'All Saints Christmas' (2022)
Opening thoughts: The 2022 Countdown to Christmas block was very up and down. When it comes to talking about the previous films in the block, there are some good ones such as 'Ghosts of Christmas Always', 'Jolly Good Christmas' and 'Lights Cameras Christmas'. There are also some misfires, namely 'Cozy Christmas Inn', 'We Wish You a Married Christmas' and 'A Magical Christmas Village'. The premise for 'All Saints Christmas' sounded cute if unexceptional, so didn't know which way of good or bad it was going to go.
Watching 'All Saints Christmas', my overall answer to that would be that it was neither good or bad. Id anything somewhere in the slightly above average middle. As far as Hallmark's 2022 Christmas output goes, this is neither among the best or the worst (one of the more middling ones). Hallmark also did both better and worse overall that year too. 'All Saints Christmas' is watchable, it is well performed, has a lovely soundtrack and has nice atmosphere. Yet the storytelling is flawed in more than one way and stopped the film from being more than acceptable.
Good things: There are quite a lot of good things. Ledisi and Roger Cross give very likeable and emotive performances, that never came over as forced or phoned in. Their chemistry is very sweet. Support is good and did like the characters on the whole, not complex but mostly easy to connect with.
Production values are slick. Along with the performances, one of the best things about 'All Saints Christmas' is the upbeat and quite beautiful soundtrack, Hallmark have always varied with their music and that was definitely obvious on both extremes of good and bad in 2022. The one here is one of their better ones in a while. The script is not too sentimental or cheesy, and there is some nice light-heartedness, charm and heart.
Bad things: However, a number of things could have been executed a lot better. With so much crammed in, the film did feel too short, wouldn't have said no to it being 15 minutes longer. It also felt very rushed and over-crowded from trying to cram too much content, and there wasn't enough time to flesh some of it out enough.
Moreover, the conflict with the record label in my view was not necessary, not when not enough is done with it and because it came over as somewhat mean spirited which jarred tonally. The final decision also does not make sense, it was quite cold as well and made me lose respect for the male protagonist, who up to this point was actually a quite likeable one.
Closing thoughts: Overall, acceptable but left me a bit mixed.
6/10.
