Tropes that are prevalent in this theme include:
2024 rating system:
🎄Terrible. DNF.
🎄🎄 Not the greatest. Won’t watch again.
🎄🎄🎄Good to great. I enjoyed it.
🎄🎄🎄🎄 New favorite. I can watch over and over.
The Holiday (2006) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
To escape their romance troubles, A Hollywood-entertainment type and a British journalist decides to swap homes for their Christmas vacations. Of course both find love and or a sense of self and purpose. This is not a B-level cheesy holiday romance like I normally watch. It is an A+ level holiday romance with A-list stars, and a well-known romantic comedy writer-director. And it is so good! The holiday makes it into my favorites.
- Opposites attract: Perfectionist and/or difficult person (often a woman) vs carefree and/or sloppy person (often a man)
- Shared goal: Usually, save the inn or business.
- Stranded: stuck in the same place together
- Location gap: Oh no! We like each other, but we both don’t live in the same place. Who’s going to sacrifice?
- Career vs. love
I thought I didn’t like the cheesy whimsical music that is often part of romance productions. Upon further thought and watching, it’s not that the music is bad, it’s more that when poorly placed, the cheesy whimsical music stands out and takes over the scene instead of blending into the production. When music is good in a movie, you either don’t notice it or it defines the scene in a good way. Bad music supervision is a sign of a lower level production. After watching tons and tons of cheesy romances, as soon as I recognize bad music supervision, I am put off.
It’s also really nice when the productions are filmed in real snow. It makes the movie more beautiful to look at and heartwarming. Most of the movies I watched in this marathon had real snow, which I am assuming it’s a sign of more productions being filmed in Canada. Thank you, Canada.
It’s also really nice when the productions are filmed in real snow. It makes the movie more beautiful to look at and heartwarming. Most of the movies I watched in this marathon had real snow, which I am assuming it’s a sign of more productions being filmed in Canada. Thank you, Canada.
Along with all these new-to-me movies, I also rewatched Love Hard (Originally watched in 2021). I didn't take notes, but I still consider it well-produced and rewatchable. It also is on theme, since the female lead travels to meet the male lead. Of course I watched Spirit of Christmas and, yes, it is still my favorite holiday romance that also just so happens to fit the theme: Its about an inn! Yes!
2024 rating system:
🎄Terrible. DNF.
🎄🎄 Not the greatest. Won’t watch again.
🎄🎄🎄Good to great. I enjoyed it.
🎄🎄🎄🎄 New favorite. I can watch over and over.
The Holiday (2006) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
To escape their romance troubles, A Hollywood-entertainment type and a British journalist decides to swap homes for their Christmas vacations. Of course both find love and or a sense of self and purpose. This is not a B-level cheesy holiday romance like I normally watch. It is an A+ level holiday romance with A-list stars, and a well-known romantic comedy writer-director. And it is so good! The holiday makes it into my favorites.
- Tropes: Fling to love • Love to overcome romantic scars
- How’d you watch it? Amazon Prime
- Fits the theme? Yes. Multiple people visiting another place.
A Heidelberg Holiday (2023) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
An American artist who makes glass ornaments gets a chance to visit her ancestral home and set up shop in the famed Heidelberg holiday market. While in Heidelberg, she stays with a nice family, the oldest son, also an artisan-artist, is her guide to the city and culture. Will she be a success at the market and in love?!
This is a unique and interesting story. Hallmark destination movies can be relied on to bring the beautiful authentic locations.
There is solid chemistry between the romantic leads, a sprinkling of comedic relief, and the point of conflicts are logical and resolved in a good way. Cheers to the writers! Other than the unnecessary use of the whimsical music, this was a great holiday romance.
The Winter Palace (2022) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A writer’s friend offers her the opportunity to house-sit a winter lodge in order to help her overcome her writer’s block. The owner of the lodge, the prince of an fictional foreign country who’s struggling with his royal responsibilities, shows up surprisingly, and the two figure out how to help each other.
This movie is a cross between the story of what happened after the abdication of King George and a cheesy royal HolRom. It’s actually pretty good. Excellent production with authentic sets and personal styling. The writing and acting is well done. They made this a lovely heartwarming romance worth rewatching.
Danica McKellar of Wonder Years fame, is now a cheesy romance queen. I’ve enjoyed her previously in Love At the Christmas Table (watched in 2019 marathon).
All Is Bright (2013) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Did you know there is a Christmas movie starring Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd?
A French-Canadian burglar out on parole, Dennis played by Giamatti , cajoles his former partner that didn’t get caught, Rene played by Rudd, to repay him by partnering in a Christmas tree selling venture. Added conflict: While Dennis was locked up, Rene began seriously dating Dennis’ ex-wife. Ouch!
All is Bright has the same sensibility of some other movies I truly enjoy that feature Paul Giamatti, such as Sideways and The Holdovers, but is surprisingly not by the same director.
This movie also have an excellent cast with appearances by Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Coleman Domingo (Rustin), Darren Goldstein (Ozark) and Morgan Spector (The Gilded Age).
There must be something about Christmas tree lots that makes excellent movies, because I have seen a few and they’re all good: Holly Star (watched in 2019 marathon), Christmas, Again (watched in 2020 marathon).
An American artist who makes glass ornaments gets a chance to visit her ancestral home and set up shop in the famed Heidelberg holiday market. While in Heidelberg, she stays with a nice family, the oldest son, also an artisan-artist, is her guide to the city and culture. Will she be a success at the market and in love?!
This is a unique and interesting story. Hallmark destination movies can be relied on to bring the beautiful authentic locations.
There is solid chemistry between the romantic leads, a sprinkling of comedic relief, and the point of conflicts are logical and resolved in a good way. Cheers to the writers! Other than the unnecessary use of the whimsical music, this was a great holiday romance.
- Tropes: Destination movie • Shared goal: Save her business • Location gap
- How’d you watch it? Hallmark via Netflix
- Fits the theme? Yes. The female lead travels to and gets to know another city.
The Winter Palace (2022) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
A writer’s friend offers her the opportunity to house-sit a winter lodge in order to help her overcome her writer’s block. The owner of the lodge, the prince of an fictional foreign country who’s struggling with his royal responsibilities, shows up surprisingly, and the two figure out how to help each other.
This movie is a cross between the story of what happened after the abdication of King George and a cheesy royal HolRom. It’s actually pretty good. Excellent production with authentic sets and personal styling. The writing and acting is well done. They made this a lovely heartwarming romance worth rewatching.
Danica McKellar of Wonder Years fame, is now a cheesy romance queen. I’ve enjoyed her previously in Love At the Christmas Table (watched in 2019 marathon).
- Tropes: Shared goal: save the lodge and write a book • Royalty romance
- How’d you watch it? Freevee
- Fits the theme? Yes. Both leads travel to the location. That’s enough.
All Is Bright (2013) 🎄🎄🎄🎄
Did you know there is a Christmas movie starring Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd?
A French-Canadian burglar out on parole, Dennis played by Giamatti , cajoles his former partner that didn’t get caught, Rene played by Rudd, to repay him by partnering in a Christmas tree selling venture. Added conflict: While Dennis was locked up, Rene began seriously dating Dennis’ ex-wife. Ouch!
All is Bright has the same sensibility of some other movies I truly enjoy that feature Paul Giamatti, such as Sideways and The Holdovers, but is surprisingly not by the same director.
This movie also have an excellent cast with appearances by Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Coleman Domingo (Rustin), Darren Goldstein (Ozark) and Morgan Spector (The Gilded Age).
There must be something about Christmas tree lots that makes excellent movies, because I have seen a few and they’re all good: Holly Star (watched in 2019 marathon), Christmas, Again (watched in 2020 marathon).
- How’d you watch it? Hoopla
- Fits the theme? Yep. There is a road trip from Canada to NYC involved.
Silent Night (2021) 🎄🎄🎄
Old friends gather at an English country house for Christmas, but an ominous cloud looms over the festivities. There is a spoiler I will not give up, but this movie doesn’t end well. Dark dramedy starring Kiera Knightley and Matthew Goode.
- How’d you watch it? Netflix
- Fits the theme? Yes. The first third was a lot of road trip scenes.
A Very British Christmas (2019) 🎄🎄🎄
An American opera singer is stranded for days in an English country village. She stays in a B&B owned and operated by a handsome widower with his mother and daughter who are in a fight against a developer to keep their land and maintain the character of the village. Will she fall for the widower? Will she fall in love with the village? More importantly, can she save them?! Authentic locations and styling when in the village. This and some other British productions use a technique where they over expose the natural light scenes. I don’t like when they do that. That and some other parts give this movie a cheap feel.
The main character is supposed to be an opera singer, but she never sings. What a waste of story potential.
- Tropes: Shared goal: save the inn • Career vs. love • Stranded
- How’d you watch it? Hoopla
- Fits the theme? Yes. A travel mishap lands the main character in the village. And she spends a good amount of time on the phone with the airline.
Ready to read more? Click here to go to 2024 Holiday Movie Marathon Part 2
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