A Tale of Two Christmases

Over the years, Hallmark has done a few of these "alternate reality" stories, and they are a break from the normal straight through romance which check all the same boxes ... except half of this one checked those boxes anyway.

Our female lead (who reminded me a LOT of Annette O'Toole) winds up in simultaneous alternate realities via a not so clear split screen scene where in one she suffers a delay and barely misses her flight home and stays in Chicago an extra day and spends time with the dreamy lawyer from a firm in the building her company occupies. In the other, she makes her flight and spends her planned Christmas with family and old friends.

Unlike many of these stories, there's no "good boyfriend/bad boyfriend" dynamic. I like both guys. In fact, I liked the lawyer best. The "hometown boyfriend" was a bit of a Drama King in my opinion. That was one of the common tropes ... the hometown guy where they'd both had unrequited love many years ago. The question is ... which will she choose when she's back to one reality?

Yes, there is ONE timeline goof near the end. Can you spot it, too?

This is one of those movies that starts off with an interesting premise, bounces around in confusion, and just takes an agonizingly long time to wrap up. It manages to hit the point of no return, where you might feel you've already invested (wasted?) sufficient time to justify sitting through the inevitable. Your reward is the slow, inexorable (excruciating?) suction into its sappy, sloppy, conclusion where our protagonist chooses to surrender her career to a drama king "for love".

If you're in the privacy of home, you're inclined to yell at the TV in frustration.

And for a rom-com, it's not that funny. I gave it a 4 because the leads really did try to make the best of a rat's nest haircut.

Speaking of which, for gawd's sake, you get a candy cane out of your luxurious hair with hot water, not by having your meddling, inept, yakkity-yak MOTHER hack it out with kitchen shears!

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.

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.