Holiday Hotline

Okay, there were a few standard Hallmarkish plot elements but overall this was a lot of fun. Very creative staging with the hot line girl (Emily Tennant) interacting with Niall Matter and other callers. In some ways it felt like watching a stage play. Creative dialogue from all characters. Yes, toward the end, some of the normal Hallmark components found their way in, and the ending wasn't really brought to a firm conclusion (although a fair ending was implied) but overall it worked well. One great character, in addition to the two leads, was Erik Athavale who played. Emily Tennats boss, his interactions and delivery added more fun. Well done and this added some fun to the season.

There was so much humor in this tale of holiday romance...along with some pretty terrible turkey disasters. The film spans Thanksgiving and Christmas, which was nice because I am not sure I remember a thanksgiving film on hallmark. It stars Niall Matter as a widower and single dad named Jack. He is trying to make the holidays special again for his daughter...and not being a cook, he reaches out to the professionals via the turkey hotline.

This is how he starts talking to the helpful "Peggy". In real life he has an awkward first meeting with British Abby, who is on the run from a bad breakup back home in England. These two eventually smooth things over, to the delight of Jack's daughter Jessica.

The best part is all the turkey humor and the cooking catastrophes. I recommend this to anyone looking for more of a thanksgiving story especially those who like humor in their holiday romance.

" I thought this hotline was about Turkey, not chicken."

While I liked a lot of things about this movie, the plotting was lazy and in some cases .... dumb.

First we have a depressed woman who just dumped her lying, cheating boyfriend and quit her job. She's depressed. So her parents' best idea is to send her a quarter of the way around the world, alone, to a place she has no connection with, to stay in the empty apartment of a friend ... where she knows no one?

It doesn't get more contrived and dumb than that.

Then Niall Matter, who we really like, has a melt down when a door knob falls off? Strike two.

Then she's absolutely forced to take a job at a turkey hot line? Strike three.

Then Matter calls the hot line and just happens to get her? Do you get four strikes?

Don't get me wrong, there are some nice things about the movie, but PLEASE, writers, use your brains next time.

This movie was such a surprise! The ads really did not do it Justice which probably made the movie even better. It was debuted on a Sunday as if it would be one of the terrible movies this year but it might be the best one so far! I was pleasantly surprised by how refreshing the story was, new storyline, well written plot, and great characters. I wasn't sure about the fake accents but it was really good as part of the story. The manager was so awesome. He had a very small part in Santa summit so I'm glad he was given more lines in this one. I've rewatched it three times now and still find it much better than most of the new movies this year. Highly recommend this one!

This started out interesting. I didn't mind Emily's accent at all, I thought it was fine, and my mother was English. There are lots of Americans who are apparently experts on British accents, even accusing Brits of fake accents.

I didn't care for the physical side by side choreographed phone conversations. They were distracting to me as I watched them move back and forth in perfect synchronization.

I told my husband that it was going to be the same old same old "You lied to me, I cannot trust you" trope. He said no, it wouldn't be like that.

I was correct. It's the most annoying trope in Hallmark's arsenal.

A nice story with a blow up anger, walk away scene.

As I recall, that didn't happen in the classic movies from which these scripts copy. It's just Hallmark's standard endings. Ugh!

It's absolutely ridiculous that a guy would be offended because the 2 women he was falling in love with were the same person. He would be glad.

And to blame someone when there was no attempt to deceive. If it's coincidence, it's not deception..

Just to add an opposite view to the other hurrahs here. I would have possibly given this a 7 if it stayed pleasant and romantic. All the drama is just not necessary. The acting and characters were fine.