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Keywords

Hallmark, Christmas movies, movie review, family dynamics, character analysis, holiday traditions, miscommunication, predictions, plot overview, film ratings

Summary

In this episode of the Hallmark Movie Review, Nick and Leslie discuss the premiere of 'A Blind Christmas Date.' They share their predictions based on the title, analyze the characters and plot, and delve into family dynamics and holiday traditions. The conversation highlights themes of miscommunication and conflict, ultimately leading to their ratings and final thoughts on the film.

Transcript

Nick And Leslie (01:08.564)
Alright, so everyone welcome to our, I guess, second episode of the Hallmark Movie Review. I am joined by my wonderful wife, Leslie. Say hi. Hello! Hi. So, yeah, so today we are going to be talking about yesterday's Hallmark Movie premiere, which was called, was the date before Christmas? A blind Christmas date, yeah. Blind Christmas date.

So based on just the title alone, we tried to make some predictions. And Leslie came to the conclusion that a dating app was going to be used. And I launched onto that. And yes, we decided that was true. We figured because there's a dating app involved, both people are from the big city. That was our prediction. And we were right about that. At one point, I played with the prediction that maybe it would be like a you've got mail situation.

where they don't realize, or like the guy eventually realizes that he's from the big company that's trying to tear down the little company. There was a little bit of that in the end. Also, we talked about who would be the main character's side or setting and it was the woman's and that's what we agreed on too. It was her family. Yeah, that's true. I mean, yeah, it's almost always the woman is the main character, but yes.

Good thing we got that prediction. We've seen plenty that it's the man's family. they're going to. Yeah. Also, you know, the Christmas Prince. Hello. There's that. I know it's not necessarily Hallmark, but it's a Christmas movie. But the woman's still the main character of the Christmas No, it's the, what I'm referring to is whose side that we're talking about. Also, there's been plenty where it's the man that owns the Holiday Inn. you're right. Yeah. Yes. And the Christmas Cabin. It's his family's.

Alpine cottage Shelly. Well, how'd you feel in general about this being the first Hallmark holiday movie of the season? Good start? It was good start. It was a good start. We got to dip our toes into the water. I liked it, but it is not going to be, I think, my favorite at all. So I'm hoping that there's going to be some more. There is going to be better ones. That will be my favorite.

Nick And Leslie (03:32.096)
I think it's funny how these movies tend to be like, I guess all the plot is in like the first five minutes and then the rest is all just like vibes more or less. Cause like we missed the first five minutes and had to like go back and rewatch it this morning. missed the first 18 minutes. First 18 minutes. Okay. 18 minutes. But like all of that set up, all that plot happens so fast in the beginning. It did. It really did happen quickly.

And we were like patching it together when we had a moment to think, because we can't pause. And apologies if our microphones are picking up our dog playing with his toy. He's very dramatic right now. Yes. I guess he liked the movie. He did. So let's talk about the main actors. They were Brian and Jesse. And I don't remember the actors' names, but the characters were Brian and Jesse. I didn't recognize them from any other movies. I did not either. No.

Maybe they're new to this year's, but I'm sure we'll be seeing them throughout the season. Yeah. So I thought Brian was way better than Jesse as like a character. Jesse just seemed kind of like a wet blanket to me. She was just like a stand in for someone who should have had more charm. But Brian was, he was a charm.

How do you feel? I guess I'm not, I didn't really like think of that. I did like her facial expressions. You know, sometimes we don't really want to see our mothers cry because we're like, ugh, not that we feel bad, but it's like, okay, here we go again. Her face said it all. thought I'm like, yeah, that's my face too. There's also gonna be full spoilers for this plot too. So yeah, full spoilers. Yeah. So.

I, she, she was a bad communicator. Let's, let's start out with that. Yeah. And, but I don't understand what was giving her the pressure that she was under having to find a date for. I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself on this. Well, okay. So the quick plot is,

Nick And Leslie (05:49.182)
Her family does a very elaborate Christmas and it's the Christmas Olympics. The Christmas, the Chamberlain Christmas Olympics. Yeah. And, she gets word that like, everyone's kind of sad this year because we find out by the end of the movie, her fiance died. Fiance of they've been together for a while. They were engaged for a few years, so they had to have dated. So he was in the family. Yeah. And it seemed like he died just.

Recently, less than a year. And what's weird too is like she seemed fine with it, but everyone else in the family was heartbroken and wanted to cancel Christmas. And she's like, you can't cancel Christmas because I'm bringing a date. Really? Wow, that's exciting. But the family's trying to get her to accept that change is a good thing. Of course, change can be a good thing, but also why are we having to change something when it's someone's first?

after someone, after losing someone. I just felt like that was a rush on everyone. The plot was a little convoluted to get to what they really wanted to tell the story was, was a blind date, family Christmas, which in itself is great, but I think they could have probably done a better job to get to that point. Yeah, I mean, but I guess it's the whole point. We're trying to figure it out at the end.

If this was the 90s, would have been someone lost a bet and they had to go on a blind date Christmas. also, Hallmark's trope is miscommunication. Yeah, that's true. People are lacking of the communication. But yeah, I did think it was a way that the whole family was more sad about...

There's one point where her brother's like, can't believe we're all trying to act like this is normal. then that brother was very emotional. He always was on the brink of crying is what his face looked like. Meanwhile, the main character, Jesse, didn't seem that heartbroken about a lost fiance. No, honestly. Like, why are people wanting to get over someone so quickly? But also her family wasn't listening to her at the same time for what she wanted to begin with.

Nick And Leslie (07:56.64)
The mom automatically only listened to her when the mom got her way. So, Boomer parents. So, let's kind of just go down some of our notes we can alternate. I'll go first. My first note is rhubarb pie. So, like, their safe word was rhubarb pie, which I thought was adorable. Yeah, it's adorable. And then come to find out later, she's deathly allergic to rhubarb?

That would have been useful. You did not. think you need to know it because I mean, first of all, if I'm deathly allergic to something and that food is made every year, what could happen and you could consume it and every year at this Christmas party, every year at this Christmas party, the stepfather makes a rhubarb pie. And, but again, Jesse is deathly allergic to it. So when you're definitely allergic to something, is that automatically mean like when it's

floating in the air. Like you're in the same room with it, like airborne, like you're gonna still, I don't know what. I think it depends on the ingredient. Like I don't think rhubarb has spores, peanuts don't either. So that's what I'm like, what's the deathly allergic amount? But you should be telling someone, especially if you're faking being their date, which we. And like if you're already bringing up the subject of rhubarb pie by picking a safe word, you should say, by the way, I'm allergic to it.

We got really ahead to rhubarb pie. to begin with there was miscommunication, not miscommunication, anyway, Jess said she was bringing someone to the Christmas party to make her mother happy. And the mom said, I can't wait to see what ends up being a fake boyfriend. she says bow or something. I can't remember. But anyway, so everyone then assumes that Jess is bringing a boyfriend.

And she does not disclose that to Brian, the fake boyfriend, until they meet the family at the front step, very cute house that the entire thing's filmed in. then so the family goes, we were so excited to meet Jesse's boyfriend. And then Brian went along with it. So now they went in the house and they started quickly realizing.

Nick And Leslie (10:14.026)
hey, we need to fake this relationship to make the family happy. It's just for one day, let's do it. And then they came up with a safe word when they become too uncomfortable in a situation, which is rhubarb pie. So one thing that I don't usually see in Hallmark movies that I did see in this one was, it's probably weird to bring this up, but like the guy was the passenger and she was driving. That's all. I just don't see that a lot in Hallmark movies. It's usually a guy driving and a girl's a passenger. I don't remember that part.

I thought they were going to the house and she drove. So I'm going to back up a minute real quick. So I liked in the beginning, you know, we know their occupations right off the bat. So he works for a real estate development company and then she is marketing in fiber optics. Yeah, it's choice. It's an interesting choice, but it made us laugh a few times when they said fiber optics and there was a fiber optic commercial that was going on too. usually in these Hallmark movies, someone is in marketing.

So yeah, someone's always in, marketing, but whenever, you know, just a couple of things that we like seeing in hallmark movies right off the bat, had our chestnut street vendor. yeah. Just on the side of what potentially could be Chicago almost the way it seemed. like to imagine that it's the same street vendor in every hallmark. This one seemed kind of young, so they might be on a new crowd for their vendors. so I liked.

also early, how Brian is like, he's super into Jessie. I mean, other than her being cute, I don't think she's really bringing much to the table, but he's like really infatuated. as soon as she's like, by the way, we need to pretend you're my boyfriend. Like the moment after that, the first time they get a second alone together, he's like, you smell amazing. So it's significant. yeah, was going Biden on just met.

Yeah, he was biting her apart. was it was quite funny and it ended up being the candles that are everywhere which by the way if you are in a very large house why do you have candles in every room constantly burning? Fire hazard. That sounds terrifying. Fire hazard, yes and there's so much garland. The place is beautiful, there's garland everywhere, it's hallmarked done and just seems terrifying.

Nick And Leslie (12:33.584)
So the first game in the Christmas Olympics was someone hides the star. Well to begin with, this all takes place Christmas Eve day. It is the longest day. If I had a day this long, would be exa... People must love their family so much to spend... And like at one point they go on like a two hour trip to go shopping for popsicles. We're getting way ahead. Anyway, it's the longest Christmas Eve day.

Okay. yeah, was a... When was the violin happening? Violin? Yeah, when they were... It was before the rhubarb pie. yeah, it was after... For some reason they were, yeah, on a walk and the violinist just jumped out of nowhere and it scared me. yeah, that was later on. That's when they need to fix the ornament that they broke. And then they go... They get the popsicles and then they have like another two hours to just walk around town.

Because they're waiting for their bake to be done. That's right. No, but I thought that was after the fact anyway Okay, I put my note in a different place. Sorry. I'm going so I thought that the first game was cute Someone has to hide the treetop or star somewhere in the house whoever finds it gets to put it on top of the tree I thought that was cute mm-hmm, and then they have the opening ceremony for the Christmas Olympics What was that was the opening ceremony?

That was not the opening was the, that you can't start the Olympics until the star is on the tree. So what was the ceremony? It was the Aunt Lily. Yeah, Aunt Lily. She was revealing, remember the chart, the beautifully framed everyone's name. like the points. As well, yeah, as the categories that they were doing of the events. And what was new this year was the spinning wheel to choose the events at random. right, right, yeah.

So, Jesse's stepfather, we didn't see the credits and it's not listed in IMDB, but I'm pretty sure he was played by Canadian comedian Sean Cullen. He looked like that picture he showed me in his wannabe Nancy Myers kitchen. So like I listen to Sean Cullen stand up so much in high school. He does this hilarious...

Nick And Leslie (14:59.914)
bit where he's like a priest doing comedy. Anyways, it's funny. Okay, please take that out. Anyways, so, the, there are seven events. The food that he was baking looked totally fake. There were like fake cakes in the kitchen, fake cupcakes that all looked like plastic to me. Lily's dramatic. What other note do you have? Okay. I mean, so we find out Brian hates Christmas and his, and that's when we find out.

Brian gets a call from his developer saying, hey, our attorneys are going to be sending out the eviction notice to the one tenant that's left in this building for them to change into affordable housing. And that tenant is the owner of Warm Hearts Candles, which is Shelly, Jesse's sister-in-law. And so Brian is on the phone with the interim CEO saying that the attorneys will be sending it out tonight.

That's when Brian finds out that he's with the shop owner. So yeah, a lot of questions about that. One is like, why are they gonna send an eviction letter out at like 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve? Longest day. And then second, they keep saying letter, yet she gets it as an email like 10 minutes later on her phone. So she's also checking her email on her phone.

Well, she also could be like you and have every notification pop up on their phone. that's true. like, now I don't know anything about this, but like, did she not have a lease? If you buy a building, don't you have to honor the existing leases? I mean, it's a different state. I'm assuming this is clearly not Florida as well as their commercial could be different. And who knows what occurred with like

Anyway. so, also plot wise, it's an interesting choice that they didn't make the main character, Jessie, be the shop owner or like even a private partner or something. I guess because they figured like it would have come up early that she makes candles. So like then they couldn't have made that be a surprise thing by the end of it. Yeah, they need someone in fiber optics. That's true. That was important. It was very important. Yeah.

Nick And Leslie (17:21.492)
But in a way, I kind of like how it brought in another character. It's also interesting to me that the stepfather is an important character, the sister-in-law is an important character, their children are characters. It's not like there's a mother, but there's no father.

There's only one brother and she seems a lot closer with her sister-in-law than her brother. Wait, what mean there's no father? Like, you don't say, like, they don't say what occurred with the father? Is that what you're saying? I mean, like, he's not part of the cast. Like, he may be dead or whatever. It's just, I'm saying it's weird that it's like marriage bonds are just as strong in this character ensemble as familiar blood, like, relative bonds. I just thought it was interesting. I mean...

I think a marriage bond is stronger than familiar bond. No.

Nick And Leslie (18:21.982)
What I'm saying is, it doesn't matter, we'll move on. yeah, and then Grandpa shows up. That was weird. Grandpa only comes for the food. So, like, when he shows up, she's like, let me warn you, Grandpa's kind of weird. And... What did we miss? And then he's like, weirder than your family, and she's like, touche. He has one line the entire movie. Which is, he's taller than Steven. Right, and then we're like,

Who's Steven? that's right. We forgot about this mystery letter. Christmas. That did not need to be part of the book all. Some letter that I guess her fiance wrote her about Christmas. Right before he passed. I don't know. Yeah. First Christmas without him. I'm sure he was like, I hope you get boned on the Christmas after me or something. When the Olympics. Yeah, something like that. Yeah. So on the Olympics, you know, they have the, you know, going to finding the star.

And as well as there is a baking competition, a snowball dodge ball game, a couple's quiz, a wrapping contest, a walk in the woods. Yeah. They it's the participation. Christmas karaoke. Yeah. I thought the brother looked like the kind of actor you'd see in like an insurance commercial is like the silly guy who comes in to try and get insurance on his boat. I don't know.

He just had like a commercial actor face. his face was always wanting to cry. I got tired of looking I wrote, little boy is cute. Which one is that? Maybe one of the nephew? There's only one little boy, nephew. That's right. yeah, so then they break an ornament on a tree by mistake. yeah, sentimental. We all have, I'm sure those thumb depressor frames that we made as children decorated with

Christmas random buttons and bows. So they accidentally break the ornament. I remember they were doing something very silly. That's where they were. See, that's what it was in the beginning. They broke the ornament whenever they were looking for the star, which was prior to the Olympics, and they had to go get the wood glue to go. So it was before the Olympics started. They went and got the wood glue, and that's where the violinist popped out of nowhere and like scared me.

Nick And Leslie (20:46.656)
And then he's like playing jingle bells and his fingers aren't even moving. But he's all up in everyone's face. And then so there was the, so when there's also the baking competition and while they were waiting for everything to bake, they're like, well, let's go to town. Go into town, guess. And although I can't tell if this is a big city or a small town. See, I feel like- Or are they in the suburbs? Yeah. So I think it's like they're in the big city and-

then just maybe 45 minutes out of town is where her family lives. Something like that. All right. Broken ornament. They were gone for hours waiting for the bake to be done, it seems like. The snowballs looked very fake in that snowball play. Yeah, they did not break whenever they hit someone. I wrote, what the fuck, Andrew?

Andrew's the brother who is constantly he's the one that had an emotional breakdown. That's right. Whenever they revealed who the after the sister-in-law Shelley got the eviction notice and then they found out that the developer was Brian. So and surely did a great like

She tried not to ruin everyone's Christmas. Yeah, she was very secretive about it. Not in a bad way, but I don't want to ruin people's Christmas. Exactly. Like give it a minute. She should have been the main character. Shelling was good. Yeah, I liked her. Grandpa had one line. I royalty free non-descript music. that's right. So the brother Andrew.

has this elaborate like he's like, I do the lights to match to the music. So when they find it's the closing ceremony. Yeah, the closing ceremony. So when he finally does his light show presentation, it is royalty free music, which I thought was funny because like you'd expect, you know, like a Mannheim steamroller or something because he was refusing to do his light ceremony because he was just so distraught of the finding of it. And was after also everyone apologized. What?

Nick And Leslie (22:50.698)
my god. and they found out that it was a blind date. And he was like, we had a stranger in our house this entire time. So I feel like if this had been a Tennessee Williams play, jeez, then Andrew would have been in the secret gay relationship with the dead fiance. And that's why he was taking everything so hard. that's hilarious. Because that's kind of like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Yeah, I like to imagine that's the subtext that's going on here. Andrew and Sean.

Yeah, and so he's pretending he's distraught about the candle shop being evicted, but really it's his lover is no longer there to spend Christmas with him. And then I wrote Aunt Laziest Love Stories because it turns out that the Uber driver is actually her boyfriend. I don't know why she had to keep that a secret. I don't know. I don't know. So overall,

How do you feel about this as in the pantheon of Hallmark Christmas?

I'm always surprised at the storylines that they can come up with. Also this said, inspired by a true story. so I don't know if I've ever seen that an intro. So now I'm like, well, now I gotta pay attention to see if it's inspired by a true story. We somehow always manage to miss the first minute of the movie. You're running around trying to get everything, your sweet treat and take a seat.

I, I'm impressed by the, the storyline. but you know, it's a, it's a good middle of the road. I will, I want to say I probably...

Nick And Leslie (24:42.184)
So as less as your breath. I just threw up coffee. I think it's It's middle of the road for me. Yeah. It's not off half. It's definitely not as bad as the Christmas movie about the obstetrician. The... no.

The colorblind guy? The colorblind guy, Colors of Christmas. That's the worst one. It's not as bad as the one about the dog shelter owner. It doesn't really feature any dogs or dog shelters. was ridiculous. But it's not as good as Hall Out the Holly. my gosh. was hardly any comedy and the comedy that was there was just people trying to do things funny rather than well-written stuff. So the writing, I gave it a three. It just barely got the plot across, I felt.

Acting, I gave that a 4 out of 10. A couple of people were good, but kid actors are always going to bring things down. And then directing, I gave it a 5. They didn't try anything complex. They didn't do any dramatic set pieces. Everything was in just two rooms and one stroll. yeah. Overall, is a below average film. But hallmark-wise, it's average.

Agreed. So any final thoughts? No. Well, I'm excited. I'll be watching the careers of these actors intently. Well, check back at the next one, The Holiday Crashers. Yeah. I don't know if we're going to be able to review all the movies this year, but we are going to try. Yes. All right. Thank you all so much.