The opening of the movie is quite lovely to watch, three girls on a Christmas scavenger hunt that their dad created for them, very cute. After this, I was hooked. Although 'Every Time a Bell Rings' has its flaws, it still is a lovely story with some quality acting. Sure, it is not one of Hallmark's best, but it is entertaining and engaging nonetheless. The movie is about three adopted sisters - Charlotte (played by Erin Cahill), Emily (played by Brittany Ishibashi), and Nora (played by Ali Liebert) - who return home to Mississippi for Christmas after some years apart. They soon discover that their late father has arranged one final Christmas scavenger hunt for them to complete. Will the search for the Christmas Bell bring the sisters back together after years of drifting apart? At the heart of the story is the bond between sisters, and even though they have drifted apart over the years, all they need is a bit of reminding of that bond (via another one of dad's scavenger hunts) for them to work things out. Taking the (time) constraints of an 84-minute movie into account, I thought the writers did a good job of weaving together the sisters' individual struggles and storylines (especially their own perceptions of success and failure) in a way that worked through their feelings and concerns together as sisters. However, because the writers try to do a lot in the movie, we lose some depth to the story, which other reviewers have pointed out. The acting, overall, was very strong, I felt. Cahill, Ishibashi, and Liebert all have very good performances. That is, all three engaged me, pulled me in from the start. Though the romance in the movie is secondary, there still is some great chemistry. Both Cahill and Brown and Liebert and Greenwood were very convincing and appealing to watch on-screen, I felt. Finally, there is the scavenger hunt and the Christmas Bell. In some ways, I wish the writers would have cut back on the sub-plots and focused their energy on the scavenger hunt as this was fun to watch. Plus, it had a bit of mystery, which I enjoyed. All in all, 'Every Time a Bell Rings' is a charming Christmas story about the love and bond of three sisters. It is a warm, sweet, and engaging story (even with its shortcomings), a nice new edition to Hallmark's Christmas movie line-up this season.
