Holiday Crashers

As a Hallmark movie expert, this is one of the good ones to catch this 2024 holiday season. We had rewatch to catch who wrote dialogue. It is very fun to watch. The story is more believable than other Hallmark movies. Yea, it is illegal to party crash and pose as a lawyer, but it is all part of the storyline and good. Both lead actresses were perfectly cast. The post skiing scene was especially funny for us non skiers. The Indian themed wedding was so beautiful and gave representation. Felt the ending gave a perfect resolution to the conflict of the storyline. Keep Holiday Chasers part of your Hallmark Countdown.

Two best friends, Toni (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Bri (DanielkanMonet) try to add some excitement to their mundane lives by crashing exclusive Holiday parties and assuming false identities. They each meet a guy they are attracted to but things go bad when Justin (Chris McNally) thinks Toni is a lawyer and enlists her help on a potential business deal, but the truth is she had a panic attack and never completed law school. The situation becomes more complicated because Justin's recent breakup involved a lying girlfriend and one thing he hates are liars! There's also a hidden deception with Bri and her flame Vinny (Jag Bal). The lead actors have great chemistry. The movie is entertaining and a bit unique, although it has the usual Hallmark "conflict" as part of the plot. My complaint, as with all Hallmark movies, is that they need to tighten the middle of the script and allow more time for the script to focus on the story conclusion which always feels hurried and rushed and squeezed in to the final 10 minutes. In this movie we want more of the relationship between Toni and Justin instead of the proverbial "a year later" and a lot happened in that time. BUT a nice movie overall.

Another dumb script ruined a Hallmark movie. Is it an impossible task to find a decent script? There should be plenty of writers between the US and Canada still recovering from the writers strike. Seems like the place to start are Hallmark movies that were popular and got favorable reviews, find those writers. Hallmark had a reputation for having very high quality rom-coms, but they're not what they used to be.

A lot of the cast are regulars, Canadian actors and actresses who are in a lot of Canadian rom-coms, they are filmed in Canada but set in the US. Good to see Chris McNally. I assume this was filmed in the greater Vancouver area and the locations are beautiful.

Two friends decide to spend the Christmas season crashing other people's corporate Christmas parties, and making up identities.

On the other side of the story, the CEO of an investment company also attends some of the same parties, and the issue of the identity lies starts to crash into each other.

When the female main character hears about the CEO buying an auto firm which may face a class action suit headed by her father, she has to warn the CEO about what he might be getting into.

He winds up hiring her to consult on his legal issue, but doesn't know she ditched the bar exam and isn't a lawyer.

This idea had a LOT of potential, but the writers never closed the deal. They didn't really do any kind of a job building a relationship between the romantic leads, and they lost any element of real comedy regarding the identity lies. Just having the FMC uncomfortable all the time doesn't get there.

As I said, it's watchable, but my wife and I won't rewatch this.

Best friends Toni (Fonseca) and Bri (Monet) have worked at the same card shop for more years than they should as both struggle to find their true life's path. This holiday season, Toni and Bri decide to shake up their humdrum world by creating new identities to crash the amazing Christmas parties from the shop's confidential invitations. All harmless fun. Until Toni gets mistaken for a lawyer, which isn't too far off the mark since she did finish law school...just never completed the bar exam. Toni and Bri are then whisked away to a fancy corporate Christmas retreat in the snowy Vermont mountains by handsome business mogul, Justin (McNally), whose crush on Toni is real even if her legal career isn't. And Bri is along for the ride as she has eyes for Vinny (Bal), a valet who may have a secret of his own. Can a distraction help Bri find what path in life she's supposed to follow? Will Toni end up with the guy of her dreams or in a blizzard of trouble? This fun Christmas crashing romp will either end in disaster or two happily-ever-afters.

There's really not much to say. It's the same old formula as all romances are made of, but there's very little chatting between the romantic parties and very little examination of the emotions of everyone. Fonseca and Monet have fabulous chemistry on screen, but no-one else really has. It's not a nasty film at all, it's just very banal. You would not get this out to watch at christmas just because it's christmas.

I gave it a 5 because it's not nasty, but it's not great either.