The Holiday Sitter

This was Hallmark's first Christmas movie featuring two gay characters in leading roles The Christmas House also featured Jonathan Bennett as a gay character, which was. Nice, but he and his husband played more as secondary characters.

This one was about a love story. The plot was fine. The performances were pretty good. But.... I love Jonathan Bennett. He's great looking, and I've seen him give some really good performances. I have noticed that when he does comedy, he tends to go over the top. Lots of mugging and big eyes. He doesn't need it. I think a toned down performance would play better, even in a comedy. Bennett's final scenes show how good he can be.

Hallmark seems to be diversifying. Not only in types of characters, but in plots as well. I've seen a couple of new movies this year that don't feature a love story as the main plot line. It's a welcome development.

It's hard to believe it's taken Hallmark this long to make a Christmas themed movie where the main characters, attracted to each other, are the same sex. But, good for Hallmark! We love Jonathan Bennett. This was a very funny movie and like most other Hallmark holiday movies, a bit over the top but, that's what we want when we tune in to Hallmark. Especially their holiday films.

This movie was as predictable as most others but, the fact it revolved around a gay couple, was a welcome change to reality. Love happens, even between same sex couples! Honestly, we enjoyed the premise and comical events in this so much, the fact it focused on two men was forgotten. It was another entertaining holiday romcom from Hallmark. We feel Halmark has outdone itself this season with a number of good holiday movies.

I really liked the Holiday Sitter. The 2 leads are great together. I love Jonathan Bennet and all that he is in. The other lead was new to me. It's sort of your typical set up on most Hallmark movies. We've seen this done before but this was a different twist on 2 leading men being gay. The comedic antics of Jonathan's character could be a little over the top an times but it didn't rub me the wrong way. He's your typical commitment phobic man while the other one is having hard time finding anyone. He wants a family so he is starting to adopt. The script was well written. I would definitely recommend.

Added this to my favorites and will have this on my yearly watch list. The chemistry between the leads was electric and I loved that the main character expressed that while his family was supportive of his sexuality, not everyone in the world is (as shown by the conversation and buzz around this movie before it even released).

Follows the very predictable Hallmark formula and I love it for that. It told the same types of love stories they tell with same sex couples, but this one just looks a bit different. Just like same sex couples in real life, just two people in love. Give this movie a try!

This movie had such wit and a minimal amount of the usual "Hallmarky" tropes, I almost had to check and see if I fell by accident into Netflix!

Jonathan Bennett is charming as all-get-out. As Executive Producer, I am assuming he got the script he wanted, which is well above the average for the Hallmark Machine. And he is clearly very invested in what he is doing. Of course, the usual things happen--a near-kiss at the one-hour mark and a misunderstanding at the one hour forty-five minutes mark, etc. But, this one has a distinct lack of cheese and the usual overstuffed silliness.

The Gay angle really works here, as opposed to some other films they make when they try to shoehorn Gay characters into one of their usual plots (listen to a podcast by the brilliant Bobby Leiber for more on this topic) and expect it to work. But, as this film is set in the NYC Metro it is very plausible that their romance could bloom in a friendly, accepting environment. Honestly, I was watching this with the intention of having an amusing "Hate Watch," but was pleasantly surprised. HALLMARK: Keep on breaking that cookie cutter with which you make WAY too many movies. Doing something different might engage more viewers!