Christmas for Keeps

It's a good premise and I like the diversity... just acting wasn't that great or maybe just didn't make me feel anything for them and it was just okay to watch. I felt like, okay, what's next?

I rank movies like this on a Hallmark scale, so 4 stars is quite low for me for one of these. It just wasn't that good and not very engaging.

There are some curious choices for me here that make this a less than entertaining Hallmark movie. This has an all around younger cast than many Hallmark movies, 5 high school friends meeting 10 years later, so it gives to idea that it'll be modern and a bit fun, but it's far from that. It's very slow paced, it's a more serious drama, not a comedy drama, there is no lightness here. They are honoring a favorite teacher that died and the movie keeps that general tone throughout. The photos and trailers for this movie are deceiving on that end, this is not a movie about a jovial group of high school friends seeing one another again. The laughing and smiling shown in the promos is not what this movie is about at all. It's lacking most of what you think of when you picture good friends reuniting.

The casting here isn't bad, but it's not enough to overcome the rather maudlin feel to many of these storylines. I think some may struggle to recognize the lead actress (Christa B. Allen) because the Botox plus being a bit older makes her look much less like she did on Revenge (she played Charlotte). Her character isn't as strong of a lead as they need here, some of it is the acting, this isn't her strongest effort. But also I don't think her character's storylines are as engaging as they need to be for the lead, you'll be more invested in the other ones. And her heavy-handed mom can kick rocks.

Ashley Newbrough is great at playing light and fun characters, and here she is an overworked doctor in a very strained marriage. She doesn't do bad with the role, but she's someone who could've brought some fun to this, made that trailer and those photos seem accurate, but they don't use her in that way in the least.

The character of Ben getting mad at his best friend because he doesn't think he's fun anymore was very on the nose. Ben felt like quite the drag. I don't know what his character was supposed to bring to this movie, but whatever it was, didn't happen.

Marielle Scott and Cardi Wong (so nice to see him in more of a leading role) are playing the characters that are likely the easiest to connect with and just like them with no reservations. They certainly made this better and helped me get to the end. But again, it's not enough to change the overall dynamic of this movie. The storyline, the direction, the tone, the muted color palette, they were all choices that made this movie far less entertaining than I anticipated.

If you don't care for the more dramatic and serious Hallmark movies or if you were expecting a fun movie featuring reunited high school friends, I think you're going to struggle to get through this the way that I did. I enjoy the heck out of Hallmark movies and have seen countless Christmas and regular ones, but this is not a good one. And I've liked several of the more dramatic Hallmark movies even if that's not my first choice, but this just wasn't up to par with the better of those either. One December Night from this year's new Hallmark M&M movies is a great example of how you can do a drama with many light moments and not carrying a maudlin tone even with sad aspects being incorporated into the storyline.

This movie is a look at several different kinds of relationships with a group of friends from high school days. All of them have rough spots and they work through them as the movie progresses. There is a romance story as one of the threads.

The reason for their reunion is to honor a recently passed drama teacher who was more than a mentor to each of them. There are a lot of flashback episodes remembering him from different perspectives.

For some reason this movie didn't connect with me. I can't really say anything specific positive or negative.

I love Hallmark movies but this just average at best. I didn't really buy the life long connection between the 5 high school drama students, only one of whom actually tried to continue that experience as a career. The relationships all seemed forced (I found the chants of "Noah, Noah" and the peer pressure of him really irritating) and all 5 of the old classmates had multiple conflicts and issues that really couldn't be adequately explored and resolved in one TV movie that was supposedly about the passing of a beloved high school teacher.

Although the stay at home dad married to a doctor subplot was an interesting change of pace, I'm tired of the "I can make a career out of baking cookies in my home kitchen" trope. And Noah couldn't go sledding with his busy wife and their kids because he had to help Mia sell his cookies at a Toy Drive? Seriously? It's not like he was in the back of a bakery trying to churn out more cookies for an unexpectedly high demand. He was at a table selling pre-made cookies at a Toy Drive that Mia could have handled without any help. Go spend time with your wife who's apparently never around.

Christa Allen, who plays Avery, was recently in the news for turning 30 after once playing the 13 year old in 13 Going On 30. She does what she can with the role of a daughter of an overbearing mother (way over the top) and the love interest of a morose and unpleasant character named Ben (we get it, losing parents sucks; welcome to the club everyone joins and one that's featured in virtually every Hallmark movie). But, without spoiling anything, the solution of the geographical challenges facing their relationship was out of the blue and unrealistic, as was the manufactured tension between Ben and Noah.

And why did it seem that these were the only 5 former students of the beloved Mr. Massey (all from the same class) who cared enough to show up for him?

For me, the best Hallmark movies of 2021 were An Unexpected Christmas, A Dickens of a Christmas, My Christmas Family Tree, Next Stop Christmas and Every Time A Bell Rings.

This movie tries so hard. So hard that it hurt to watch. Unfortunately characters like the mother (played by Janet Kidder) are so overbearing that they irritate and annoy. The constant push for the main characters to fall in love is annoying. The shining stars for their acting abilities sit with Marielle Eisner and Cardi Wong. They are honestly the only ones worth paying attention to.