If You Watch One Holiday Movie This Weekend: Hallmark Channel’s Round and Round Is Our Pick
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With Hallmark Channel’s annual Countdown to Christmas and Lifetime’s It’s a Wonderful Lifetime now in full swing, and Great American Family and other networks loading their sleighs, we’re here to help you choose between the season’s many offerings. Each week, we’ll spotlight the movie that should be at the top of your weekend list and preview why other debuts will make you merry.
THE ONE TO WATCH
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Round and Round
(Premieres Sunday, Dec. 10 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel)
It’s Groundhog Day meets Hanukkah in this multi-generational rom-com that’s actually romantic and funny. Vic Michaelis stars as assistant literary editor Rachel, who finds herself reliving the seventh day of Hanukkah, when her parents (Suits’ Rick Hoffman and Nicole Oliver) throw an annual party that also celebrates the night they met. To figure out how to stop the loop, she enlists the help of the one person she thinks will believe her: stranger Zach (Bryan Greenberg), a Dungeons & Dragons-loving artist who bumped into her at the train station and made her spill her boxes of sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts) before he showed up at the party, having given her grandmother Rosie (Paula Shaw) a ride.
The clever script, by Tamar Laddy, imagines how someone who’s seen Groundhog Day might really react: how Rachel would convince Zach, day after day, that he’s already onboard with her story; what small moments she’d try to change; which big aspects of her life she’d eventually have to confront (her narcissist boyfriend, her shelved aspirations as a writer); how she’d feel logging all those memories with Zach that he forgets; and what other geeks they might need to pull into her mess. Michaelis and Greenberg have a crackling chemistry, with her intensity balancing that sexy calm of his that reels you in. And there’s a great twist at the end that you won’t see coming. (Watch TVLine’s exclusive sneak peek here.)
Runner-Up: Christmas on Cherry Lane
If you miss This Is Us, our runner-up pick, Christmas on Cherry Lane (premiering Saturday, Dec. 9 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel) is for you. Without spoiling too much, we can say the film follows three families on Christmas Eve: An expectant couple (Erin Cahill and John Brotherton) who haven’t even unpacked the boxes in their new house when their loved ones barge in for the holidays; a widow (Catherine Bell) who learns her adult kids aren’t thrilled at the idea of her selling their childhood home and moving to Florida with her new fiancé (James Denton); and husbands (Jonathan Bennett and Vincent Rodriguez III) whose stress levels are already high preparing to host a dinner party with an unfinished kitchen remodel when they get the long-awaited call to foster a child. You’ll want to spend commercials guessing the connection between the families, but try to just enjoy the heartfelt reveals as they come, Bennett’s brilliant exasperated glares, and the fourth use of a Cher Christmas song in a Hallmark movie this season.
The Best of the Rest…
Your Christmas or Mine 2 (Streaming Friday, Dec. 8 on Prime Video)
In this sequel, young lovers James (Asa Butterfield) and Hayley (Cora Kirk) head to Austria with their families for a holiday vacation in the Alps. Things get off to a rocky start when the posh and working class clans accidentally swap accommodations. Jane Krakowski joins the fun as Diane, the sophisticated girlfriend of James’ lord father and the author of the bestseller How to Get What the F You Want. She’s a scene-stealer through the credits, when she does karaoke.
A Cowboy Christmas Romance (Premieres Saturday, Dec. 9 at 8 pm on Lifetime)
The steamiest cable movie of the season! Real estate closer and former barrel racing champion Lexie (Jana Kramer) returns to her Arizona hometown for the first time in 10 years to try to convince third generation rancher/single dad Coby (Adam Senn) to sell his family’s land. When they’re not arguing or having a roll in the hay (!), she’s off fighting with her rancher father (Bruce Thomas), who forced her out of their family business a decade ago. The tension is real, but the ending is happy.
Rescuing Christmas (Streaming now on Hallmark Movies Now)
Santa’s elves’ plan to boost Christmas cheer by secretly granting one person three wishes backfires when Duluth photographer Erin (Rachael Leigh Cook) asks for a break from Christmas and it ceases to exist. Desperate to return the joy to others, Erin attempts to reintroduce traditions to her family and the city, but she’ll have to remember what she loved about the holiday in order to save it. Sam Page costars as Erin’s blind date-turned-trusting cohort.
Magic in Mistletoe (Premieres Friday, December 8 at 8 pm on Hallmark Channel)
Harrington Davis (Paul Campbell), the now-jaded author of the titular bestselling book series, makes headlines for proclaiming Christmas a scam on social media. To win back his alienated readers on the eve of his latest release, publicist April (Lyndie Greenwood) forces him to attend the hometown festivities that inspired his novels. There’s some quality banter and a few predictable arguments that Greenwood and the always great Campbell make go down as smoothly as a hot toddy.
Silent Night, Fatal Night (Premieres Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8 pm on LMN)
Here’s a fun, twisted change of pace. After best-selling mystery writer Mallory Dearborn (Alex Camacho) decides to end her popular detective franchise, her money-hungry agent Michael (Matthew Pohlkamp) holds her hostage at his family’s festively-decorated cabin and forces her to write one more novel before Christmas — that he can release posthumously. Pohlkamp is appropriately campy and chilling; Camacho is believably crafty and defiant.
To All a Good Night (Premieres Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8 pm and repeats Saturday, Dec. 9 at 10 pm on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries)
The ever wonderful Kimberley Sustad stars as small-town photographer Ceci, who saves the life of Army vet-turned-real estate developer Sam (Mark Ghanimé) when he crashes his motorcycle near the land she inherited from her late father. The dramatic meet-cute gets further complicated by her grief, his reasons for being in town, a kleptomaniac dog, and the most terrifying Santa collectible we’ve seen in recent years.
Christmas of Yes (Premieres Sunday, Dec. 9 at 9 pm on OWN)
When driven, workaholic marketing exec Amy (Michele Weaver, who should do more TV movies) loses her job two weeks before Christmas, her brother Phil (Ian Collins) challenges her to say “yes” to everything through the new year, starting with an invitation to an improv show where she meets science and math teacher Nico (Jeff Pierre). As endearing as their opposites-attract love story is, Amy reconnecting with her alcoholic mother (Catherine Lough Haggquist) leaves the lasting impression.
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Yes, Chef! Christmas (Premieres Sunday, Dec. 10 at 8 pm on Lifetime)
Yes, it’s set in Chicago! Self-taught chef Alicia’s (Tia Mowry) career has stalled… until she gets the chance to compete in a prestigious three-course Christmas cookoff that pairs her with a prickly mentor, chef Logan (Luke Humphrey). As she regains her confidence, and he recaptures his love of the holidays, adopted Alicia also takes a DNA test with shocking results. No, not that shocking!
Meet Me Under the Mistletoe (Premieres Saturday, Dec. 9 at 8 pm on Great American Family)
Two realtors who prefer to work alone, fast-moving Eva (Sarah Fisher) and slow-and-steady Grinch Jeff (Simon Arblaster), are forced to team up to sell the home of a renowned botanist (Jan Skene) who also happens to grow their town’s famous mistletoe: More than 10 couples who’ve had their first kiss under it have gotten engaged. A conventional plot but well-acted.
Peppermints & Postcards (Premieres Sunday, Dec. 10 at 8 pm on Great American Family)
Small-time TV reporter Chet (Christopher Russell) needs a story to go national to get a promotion. A child’s letter to Santa asking for her single mom Cara (Ella Cannon) to find love at Christmas is his ticket. As Chet sets reluctant #SantaMom up on dates, it becomes clear he’s the one with whom she sparks. The movie does a nice job of showing a blended family: Cara invites her ex and his likable French fiancée to stay for a month!
Never Alone For Christmas (Streaming now on BET+)
Advertising exec Lauren (Mignon Von) calls her off engagement to vet tech Miles (Allen Maldonado) because she requires a more serious man, like fellow power player Preston (Travis LaBranch). When they all end up at Ms. Ramona’s (Macy Gray) Cajun Christmas event in New Orleans, Lauren finds herself reconsidering her choice and wearing a dress that would never pass Hallmark censors.
Christmas at the Amish Bakery (Premieres Sunday, Dec. 10 at 7 pm on UPtv)
Under pressure to save her job in an office with such bad holiday decorations you’ll never complain about Hallmark’s avalanche again, book editor Sarah (Alexandra Harris) returns to her Amish community in Kentucky with plans to talk her sister into doing an Amish cookbook for her company. But then the family bakery needs saving, too!
Christmas as Usual (Streaming now on Netflix)
Norwegian Thea (Ida Ursin-Holm) takes her new Indian fiancé, Jashan (Kanan Gill), home to meet her family and a clash of ice baths and spicy food ensues. You won’t love her mother’s reaction, or Thea’s decision to hide the engagement, but the turnaround, when it finally comes, is heartwarming.
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