DECK THE HALLS ON CHERRY LANE (2024)

I'm starting off my week or so of Christmas movie reviews with this gimmicky one from Hallmark. Their series of Cherry Lane movies each feature three Christmas romance stories set in different years in one house on Cherry Lane. The film cuts back and forth between the stories, and by the end, we have seen some direct but hidden connections emerge between the families. The stories: 1) In 1966, single homeowner Stephanie entered a TV station contest and won. The prize is that local variety show host Tommy Saunders will broadcast his show from her home on Christmas Eve. But Stephanie decides her house is too small to fit a TV show crew so she asks neighbor David, a research scientist lacking in social skills, who lives with his fellow scientist Curtis, if she can use his house. He reluctantly agrees but is not happy to be told that he and Stephanie have to pose as husband and wife. 2) In 1981, John invites a business associate and his wife who are house hunting to spend Christmas Eve with him, his wife Lizzie, and their young daughter Ivy. We find out that John has a firm offer to move to Michigan for a better job. We also find out that Lizzie has just found out she's pregnant. They have both kept these secrets from each other, but the potentially clashing secrets eventually come out. 3) In 2000, recently divorced workaholic Rebecca is spending Christmas Eve working from home, but her lifelong best friend Matt has come over and tries to talk her into solving a neighborhood secret: who is it who is anonymously doing nice things for people (shoveling snow, baking cookies, etc.), leaving only an unsigned Christmas card behind? 

Cute idea, though I had a little problem in the beginning keeping track of the time periods as there is not a lot of era differentiation in the sets and costumes. By the 30 minute mark, I had them set in my head. One thing I liked about this format is that we're essentially getting three different stories that don’t really need ninety minutes of time to play out. Each winds up being about thirty minutes and takes place on just one day, Christmas Eve. Some characterization is sacrificed but some padding is also dispensed with. The John and Lizzie story (John Brotherton and Erin Cahill) is the best as it feels fairly real and has the best closure. David (Benjamin Hollingsworth) and Stephanie (Chelsea Hobbs) lack chemistry, and David isn’t nearly as nerdy as he should be. Alex Rose contributes some nice comic relief as Curtis. I love Brooke D’Orsay (Rebecca) and her slightly quirky looks have matured nicely. She clicks well with Sam Page (Matt) as old friends, and the predictable turn to romance at the end feels right. Singer Matt Dusk (who was briefly a kind of rival to Michael Bublé back in the 90s) is fine as TV host Tommy who we're prepped to think will be a jerk but isn't. I also like Jaime M. Callica as Kyle, the business friend of John's. I’m shallow enough to want handsome leading men, and all three here fit the bill, with Brotherton (pictured) winning honors as the sauciest, though he also occasionally gets a weirdly intense look in his eyes that made me wonder if he was going to lose his shit in his next scene. He never does. The connections between the three stories, laid out in the last ten minutes, are clever. There are apparently links to the earlier three films, which I might or might not watch in the future. [Hallmark Channel]