Holiday Crashers

Best friends Toni (Fonseca) and Bri (Monet) have worked at the same card shop for more years than they should as both struggle to find their true life's path. This holiday season, Toni and Bri decide to shake up their humdrum world by creating new identities to crash the amazing Christmas parties from the shop's confidential invitations. All harmless fun. Until Toni gets mistaken for a lawyer, which isn't too far off the mark since she did finish law school...just never completed the bar exam. Toni and Bri are then whisked away to a fancy corporate Christmas retreat in the snowy Vermont mountains by handsome business mogul, Justin (McNally), whose crush on Toni is real even if her legal career isn't. And Bri is along for the ride as she has eyes for Vinny (Bal), a valet who may have a secret of his own. Can a distraction help Bri find what path in life she's supposed to follow? Will Toni end up with the guy of her dreams or in a blizzard of trouble? This fun Christmas crashing romp will either end in disaster or two happily-ever-afters.

There's really not much to say. It's the same old formula as all romances are made of, but there's very little chatting between the romantic parties and very little examination of the emotions of everyone. Fonseca and Monet have fabulous chemistry on screen, but no-one else really has. It's not a nasty film at all, it's just very banal. You would not get this out to watch at christmas just because it's christmas.

I gave it a 5 because it's not nasty, but it's not great either.

I won't bother with "Holiday Crashers" again. Aside from elements of the plot being somewhat close to illegal in the real world, it was kind of silly.

Although I enjoyed - as always - Lynsey Fonseca's performance, Daniella Monet as Bri really got on my nerves.

Props to Hallmark for casting Jag Bal as one of the love interests. I enjoy seeing a little diversity in these Christmas movies, unlike certain other networks where that seems to be a bridge too far.

Good to see Hallmark regulars/veterans Keith MacKechnie and Laura Soltis. They are both very reliable in the acting department, and "Holiday Crashers" certainly does not blot their respective copybooks.

What a fun, sweet, and heartwarming movie Holiday Crashers is. Very unique for a Hallmark production. The story begins with two women who are friends and who are each at loose ends in their lives. Bri (Daniella Monet) has been working at odd jobs since she was 13 to help support her mother and sister. Toni (Lindsey Fonseca) is a law school graduate who had a panic attack while taking the bar exam and couldn't finish it. While working at a shop that prints party invitations, they decide to attend a holiday party themselves for fun after finding extra invitations. Ever feel like things are going nowhere for you? Along the way, Toni meets a charming business man (Chris McNally) and Bri meets a sweet guy (Jag Bal) who sparks her interest and so the romance begins! As in any good rom- com, conflict ensues, in this case as a result of mistaken identities. In the end though, as with all Hallmark movies, there is a HEA all around.

Holiday Crashers is a delightful movie that has two charming couples with great chemistry, lots of fun moments and dialogue, sparkling photography, angst, and a beautiful ending. A joy to be watched again and again!

Two best friends, Toni (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Bri (DanielkanMonet) try to add some excitement to their mundane lives by crashing exclusive Holiday parties and assuming false identities. They each meet a guy they are attracted to but things go bad when Justin (Chris McNally) thinks Toni is a lawyer and enlists her help on a potential business deal, but the truth is she had a panic attack and never completed law school. The situation becomes more complicated because Justin's recent breakup involved a lying girlfriend and one thing he hates are liars! There's also a hidden deception with Bri and her flame Vinny (Jag Bal). The lead actors have great chemistry. The movie is entertaining and a bit unique, although it has the usual Hallmark "conflict" as part of the plot. My complaint, as with all Hallmark movies, is that they need to tighten the middle of the script and allow more time for the script to focus on the story conclusion which always feels hurried and rushed and squeezed in to the final 10 minutes. In this movie we want more of the relationship between Toni and Justin instead of the proverbial "a year later" and a lot happened in that time. BUT a nice movie overall.

Two friends decide to spend the Christmas season crashing other people's corporate Christmas parties, and making up identities.

On the other side of the story, the CEO of an investment company also attends some of the same parties, and the issue of the identity lies starts to crash into each other.

When the female main character hears about the CEO buying an auto firm which may face a class action suit headed by her father, she has to warn the CEO about what he might be getting into.

He winds up hiring her to consult on his legal issue, but doesn't know she ditched the bar exam and isn't a lawyer.

This idea had a LOT of potential, but the writers never closed the deal. They didn't really do any kind of a job building a relationship between the romantic leads, and they lost any element of real comedy regarding the identity lies. Just having the FMC uncomfortable all the time doesn't get there.

As I said, it's watchable, but my wife and I won't rewatch this.