Eight Gifts of Hanukkah

Enjoyed the movie, Really likeable and relatable characters, however, like so many Hallmark movies, they cheat us out of a satisfactory ending. It's like, "If a bear s...ts in the woods and no one sees it. Did it really happen?" So if a couple kisses at the end of the movie (and they always do) and it's not noticed and reacted to by others, who cares? After watching a movie for two hours, I think we all deserve a little satisfaction. Geez!

This would have to be one of my all time favorite Hallmark movies and I don't even celebrate Hanukkah. The Story is a great love story during the holidays. It is mainly about Hanukkah, but it throws just a little Christmas in as well. The story alone isn't what makes the movie so great though. It just makes the movie good. What makes the movie great is also having a really great lead actress INBAR LAVI(Prison Break, Imposters, Lucifer) starring as Sara who receives eight anonymous gifts, one each night of Hanukkah from a secret admirer. I watched this movie on tv and ordered it online the next day I enjoyed it that much.

The anonymous gift premise isn't the most common and since this is Hanukkah, the traditional activities are different from all the Christmas movies, but there is still a charity function that all the romantic interests work on.

Jake Epstein's Daniel and Inbar Lavi's Sara (spelling as per the gift cards) have great chemistry despite supposedly being just friends. I'm beginning to really appreciate Epstein who seems to bond well with his opposite whether the story is about Hanukkah or Christmas. Lavi is new to me, but I liked her almost at once.

I think the viewer knows who the sender is almost from the first gift, but it's not long in the movie before he confesses to a friend. A lot of attention is paid to his frustration that all the other male candidates are getting.

Let's begin with by stating the movie is only casually related to Hanukkah. It is about a guy trying to win the heart of the girl he pines for, with eight thoughtful gifts. Though the idea is not really innovative, it may still work for a romantic story. Sara(h), Inbar Lavi, is quite beautiful and accomplished and Daniel is rendered pleasant by Jake Epstein's somewhat endearing goofiness. The overall result is a show that has some substance and charm. An improvement would have been to characterize a bit more the spiritual side of the Holiday. A major one could have been to give more consistency to Sara(h) 's personality. She is purported to be a bright, sensitive young woman. How credible it is that she, receiving a series of gifts, clearly highly personal and reaching her more intimate thoughts, could even consider they would come from suitors she has just met? I guess this was done in order to create more drama. Yet, how can a viewer embrace a heroine who is wonderful and clueless at the same time? Thus said, I still liked the movie enough for a passing grade.

6/10 - Hallmark's first unabashedly Hanukkah-focused movie (that Double Holiday movie that focuses more on Christmas does not count) is a really pretty sweet romance that perfectly follows the Hallmark formula.