Holiday Mismatch

7.5 stars.

I would usually be down to watch something like this again in 5-10 years, that's my initial feeling, thus i would rate it a 7.3 stars. But I changed my mind and raised it a smidge, so I can give it another opportunity to entertain, sooner.

It's a bit of a slow starter. That's the main problem. I really want to give this a higher rating but it's tough to think about me really being energized to see it again anytime soon. However, upon brief reflection as I'm just finishing it, there were many really good parts.

I love this new-ish actress who plays the daughter, who is fake dating the lead male; she's got a lot of personality and I like her face. And the guy he's great too. I've seen him in a couple of movies, but I don't recall if those were primary roles.

The two well-known older women, both are well known in the Hollywood Arena. They both do Hallmark and various other things. Their parts were somewhat insidious to watch, it reduced the value of this film overall. It's a shame, because they are essential to the narrative. So again, this is why I am conflicted, on the fence,!about my rating. I want to see this movie again, I'm gonna rate it at 7.5 and hope that I like it better next time.

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.

For the first time, a movie title says it all! It is an awful mismatch. The two female leads are annoying and antagonistic, the adult children are not happy with their interfering mothers. Certainly not a feel good movie. Don't waste your time. This year's offering of Hallmark holiday movies is so poor in quality and scripts. In my opinion, Hallmark is trying to pump out way too many movies in a short time frame. Instead of starting Christmas movies in the middle of October, STOP rushing the season and take the time to develop good quality scripts, find better actors and hope you can redeem your reputation for "hallmark" movies. Someone at the Hallmark movie headquarters needs to go back to the drawing board and recapture what made Hallmark movies so enjoyable. This current season is too painful to watch.

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.

Newly retired bookkeeper Barbara (Beth Broderick) takes a volunteer job at the community center and is assigned to a committee run by the bohemian Kath (Caroline Rhea). Kath and Barbara clash from the moment they meet, but both love their kids...and end up unintentionally setting them up with each other on an app as a blind date. Their kids, Shane and Lauren, meet as a blind date, then they make a pact to fake date through the holidays to get their mom's off their backs. When the Kath and Barbara figure out that they have set their child up with the other's, they immediately team up to break them up, assuming that they can't be right for each other...only they are.

I love both Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick, who are the heart of this film. The message is really about how people are different, and yet often those differences are complimentary. Kath and Barb were not the romantic leads...but they could have been, they held this hallmark holiday film together so well. (I did like the two kids, aka the romantic leads, but really you should watch it for Rhea and Broderick.)