A Tale of Two Christmases

Who needs all those bells and whistles when the cocoa is sourced ethically. Umm. Is that really a line?! So in the hometown storyline she goes home and wants plain hot chocolate because the city girl stays away from sugar. But I'm the Chicago timeline the Chicago girl rolls her eyes to the plain hot chocolate?!

This is one example of some of The inconsistencies in this movie. It's a bit confusing of a timeline and how things are happening.

I think the casting was good. I like all of them. I think it's the script and direction they're working with that just isn't working for me on this one.

I was looking forward to this one but it meh falls flat.

6.4 stars.

The story of a woman named Emma not living up to her potential and is well aware of it. She has low expectations for herself and is stuck in a low level architecture position rather than what she has always dreamed of. Emma has been unable to approach a man named Max whom she's been crushing on for months and this is one of many unsatisfactory aspects of her life. She has a female best friend named Holly who knows her very well and supports her through these minor trials.

As the holidays roll around, Holly is going to Hawaii, and Emma will be flying to her hometown to see her family, as usual. She has a male best friend from childhood named Drew that lives in her hometown as well.

We can see that she has two possible love interests: Drew and Max. So the story is intriguing in the first act. We notice that she and Drew have a certain affinity for each other, maybe a deep affection, but it was never explored and both have moved on. Max whom she often crosses paths with, is long overdo to introduce himself, so maybe she'll take matters into her own hands, if she can muster the confidence.

A split in fate occurs at the airport. In one timeline she goes home to visit family and Drew, and in the other she misses her flight and stays in the city and might get to know Max. The two "could be" future timeliness are familiar, and the narrative is somewhat overdone by Hallmark, however this particular spin makes for a potentially wonderful story.

The setting and all the elements are fashionably and expertly presented to make for a very entertaining execution (albeit repetitive). But...something is way off. The film misses the mark in spades. What went awry? I like the lead female, but unfortunately her character is the undoing of 'A Tale of Two Christmases'. Drew and Max are very likable which is rare for Hallmark to make both men equally as charismatic, thereby making it difficult for the audience to choose one over the other. The parents and relatives and even Max's friends are affable as well. It's a shame that Emma is just so-so and dare I say, borderline atrocious as a personality.

I'm a big fan of Hallmark's what if? Alternate reality movies so I was looking forward to this movie. Lacey Chabert starred in a good one called "Family For Christmas", Nikki Deloach was in another good one called "A Dream of Christmas" and Eloise Mumford was luminous in "Just in Time For Christmas".

A Tale of Two Christmasses, however, is more like Gwyneth Paltrow's Sliding Doors, which showed two different realities play out depending on whether Gwyneth's character catches a subway train or not. Sliding Doors was more dramatic (way more dramatic). Here, Emma, played by Katherine Barrell, is a Chicago architect who has two different realities play out depending on whether she makes or misses a flight out of Chicago. The biggest problem with both movies is that it's hard to effectively show two movies, about two different stories, inside one movie. There really isn't enough time to see both alternative realities play out in a meaningful way.

Emma has a crush on a lawyer in her building named Max, played by Evan Roderick. The movie seems to take subtle jabs at his work for the environment (the owls) which annoyed me. He seemed OK but his dislike of real Christmas trees was presented as some sort of defining strike against him. Instead, we're supposed to root for Drew, Emma's old platonic high school friend back home. He's played by a pleasant Chandler Massey. I liked him in 2021's amazing Next Stop Christmas, another alternate reality movie that, frankly, is way better than this one.

I don't recall seeing Katherine Barrell before, but she was fun to root for. Unfortunately, she seemed a bit too clumsy, confused and less than competent until she made her renovation suggestions at the ski lodge. I don't mind clumsy and confused in a character, but we kind of had to take it on faith that there was a reason to call her "Perfect Peterson".

I also didn't like the scene with Aunt Martha. It was way too weird. Playing dementia for laughs can be tricky, especially for those of us with family members suffering from it.

Also, the ending, and the big life choices made, seemed a bit forced, especially given the short time frame. I get a little frustrated with Christmas movie characters who literally up end their entire lives and make dramatic changes based on the experience of a few days. Here, Emma made life changing decisions based on a couple of days. That made no sense to me.

I was also troubled by how Drew would pretend to be someone he wasn't. It was a little sad to hear him respond that "I'm still mostly me". And as sad as it was to hear him say "I'm tired of waiting for you to see me", what "me" was that?

I grade Hallmark on a curve, but this seems like a 6 at best.

If only we all had these problems...two sweet and attractive guys like you and your successful at your job and have a loving family to go home to.

Emma (Katherine Barrell) is a beautiful successful architect living in the city, but heading home for Christmas...or at least she is supposed to. This is where the story splits, in one scenario she makes her flight home and gets to enjoy Christmas with her family and the sweet boy next door and in the other she misses her flight and ends up spending Christmas Eve in the city with a dreamy lawyer who works in her building.

Honestly, I get why it ends the way it does...but I kind of liked the dreamy lawyer Max played by Evan Roderick. It was nice not to have any villains in this split scenario.

It was kind of a middle of the road holiday romance, but slightly different than the usual Hallmark fare...so maybe worth a watch.

I don't understand why so many are confused by or stymied by the dual timeline but I have my suspicions.

The key to which reality she's in at any given time is even minor attention to the detail of what she's wearing. The split screen at the start gives a big clue- in one reality she's wearing a winter white coat while in the other she's wearing a bright white coat. I won't even enumerate the many others.

The movie was cute and I didn't hate it but it was another mediocre Hallmark by the numbers romance they work into everything (over-achieving, over-dressed women, frequent , very long commercial breaks, etc.) complete with the picture perfect ending.