Recent retiree Barbara (Beth Broderick) joins the town's Christmas Committee to keep herself busy, but immediately clashes with Kath (Caroline Rhea). Barbara is stiff, on time and a wiz in a spreadsheet. Kath is a free spirit, and a bit nutty, but also full of Christmas joy. They both just so happen to have young, single children. The moms use an app for parents to match their kids (terrifying). Yes, the kids match on the app and quickly in real life.
This movie really focuses on two relationships, but in a unique way. In a shared A/B story, the mom's relationship from enemies to friends, and the kid's story from "fake dating" to actually dating take nearly equal screen time.
The chemistry between Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea is wonderful, obviously from their years of working together as aunts on Sabrina the Teenage Witch. They couldn't have found better actors to take on these roles. Very authentic ribbing and timing.
Our romantic leads are Shane (Jon McLaren) and Lauren (Maxine Denis). They are great together and could have held the full focus of the story with more material.
My major nitpick is the fake dating. After Shane and Lauren go on a real date together, they decide to flip the script and fake date to get their parents to stop setting them up with people (which we never see happen by the way). There is no logical (or Christmas Magical) reason to make this decision. Just date, you hot people! That's the way to go. The parents would have stopped meddling if you were really dating, and you definitely liked each other, so do that.
It's refreshing to see Lauren working hard as a co-owner of her architecture firm and trying to get a project done. So often in Hallmark, we'd see her trying to get a promotion from a male CEO, or ice queen boss over Christmas. They also give a realistic reason why the building work needs to get done by the end of the year-building code changes on Jan. 1. I don't know if it exactly works like that, but I applaud the effort.
Goofy notes
-Only one "witch" reference in the whole movie. I expected more.
-"Tying a dead plant to a car" is an interesting way to describe taking a Christmas Tree home.
-I need more of the Christmas rat. This seemed so whacky, and it worked because Shane was really all of us in that situation.
-Shane's theater has a full kitchen behind the seating area, and they don't shut off the lights during a performance. Hmm, I wonder why they are struggling.
-When you do karaoke for "Jingle Bells" you probably don't need to stare quite so intently at the words on the screen.
-Trolly caroling isn't a thing. Is it? Let's get in a wooden bench trolly and hold fake sheet music and sing so nobody else can hear us.
-Why are we always Christmas caroling? Singing did not need to happen this much.
Cast kudos: This is a slam dunk-- Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea.
Alternative titles: Full Sabotage Christmas; Meddling Moms Christmas; UnMatched for Christmas.
