For the coldest season, Christmas usually brings people warm, fuzzy feelings of joy. Unless you’re Ebenezer Scrooge, the reward of seeing the joy on your loved ones’ faces as you open your presents outweighs any sizable dent in your wallet. Traditions follow throughout every house and every home – hot chocolate, hanging up mistletoes in the hallways, and for some, the staple movies of Christmas.
Everyone knows them. From parody on social media, to the rise of streaming platforms allowing for easier access, Christmas movies have a stereotype of an easy formula, corny and overdone again and again and again. Yet, oddly, it’s Hallmark’s genre that faces the most backlash. Yet, the question remains; is this behavior justified? I decided that I’d find out to get myself in the Christmas cheer. Analyzing two movies, one modern, one older, and seeing if the basic stereotypes associated with the movies still hold up.
By checking the official Hallmark Channel’s Hall of Fame, I decided to set my eyes on the top vote, A Christmas Love Story. Already by the fifteen-minute mark, I could genuinely start to see the charm of these movies, even if I had always found them a bit corny. The dialogue manages to balance itself with shockingly realistic scenarios while blending corny writing that you could only expect from a movie.
It follows the story of a choir director, Catherine, as she tries to write a song for the upcoming performance to raise funds for said choir. While working, she meets a young man, Danny, with an exceptional talent in his voice, and ends up also attracting the attention of his widowed father, Craig. Believe it or not, it’s actually a good ride throughout. It completely broke some of the stereotypes seen, taking place in the Big Apple the whole way through instead of the small towns, both protagonists having a respective field in business. One’s a workaholic by nature, while one uses it to escape the grief of losing his wife. Themes of grief and loss are intermixed with discovery of one’s true self and, of course, the joys of family.
There’s a tad bit of the stereotypical elements spoken about, Catherine being from Oklahoma and having a noticeable accent throughout the entire story, and the whole widowed father trope has been done for the umpteenth time, but it’s a trope breaker and just a good, heartwarming ride all the way through.
But that is a taste of the modern movies from this company, so how do the classics hold up?
Quite differently, as it turns out. The second movie I selected was a 2014 movie, Christmas Under Wraps, following a doctor from New York, Dr. Lauren Burnett, desperately wanting to get into a fellowship in Boston, but being rejected. Needing to bide time until they’re open again, she moves to the remote fictional town of Garland to become their personal doctor for a while, including Andy Holiday, local handyman and son to the owner of a shipping company.
Sound familiar?
My watch had every box ticked off.. Christmas festival? Check. Small town who embraces their ‘heart’? Check. Protagonist slowly but surely falls in love with the small town and just so happens to fall in love with an outdoorsy everyman who’s secretly a genius. Check. Christmas Under Wraps seems to be the exact standard that some talk about when they mention Hallmark movies.
With the movies being only five years apart, I can’t help but be a bit shocked at the differences. Everyone tries to leave biases at the table, but there is definitely a defined ‘status quo’ that you expect the movies to follow, and while Christmas Under Wraps does, A Christmas Love Story finds itself able to stand out of the crowd of its predecessors. This could be a sign of Hallmark taking a step back, acknowledging its predictability in its plots, and trying out new conventional ways to tell a holly jolly Christmas romance. Taking critique is an essential part of improving at anything, and seeing Hallmark start to make a start towards that change is just as heartwarming as the movies.
To anyone who reads this, I’d recommend giving Hallmark just one more chance, and select one of its movies to watch in your free time or the upcoming break. You just might be surprised to find yourself falling back in love all over again.
