Hanukkah on the Rocks

Hallmark's 2024 Hanukkah on the Rock's was one of the better releases this season. The leading actress, Stacey Farber who plays Tory was very good and hopefully we'll see her in more leading roles in Hallmark movies, but the real star of this movies was Marc Summers as Sam Rosen. My wife and I were pleasantly surprised to see him in this movie because we were fans of his old Food Network show Unwrapped for many years. He's was superb in this movie. We enjoyed the story a lot despite several tropes, because it was really heartwarming and festive and a nice change of pace watching mature adults enjoying Hanukkah inspired cocktails in a grown up's bar versus "hot cocoa stands" and "building snowmen". The only reason I'm giving this 8 stars versus 10 is because the brief "misunderstanding" trope towards the very end really felt like a square peg in a round hole and was totally contrived and unnecessary in this movie.