Christmas in My Heart

I really enjoyed this Hallmark Christmas movie. Both the script and acting were strong, and of course, it had a warm Christmas feel to it. As another reviewer has suggested, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries tends to have deeper, more meaningful storylines than its sister network, the Hallmark Channel. This movie is no exception and is an excellent start to this year's Miracles of Christmas series. Our two protagonists of this story are Beth (played by Heather Hemmens), a violinist who recently returns home after the death of her mother, and Sean (played by Luke Macfarlane), a reclusive country music star who is a widower and a single father. The two connect when Sean, unknowingly, hires Beth as his daughter Katie's (played by Maria Nash) violin tutor in preparation for the upcoming holiday concert. And so their romantic journey begins. The movie touches upon a number of challenging, real-life issues such as the loss of a loved one, interracial identity (e.g., being proud of who you are), and the raising of a child as a single parent. The script was well written (keeping in mind that this is a Hallmark movie). The dialogue was down to earth; that is, it felt real. There were some nice scenes, for example, between Sean and Katie. I especially enjoyed the banter between Sean and Beth regarding country versus classical music. That is, I enjoyed how they scrutinize each other's genre of music, which led them to appreciate and respect the differences between the two, adding, I felt, to the development of mutual admiration and their romantic connection. The acting overall was brilliant. Both Hemmens and Macfarlane had outstanding performances. The chemistry between the two was excellent. As noted above, you could feel this from the start via their banter at the music shop. Towards the end, when they were saying goodbye, I found myself wanting them to kiss, cheering for them to kiss, that is. I could feel the chemistry on screen. The supporting cast too was superb. Nash's performance as Katie was absolutely adorable. She is a future star. The movie too had a nice warm Christmas feel to it. For example, the holiday concert at the end was lovely. If you are in the mood for a more meaningful Hallmark Christmas movie, then Christmas in My Heart may be just what you are looking for. It is a warm and heartfelt Christmas movie with some wonderful performances. I highly recommend it.

I love Luke MacFarlane in many roles but not this one. First, Hallmark should have chosen an actor who could be more convincing with a Southern accent. I'm happy Hallmark is trying to incorporate more diversity, but it still needs to be believable and this was not. There was so much going on in this movie that I found myself distracted by trying to figure out all the relationships. Finally, Luke is not believable as a country star, whereas Heather is brilliant. They seem unequal in that respect.

I enjoyed the music and the Dad/daughter dynamic. I didn't feel any chemistry between the main characters. It felt like she felt she'd get cooties from touching him. Both nice characters who can gain from their friendship but more than friendship felt forced.

To add; I see many reviews speaking on the racial items here. I personally love seeing so many ethnicities represented. I agree that many in this set of movies, are like this one, and seem to lack the character chemistry and writing. The diversity is blamed, likely because that's the major obvious change. Are they focusing so much on it that they are losing their identity? We don't really know if this is why they are lacking. Personally, I prefer Hallmark not try to tackle any present day issues in the movies. They never have before aside from grief and love. They were the place to escape into for awhile, the place where everyone got along, communities love each other and people matter. They are our ideal. They pointed the way without pointing the way. I hope they bring back the chemistry and writing soon.

Sean's daughter, Katie, has a concert at school, so they hire Beth, a violinist to help her practice for 3 weeks.

At first, I didn't realise this was a HM&M movie, so I was confused about what was going on. You know how their movies tend to be a little more complex. This is no exception. They deal with grief, and something that really surprised me, racial identity. Music is, of course, the main thing going on. And I discovered that Hallmark movies that base their plot around music are not my thing.

In my opinion, it was okay. At the beginning, there is no much going on, and it can be quite boring. The exciting things happen at the end. At the beginning they deal with the topics I mentioned before. I was more interested in the secondary relationships (Beth and Katie, Sean and Katie, Sean and his mother in law, Katie and her grandma) that in the main one. I want to point out one particular scene at the beginning with Katie and her grandma, that just filled my heart with love.

I would love to see Heather in a more cheerful character. But good performances by the whole cast. I do not think there is chemistry between the leads, which is a bummer because I love Luke.

Anyway, not a fave, but it touches very important themes.

I always enjoy it when Hallmark holiday movies include musicians and music. This one stars a country music star (Macfarlane) and classical violinist (Hemmens). There are a few musical numbers, which were terrific. I could have listened to a lot more of that.

Macfarlane also has a daughter he's raising alone, which introduces a nice family vibe to the romance. Grief is a theme as both the country music star and the violinist recently lost someone important. Both main characters are in multi-racial families, and the script actually brought up issues of racial identity (in a very light way) which I appreciated.

A really solid Hallmark movie worth keeping.

One con - Luke Macfarlane has a scene where he sings--there's a reason why he's an actor not a singer. But points to him for putting his heart into it.