughout.