My Southern Family Christmas

My Southern Family Christmas is my new favorite movie, not just for Christmas, the town is awesome the actors were amazing, the characters were very relatable and likeable. I will be showing this movie to my whole family Jaicy Elliott did an amazing job as Campbell, love Bruce Cameron as Everett, loved that is was set in Louisiana, you dont see many movies set in the Bayou, I want to see more movies set in the south, and it was cool getting to know more about Pere Noel, the two young ladies that played Mary Margaret and Amila were great, the whole cast did an amazing job, would love to see a part 2 to this movie!

I chose this as the first Hallmark Christmas movie of the season on my DVR because it sounded atypical. It did not disappoint. Of course, there's the usual Christmas schmaltz, but at least it's geographically different schmaltz. Also, as an adoptive mother I'm interested in the "What if I met my biological parent" storyline. Added bonus: the heroine is not a size 2.

It was a pleasant movie but not entirely believable. Hard to believe that the love interest had never been outside his county before. However, I do know a Louisiana gentlemen who CLAIMED that he'd never been to New Orleans until my husband's Navy reunion took place there. (At least that whole Vietnam war thing got him out of the state.) But I digress.

I did enjoy the movie, even though the plot was predictable. It won't go on my list of Hallmark Christmas movies I could watch every year ("The Christmas Card," "A Very Merry Mix-up," "Nine Lives of Christmas," and several others), but I could watch it another time or two.

Cute story for a Hallmark Christmas movie.

But the best part was having Bruce Campbell in it. Had Bruce Campbell not starred in this movie, this would have just been another typical Hallmark movie. But suddenly you add Bruce Campbell and it's now a Hallmark movie starring Bruce Campbell!

Bruce Campbell steals the spotlight in every scene he's in (and that's a good thing). He may have starred in a corny Christmas Hallmark movie. But he sure brought a flair to it.

Story wise, its a relatable situation to families. And sure the plots abd twists can get corny, but remember it's a Hallmark movie. And it tries to blend family connections and Christmas times together.

Even though we're from the South, this movie did nothing to warm our hearts. The lead actress seemed to have no fire at all, and while I don't want to seem shallow, we thought her either an odd or brave choice for the romantic female lead.

Thirty minutes in, the story lacked momentum, the cast personality, and we simply had no empathy for any character or what happened to them.

When the female lead was introduced to the male lead and they'd barely exchanged two lines, the "mayor" comments to another character "I don't know if they're flirting or fighting". Well ... neither. They'd just been introduced and barely said a word to each other.

We don't tolerate writing that stupid, so we ended this experiment, despite our appreciation of Bruce Campbell.

My Southern Family Christmas (2022) -

I still find it really hard to believe that journalists take so long to write one article and that they have to visit somewhere for a week to get it done. Surely that's like printing your own money? Or money for old rope as my lovely old Nan would have said, because it sounds piss easy to me.

Initially I couldn't get on board with Jaicy Elliott as Campbell, which I will admit was due to her less traditional appearance. She wasn't what I would have called a typical romantic leading lady, but by the end of the film I was on her side.

It was a bit obvious that they had added glasses to Ryan Rottman's character, Jackson, in order to make him look a bit geeky and suitable for Campbell though.

And the lovers didn't have much chance for their relationship to develop, but they did seem kind of appropriate for each other.

The story focussed more on Campbell reconnecting with her Dad, Everett, played by Bruce Campbell, who gave what I thought was his best performance ever. I'd never been a fan of his other works or the "Humour" that came as part of them, so it was interesting to see him playing it straight and nailing it.

The deception element was a tad frustrating and the upset that it was going to cause was obvious, but the emotions and concept of the story did tug at the heartstrings a bit.

Also, the kids in the film weren't horrendous, so that was nice too.

A story of finding family at Christmas and making the most of it.

6.75/10.