Write Before Christmas premiered on Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas on November 17th and stars Torrey DeVitto (Jessica) and Chad Michael Murray (Luke). There are a number of actors you will also recognize in supporting roles.
RATING (out of 5): 🎄🎄🎄🎄 I am very tempted to add a 🌟 (the new 1/2 tree, because 1/2 of a Christmas tree has to be the presence of a star) to this rating because I can definitely see myself rewatching this one. Also, I could easily see a spin off movie starring one of the supporting couples next year. Let's get the gang back together for a sequel, Germany anyone?
General Movie Details: Jessica really wants to spread some holiday cheer to her boyfriend so she buys him 5 very special holiday cards. However, when he dumps her that evening with 2 weeks until Christmas she decides to use those cards to thank 5 people who have had a lasting impact on her life. Those cards effect each recipient's life and their relationships and we get to see how that all plays out in this interconnected web.
Meet Cute Moment: There are a number of meet cute moments in this movie for several of the character couples. I enjoy that the first times we see the main characters they are more like passing ships. I mean they even bump into each other on the sidewalk and apologize and continue on their way with no lasting memory of each other. It is very fitting with the movie and these particular characters.
Giant Nutcracker Sighting: There are two life-size Nutcrackers that flank the doors to Jessica's apartment building that you see glimpses of a few times over the course of the movie.
Notable Knitwear Alert: Warning, there is a bunch of sweet knits in this movie. The costume designer for the movie is Valerie Halverson and I just want to praise her for the use of seasonally stunning sweaters and accessories. This is someone with a vision and a love of knits. Come to find out she's also a Hallmark veteran when I checked out her filmography. Let's talk sweaters... Fair isle yoke sweaters are very on trend this year and we have two great ones to pick from here. Jessica is seen wearing a navy blue yoke sweater with a Norwegian star (selburose) band and an allover lice pattern in white in Strings & Notes about 3 minutes into the movie. Much later we see a white yoke sweater with a Norwegian star band and fair isle around the hem and cuffs in red on one of the girls at the group home. Jessica also dons a green cabled sweater in Strings & Notes about 28 minutes into the movie. The last item that I want to highlight in this movie is neither knitted or a costume... it's a crocheted afghan on the back of Aunt Lila's couch that can be seen when she calls Jessica to thank her for the card. I am not the only one that was enamored with the costume styling as I found a posting on where to buy the items or copy the looks. They chose some different pieces to highlight but you can see just how much knitwear was included.
Obligatory moment of snark/personal rant: So this movie feels to me like it is a relative to the format used in Love Actually or Valentine's Day. All of the films have an ensemble cast and disparate storylines with some character connections. However, they take it a step further in this movie by making Jessica be the character connection with everyone. I visualize this story as a hub and spoke model, anyone else seeing a wire snowflake form in their mind? I think that this works quite well to keep the story more contained and keep Jessica and her storyline at the heart of the movie. I won't deny that this type of story is by nature a bit disjointed and short on character development. I admit that the first 5-10 minutes of the movie are incredibly confusing because you are seeing snippets of scenes with people you aren't introduced to until later in the movie. But I think that a second watching might give the viewer an opportunity to get more from the quick initial snippets we see and the course of the various storylines. Yeah for "legitimate" excuses to rewatch! We have another appearance of an adopted child. In this case, he's a grown adult but it is still a departure from the norm and the writers work adoption and giving back to community into the plot seemlessly. Did I also mention there is a military component to the story too? They really hit all the points with this one. I didn't play Hallmark bingo while watching this one but I should just to see how many boxes on the page can get filled in...
Fear not, this movie is not without it's faults. Let's start with the elephant in my mind... It is 13 days before Christmas and she mails cards to recipients who not only receive the cards but the cards are able to create impactful situations for the recipients. I mean in my world it seems like the mail is extra slow around the holidays and it can take a week or more for mail to make it to it's destination no matter how close. Also, how does Jessica get the home address for former teen boyband member Jax? I know that his brother is his manager, but I doubt that their address is public record regardless of his current status as a has been. Good news for anyone missing it in the last few movies... bring on the Christmas Eve events with this one. In this case, there is even the option to attend multiple Christmas Eve happenings (you go Luke). Primo is hosting a Christmas Eve party at his restaurant. I guess that there are people with nothing to do on Christmas Eve so I guess a party is not that weird but seems like it should be postponed a week for New Year's. The other event is a pop-up reunion concert for Jax and his bandmates. This helps bring the plot back together towards a neatly tied bow but it seems a bit of a stretch that everyone is free for Christmas Eve and to pull off the plan in less than 2 weeks.
Hallmark Movie Connection: Torrey DeVitto was previously seen in Best Christmas Party Ever (2014) with Steve Lund. She seems to be pretty busy with her day job on TV, currently Chicago Med, but maybe she'll have time to co-star in the sequel I'm envisioning for next year. Chad Michael Murray previously starred in Road to Christmas (2018) with Jesse Schram.
Did you enjoy this movie or was it too much (too many storylines) and too little (too little character growth) for you?
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