Christmas Under the Stars premiered on Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas on November 16th and stars Autumn Reeser (Julie) and Jesse Metcalfe (Nick).
RATING (out of 5): 🎄🎄🎄🎄
General Movie Details: Julie is a single mom and 7th grade science teacher in Chicago. This is the first Chrismas for her and her son after her father's passing. She is still working through the grief process which is made more difficult as she is still trying to deal with and resolve his medical bills. Nick is an investment banker who is the son of a prominent businessman. Unfortunately, he gets fired from his firm due to making a bad investment decision for a big and important client. These two people from disparate backgrounds find their paths repeatedly crossing at a local Christmas tree lot run by Clem. Tag line for this movie is that "Everything works out at Christmas, just need hope."
Meet Cute Moment: Their first interaction is truly just passing each other at Clem's tree lot. The following day, Julie and Matt (her son) come back to the tree lot and Julie and Nick, hired by Clem to be the "muscle", officially meet. Clem seems to have a bit of matchmaker in him and at the end of the day he sends Nick to deliver a tree to an address belonging to Julie to the surprise of them both.
Giant Nutcracker Sighting: There is a life-size Nutcracker at Clem's tree lot that can be seen while Clem is being interviewed by the reporter toward the beginning of the movie and also towards the end of the movie while Nick is on the phone.
Obligatory moment of snark/personal rant: Let's start by saying that these characters for the most part seem like real people with relatively normal lives. Yes, Nick is a "rich" guy with all the trappings of that life but it fits since he was an investment banker and from a well off family... but his character is not used to represent Scrooge or an overly pompous rude rich guy. He is played just like a relatively normal kind of guy. This is refreshing to see in a Hallmark movie. I also really like that Julie is the one that asks Nick for a dinner date. Another thing that I found refreshing was that Julie's son, Matt, is her adopted son. They seem to be really pushing away from some of the typical Hallmark stereotypes with their characterizations in this movie. I understand that there needs to be a conflict for the story arc to work but I appreciate the fact that there are no exes that show up. The conflict is the result of Julie's own sensitivity regarding her current financial situation and the fact that she is open and honest with Nick about it provides the opportunity for Nick to reflect on his past and the person he wants to be. The conflict also doesn't create a real impasse between them. I know that there are some questions and issues left unexplained surrounding how her dad's medical bills would impact Julie financially. In my mind, I kind of think of it less that it creates trouble for Julie's financial position but more likely creates issues regarding his estate (and any inheritance) for which she is probably the executor. There is also a touching scene between Nick and his dad that stays on the right side of being too sentimental and sappy. You know that these characters are all "good" people because they spend their Christmas Eve with family and friends and giving "gifts" to each other. Fear not, this movie ends with a kiss, as all good Hallmark movies should. Although they really should invest in better green screen editing because the background for the kiss and finale really does look like a painted backdrop instead of a realistic cityscape. I bet they paid a lot of money for the poor effect. They could have just used an interior set for the background and had a better and cheaper result.
Hallmark Movie Connection: Autumn and Jesse are not new to Hallmark or to working with each other. They previously starred together in A Country Wedding (2015). Autumn also appeared in Valentine Ever After (2016) with Eric Johnson. Jesse also appears in the Hallmark series Chesapeake Shores (2016-ongoing) with Meghan Ory.
I really liked the feeling that I was watching seemingly real people trying to manuever through their lives without it feeling overly contrived. Let me know how you felt.
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