Holiday Mismatch

This is a fun movie. My wife laughed out loud at the faces Caroline Rhea made during some of the situations.

I was pleasantly surprised that for once, when the main romantic interest characters became upset, it wasn't at each other. They started out as casual acquaintances who devised a plan keep their moms from consuming their time and energy during the holiday. Their romance developed as they got to know each other better. They didn't need major misunderstandings to add drama to the story. Of course for that they had their parents.

The one thing that might annoy people with traditional family values was the inclusion of a brother who was introduced at one point with his "husband". Since it added nothing at all to the plot, it seemed like just a gratuitous insertion that some might feel was a subtle bit of social normalization added to placate some special interest production investor. Or something.

Overall though, it was a fun movie and a refreshing change from some of the worn-out plot templates we know so well.

Here we have another of the myriad fake dating stories, but with a twist. This time two mothers have enrolled their son, and daughter, in a dating app and after the match they meet for a get to know each other meeting neither believes will last long. However, they decide to play along just to keep their mothers from trying again before Christmas.

Meanwhile, by coincidence, the mothers work together on Chamber of Commerce Christmas events and thoroughly dislike each other. So when they find out their kids were the matches, they're sure it can never work out.

The males and female lead are fine. The other two people working on the Chamber of Commerce committee are terrible. They're supposed to be funny, but instead are embarrassing to watch. Also, the big "relationship crisis" is no well written, and thus overplayed. And for the what they made it into, the reconciliation is too easy. Not well done.

The mothers used to play 600 year old witches, sisters, on Sabrina the teenage witch for eight years, so for fans of that show (which we never watched), I'm sure they'll enjoy the reunion.

It's worth a watch, but we won't be revisiting it.

Needless to say that I was, of course, not familiar with the 2024 Hallmark Christmas movie "Holiday Mismatch" prior to sitting down to watch it as part of my 2024 December Christmas movie marathon. But while I was unfamiliar with the movie, I have to say that seeing Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick on the movie's cover, it did instill some sense of expectation to Hallmark to deliver something worthwhile.

Writer Sarah Wise did indeed rise to the challenge and she did deliver an enjoyable and entertaining script and storyline. I have to say that I was genuinely entertained throughout the course of the 84 minutes that the movie ran for.

The acting performances in "Holiday Mismatch" were good, and there were some familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Caroline Rhea, Beth Broderick and Jon McLaren. It certainly was nice to see actresses Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick reunited on the screen again. I've always enjoyed seeing them as the aunties in the "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" series from back in the mid-1990s.

If you enjoy sappy Christmas movies, then you should take the time to sit down and watch director Caroline Labrèche's 2024 movie. It was a nice movie.

My rating of "Holiday Mismatch" lands on a six out of ten stars.

It was good for what it is, a hallmark type of holiday movie. The two young leads are fine... not the best actors, but fine enough. The two mothers, played by the aunts from Sabrina the Teenage Witch (which are the selling point in the ads and previews for this movie) are of course great. Without them this would be a hard pass. Caroline Rhea in particular is really funny and a great actress. She definitely saved this movie. If you like rom coms, you'll like this. If you like Hallmark movies, you'll like this. If you like the more or less wholesome type of Christmas movies, you'll like this. Worth a view!

Recent retiree Barbara (Beth Broderick) joins the town's Christmas Committee to keep herself busy, but immediately clashes with Kath (Caroline Rhea). Barbara is stiff, on time and a wiz in a spreadsheet. Kath is a free spirit, and a bit nutty, but also full of Christmas joy. They both just so happen to have young, single children. The moms use an app for parents to match their kids (terrifying). Yes, the kids match on the app and quickly in real life.

This movie really focuses on two relationships, but in a unique way. In a shared A/B story, the mom's relationship from enemies to friends, and the kid's story from "fake dating" to actually dating take nearly equal screen time.

The chemistry between Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea is wonderful, obviously from their years of working together as aunts on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. They couldn't have found better actors to take on these roles. Very authentic ribbing and timing.

Our romantic leads are Shane (Jon McLaren) and Lauren (Maxine Denis). They are great together and could have held the full focus of the story with more material.

My major nitpick is the fake dating. After Shane and Lauren go on a real date together, they decide to flip the script and fake date to get their parents to stop setting them up with people (which we never see happen by the way). There is no logical (or Christmas Magical) reason to make this decision. Just date, you hot people! That's the way to go. The parents would have stopped meddling if you were really dating, and you definitely liked each other, so do that.

It's refreshing to see Lauren working hard as a co-owner of her architecture firm and trying to get a project done. So often in Hallmark, we'd see her trying to get a promotion from a male CEO, or ice queen boss over Christmas. They also give a realistic reason why the building work needs to get done by the end of the year-building code changes on Jan. 1. I don't know if it exactly works like that, but I applaud the effort.

Goofy notes -Only one "witch" reference in the whole movie. I expected more.

-"Tying a dead plant to a car" is an interesting way to describe taking a Christmas Tree home.

-I need more of the Christmas rat. This seemed so whacky, and it worked because Shane was really all of us in that situation.

-Shane's theater has a full kitchen behind the seating area, and they don't shut off the lights during a performance. Hmm, I wonder why they are struggling.

-When you do karaoke for "Jingle Bells" you probably don't need to stare quite so intently at the words on the screen.

-Trolly caroling isn't a thing. Is it? Let's get in a wooden bench trolly and hold fake sheet music and sing so nobody else can hear us.

-Why are we always Christmas caroling? Singing did not need to happen this much.

Cast kudos: This is a slam dunk-- Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea.

Alternative titles: Full Sabotage Christmas; Meddling Moms Christmas; UnMatched for Christmas.