Heart of the Holidays

This was a decent Christmas movie. The story was nice, the acting was good, and the scenery, props, and sets were festive. It just did not have that 'extra something' compared to some of the other very good Christmas movies this year by Hallmark. For example, I recently saw The Angel Tree; it had great chemistry between the leads. The Christmas House was fun and made me laugh. A Timeless Christmas and Cranberry Christmas had different stories to tell...and so on. In this one, it was not until nearly an hour into the film (the scene where Sam decides to organize the Christmas party at the foodbank) that I started to be pulled in by the movie. The acting was pretty good. I last saw Vanessa Lengies in the Christmas movie, A Date by Christmas Eve, where she had a fun and cute performance. Here she had a decent performance. Corey Sevier had a solid performance as well. He had sort of a gentle and confident feel to his portrayal of Noah, which worked, I think. The chemistry between the two was fine, believable. Not the strongest, but certainly not the weakest I have seen; there have been a few thus far where chemistry was rather lacking. The supporting cast had a strong performance; Hallmark usually does a very good job with casting such roles. As I mentioned above, the sets were very polished and festive. I was impressed with that very large gingerbread house that they carried to the truck; the scene where we saw the first spark between the leads. Overall, it was an average, middle of the road Christmas movie that fans of Hallmark will likely enjoy.

Good story and good acting. A little slow occasionally, but overall a sweet movie.

Throughout my whole Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas film completest quest undertaken namely late last year through to early this year, an interesting quest but very mixed one, there was never the mentality of expecting a classic or the film in question to be flawless. Something that was never managed with Hallmark's output. There was always the expectation of seeing a film where one can see at least some effort rather than merely cash-in level. One could see that with most of Hallmark's output but not all.

2020 was a variable year for the Hallmark Christmas output. 'Heart of the Holidays' is closer to being in the weaker category. It is not a terrible film, it does have good things and it does get better. It is also not particularly good, have seen a lot of Christmas films recently that start off very badly (and even terribly) but improve if given a chance (something that was common with the 2019/2020 output of both Hallmark and Lifetime, and UpTV). 'Heart of the Holidays' is one of those films.

As said, 'Heart of the Holidays' did not get off to a promising start. Pretty terrible in fact, with the storytelling being slow and uneventful, the dialogue being awkward and cheesy and with none of the characters being worth investing in due to exaggerated character flaws. Any conflict could have done with more tension and not tried too hard and the ending is another rushed and too tidy one.

Plot-wise, 'Heart of the Holidays' is nothing special. It is a tried and tested story and the execution can feel tired. Especially in the first half. Corey Sevier has had far more likeable characters than the one he has here, Sevier is a likeable, confident presence in the second half once the character starts to grow but he comes over as too simpering and naive initially.

However, a lot is still done right. Vanessa Lengies is a bit manic to begin with, but she bursts with energy and charm once her character tones down. Sevier has a likeable understated quality to his acting and looks at ease, again once things have settled. Their chemistry is definitely there and grows at a realistic rate. The supporting cast are solid.

It looks nice as a film, especially the scenery. The music has a nostalgic festive atmosphere and doesn't intrude as much as most Hallmark Christmas films. The film is generally light-hearted, charming and heart-warming once it gets going and the dialogue on the whole is a lot better in the second half, it flows more naturally and isn't as corny while occasionally still forced.

Concluding, not great but watchable. 5/10.

5/10 - a pretty unlikable protagonist made this one hard to enjoy

This story has been way overdone by Hallmark. These actors didn't bring anything new or energetic to the screen. The second half was better than the slow first half. I did enjoy the scenery, and that was the high point for me. I can't imagine what Vanessa Lengies and the hair/makeup crew were thinking with her hair. Absolutely. Awful. Not sure if it was meant to be ombre, but if so, it missed the mark and looks very unhealthy. I found it quite distracting throughout the movie. Even still, it was a fairly enjoyable Hallmark holiday piece.