Christmas Under the Stars

I was expecting a typical Hallmark Christmas romance with all about the 2 leads & their stories. However the glue that holds everything together was the natural excellent performance by Clarke Peters as Clem, who owns a Christmas tree-lot. Autumn Reeser adds another classy believable role as a Mum who has crippling bills to pay from her Dad's medical treatments , being badly treated by finance companies who own the debt. Jesse Metcalf does pretty ok too as a recently-fired Investment expert who finds himself again & gets to give back to others at the best time of the year ! Less typical than most Hallmark seasonal films, and all the better for that !

6/10 - surprisingly good Christmas TV movie hits all the right notes

Liked the cast together. Jesse Metcalf and Autumn Reeser make a compatible looking couple looks wise. She isn't silly looking like some.

The story starts off a bit more interesting than usual. He's been laid off from an investment firm. At least the story doesn't have a completely done to death set up. What's irritating is that she's angry with him for working in finance even though he isn't responsible for her troubles. Unreasonable for sure. Good thing he doesn't have to sacrifice his career for love for a change.

This is a slow-paced movie about a high-powered investment broker who fails on a big gamble and gets fired. Oddly, he takes a minimum wage job at a Christmas tree lot, getting much sage advice from the elderly man who has run it for decades.

There is an interstitial romance with a school teacher with medical debt, but that plot line is almost invisible.

This isn't a dynamite movie, but it's better than much of the 2019 Hallmark crop.

When I sat down to watch this movie I was skeptical on whether I would like it, surprise, surprise, I rather enjoyed it. I have seen Jesse Metcalfe in previous Hallmark productions, he runs hot & cold in my book, but I found him likeable in this role. I have always enjoyed Autumn Reeser, her acting did not disappoint. But the show stealer was Peters (Clem), this guy hit it out of the park. The interaction between the three was amazing. This was one of the better Hallmark productions of 2019.