Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade

Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade is one of my favorite Hallmark movies of all times! The writing, the chemistry between the two leads, the touching moments interlaced with quirky humor make this a can't miss movie. I keep it on my DVR, but it's also available at Prime, but they still show it in a tiny, early window of Christmas films as of 2019. I adore Autumn Reeser and Antonio Cupo in this movie and hope that Hallmark can learn from the older movies that this movie is a model for how to make a good movie no matter what time of year. Enjoy!

I am not, nor would I ever, knock today's Hallmark releases- but nothing compares to the early years.

I don't know how I had never seen this one before- but it's easily my favorite.

It's got the essential elements of falling in love during the holidays on the small screen: a conflict ridden meet-cute, a seemingly perfect boyfriend, the most adorable and wholesome woman in the world, a couple fun female extras, an unrealistically single man who's attractive, wealthy, and a gentleman- but a bit jaded.

But this Thanksgiving flick of Hallmark past(and WHY did they stop making Thanksgiving films?) Is far less sugar-coated than than today's, while still remaining wholesome enough. They openly drink and get drunk, the boyfriend isn't 'the right guy-just for someone else' he's actually quite the prick. The humor is just a shade darker and a notch sexier - and it creates a depth that's been lacking the last couple years.

The actual production is really good, too- at least to someone who knows very little about movie production. They really made Chicago in November really beautiful. I even really loved the music- which is often the one element I kind of hate.

As for the story, a vintage-clad young woman prepared for her beloved annual Thanksgiving parade while waiting for her marine-biologist boyfriend to come home and propose to her. Meanwhile she bumps into the man who wants to commoditize the parade she's devoted her career to - and while they have opposite views on just about everything, including love- their chemistry is undeniable. Naturally they're forced to work together, and end up exposing every private thought that occurs to them- and eat peanut butter in their undies (separately, mind you- this IS still a Hallmark movie)

The leads- Hallmark favorite Autumn Reeser, and the very very handsome Antonio Cupo -just absolutely killed it. It was hard not to root for them.

If you're in the mood for predictable yet enjoyable couple hours, and don't want to feel like you're watching a disney-movie for adults, this is a good start. I always dvr the 2015 and earlier Hallmark movies- there really is something a touch more special about them (might be the fact they didn't churn out 200 a year) and this might have been the absolute best of them.

Also- I now REALLY want a best friend with a small vintage clothing shop. Might be my favorite set of any movie ever made. So- anybody with a vintage shop is obviously free to seek me out and befriend me, I expect tea-for two in a mid-century settee. And, yes- that's how adorable this movie is.

1. A classic antithetical romance than works, although the antipathy is one-sided most of the time.

2. In the last half of the movie, many moments made us laugh out loud.

3. Some of the laugh out loud moments are from surprisingly awkward but funny situations.

There's a LOT of screen time with the leads, which is a problem for many movies. And there's a lot of comedic denial. This movie is a treasure, and one we'll watch again. It's that funny.

These leads also appear in A Glenbrooke Christmas, which we'd watched in 2020 and in our own notes suggested it was "meh", but we plan to give it another chance after just watching this.

This is pretty standard fare for Hallmark Christmas movies. But it is very well done.

Autumn Reeser and Antonio Cupo work very well together. Reeser is perfect as a quirky, idealistic woman who loves vintage things and tradition. That is only part of why she always wears clothes that are from decades past.

There were some good laughs. Reeser made a good drunk (on one drink) singing and dancing karaoke. She constantly embarrasses herself with humorous consequences while rehearsing things she will say to Brian or Henry. Another nice touch is the split screen of Emily and Henry at different times when they are by themselves at night.

The typical Hallmark story has a couple of nice touches near the end.

This was a charming romance with the talented and funny Autumn Reeser and the too handsome to live Antonio Cupo. Despite his fictionally good looks, he managed to be appealing and a worthy match for one of my favorite Hallmark actresses. They had great chemistry. This older effort is so heads and tails above the romances that Hallmark is spewing out these days. No cheesy cheap looking decorations or the phony Christmas tree. No small town with the Christmas name. I absolutely loved that Autumn's character loved and wore vintage clothes. That was a great imaginative detail written in that wouldn't even occur to whoever is writing the efforts of the last 2 years. And it really added even more to the homage to an old Doris Day romance. Her stupid boyfriend was not evil, but such a loser that it was fun to hiss and boo at him. There were a few little glitches, such as Henry dressed up as Santa at the end and making out with Emily in front of everyone at the parade. WTH? but other than that, Great writing, a sense of humor, talented stars, a good supporting cast, and lack of Christmas cheesiness made one of the best Hallmark Christmas movies ever.