Prossima fermata: Natale

Very nice time travel movie to find love. Not a cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie, but you might get all the feels anyway. I always enjoy a surprise ending and this one wasn't predictable (maybe a little) until the last 10 minutes.

'Next Stop, Christmas' is a wonderful Hallmark Christmas movie: cute, fun, and entertaining. The story is clever and creative, the script is punchy, the emotional beats land, and the cast is charming and enjoyable to watch on screen. Hands down the best thus far this 2021 holiday season. The storyline revolves around Angie (played by Lyndsy Fonseca), a busy neurosurgeon who has, for some years, been avoiding her family during Christmas time. Her last fond memory of Christmas was ten years ago when her parents were together and her sister and she were on the same wavelength, a time too when she turned down a marriage proposal from the now-famous (and very handsome) sports commentator Tyler Grant (played by Eric Freeman). One evening before Christmas, after work and a drink with a friend, Angie grabs the last commuter train home to Yonkers to start her quiet and relaxing Christmas holiday alone. However, these plans are soon derailed by a mysterious ticket agent and conductor (played by Christopher Lloyd), as she finds herself on a magical train that takes her back home to that Christmas 10 years earlier. Her mission now is to figure out what she needs to do to get back to the present. And so our story begins, as we watch Angie relive her Christmas of ten years past, getting second chances and learning lessons about love and family along the way. This Christmas twist of the popular film 'Back to the Future' (BTTF) is well written with some fun and entertaining dialogue and scenes throughout. The writers also do a very good job of developing multiple sub-plots in 82 minutes, all while subtly introducing links to BTTF. As many reviewers have pointed out, the writers not only draw from BTTF, they also pay homage to the film, featuring two of the original stars Leah Thompson (playing Evelyn, Angie's mother) and Christopher Lloyd. One weakness of the story was the romance between Angie and Ben (played by Chandler Massey). Simply put, it was underdeveloped. There were not enough scenes of the two to develop their chemistry on-screen, unfortunately. The ending too is not ideal, though this is a minor fault. The acting, overall, is outstanding. Hallmark did an excellent job with casting in this one. Fonseca was brilliant. She had a quirky, yet warm, vibe to her performance, which was enjoyable to watch. The supporting cast too was outstanding. Finally, the film has a fairy-tale-like feel to it with some beautiful (and festive) props and sets, which will no doubt get you into the Christmas mood this holiday season. All in all, it is a cute, fun, and festive Christmas movie, with some impressive acting, a nice new addition to Hallmark's 2021 line-up. I highly recommend it.

There's little doubt the writers were conjuring up memories of Back to the Future since not only are there two of the stars from that movie, but the partially disappearing ticket was central to determining if Angie had succeeded in her quest. This movie is clever in the use of those elements while putting them in a Christmas setting. One almost expects the conductor to call out to Marty.

This movie isn't focused on one central romance, although Angie's future love life is one of the threads. Angie is also hard at work on her family relationships, especially her sister and her parents, the latter evoking even stronger similarities with BttF.

Because Angie's own romance is only part of the focus of the movie, Fonseca's chemistry with her romantic opposites is not as much a factor is we usually expect, but she does have great interplay with Chandler Massey. Fonseca, and for that matter all the cast, provide good acting. The dialogue is fun and plays well to the situations that crop up. Christopher Lloyd is great as usual and Lea Thompson impresses me more in this movie than in BttF.

While the redo element of the plot is not unusual for a Christmas movie, this movie still stands out as clever and creative in story, acting and dialogue.

Back during 70s, 80s, and 90s and into the early 2000s, ABC, NBC, or CBS used to have a new Christmas movie during the holiday season, usually showing up on a Sunday night somewhere between Thanksgiving weekend and mid December. Sometimes they were Hallmark Hall of Fame Christmas movies, but mostly they were made for TV Christmas movies. For the most part, those movies had more thought and creativity put into them than most of what we see now on the Hallmark networks.

This movie reminded me of those movies much more than those Hallmark networks Christmas movies that we see now. It's a little "Groundhog Day", a little "The Family Man", some "Back to the Future", and a healthy helping of "Eve's Christmas", although there are original twists to this particular story. Lyndsy Fonseca, who just recently co-starred in the Disney Plus series "Turner and Hooch" does a great job as Angie as she travels 10 years into her past and then has to figure out what she needs to do to get back to the present. Along the way she learns things about the people she loves that she should have known if only she had opened her eyes to the world around her. Christopher Lloyd also puts on a nice performance as the ticketmaster/train conductor.

Yes, the last few minutes are predictable, but so what? It's not the destination that makes or breaks this movie, it's the journey that puts this movie quite a few notches above the standard Hallmark Channel Christmas movie and one that makes it well worth watching.

Best Hallmark Christmas movie so far this "season". Lyndsy Fonseca's character and personality were infectious and endearing. Of course, Christopher Lloyd and Lea Thompson made the movie even more special and harkened "Back to the Future" in a memorable way.