Time for Him to Come Home for Christmas

The top shelf of a Hallmark movie! With Tyler Hynes you just can't go wrong. His one liners and style of acting has the perfect mix of humour and believability. Holland Roden was fabulous, gorgeous, natural and beautiful to watch. The two of them together were the perfect hallmark match. I've said in another similar review that the kiss at the end must be good....this didn't disappoint! No awkwardness and I felt their onscreen chemistry. The storyline was a cut above, it was hearfelt and different from the norm. This year a few of the movies (three men included) have knocked it out the park for a perfect fireside Christmas movie. More please hallmark!

Started watching and without fully watching can see the similarity with another Hallmark movie where a woman and her friend try to locate the woman in a picture. This one has a woman and her friend try to locate the person behind a phone message. Obviously the message should have revealed the phone number of the owner who left the message. But the movie would have ended before it began. So the confusing flashbacks to her past. The friend is reluctant to tell her he still "loves" her. Same old story like all the rest. Although, it looks put together than the older one, but probably will end the same. Will watch to the end and see.

I've been blown away by so many of this year's Hallmark Christmas movies. In a good way. I think I've only misses one of these (ie in the series for lack of a better word), and this one by far is my favorite. When I watched this tonight, I was so moved that I had to review. I was crying by the end, and I very rarely cry at these. The story, the characters, I loved it all. And as much smaltz is one would expect from a hallmark movie, this had the perfect amount - for the romantics and the ones who just want to see a decent movie. THIS IS DEFINITELY A RE-WATCHABLE MOVIE! I plan to make my brother watch it; i have a feeling he'll agree (he's agreed with the two other movies I made him watch from this year's lineup, and he's commented to me they're different and better.)

Unquestionably, Tyler Hynes holds down this second chance holiday romance which is the latest in Blake Shelton and his mom's Time to come home for Christmas series (2022). It started with a song and then a book written by his mom and has lead to a mother-son annual Christmas movie collaboration, which is sweet and everything Christmas should be. This may be my favorite in the series, in large part thanks to the two leads Tyler Hynes and Holland Rolland (it was great to see Teen Wolf's Lydia in a new project). The story was very tightly written and intertwines two overlapping second chance romances. Also, it reminded me why I like Tyler Hynes so much. He is fantastic and was an excellent choice for this film. He and Holland Roland have excellent chemistry together and really make the romance and misunderstanding work in this film. Elizabeth Athens (Holland Roland) receives a voicemail by mistake. The caller's voice is filled with regret and is clearly desperate to reconnect with a woman named Madeline. Unfortunately, the call was placed from a local hotel and without even a name to go by...Elizabeth embarks on a very interesting search for a mystery woman named Madeline or for the caller who left the message. Having wanted to be an investigative reporter in the past, Elizabeth is joined by her friend Josh Hart (Tyler Hynes) who is back in town for the holidays and who has a secret regret of his own. The story is filled with loss, regret, forgiveness, second chances and most importantly with love. Unlike some of the other holiday films that Hallmark rolled out this year...this film is able to navigate the tricky landscape of being about a sad topic and yet still filling the story with enough hope and love that it does not turn into a maudlin and morose story. Instead it is a beautiful holiday love story that I can highly recommend to all those romantics like me out there! Now for my one rant...skip if you are uninterested: As a native Seattle girl, I was excited to hear that this year's film would be set in Seattle...but I was once again utterly disappointed that it contained nothing but a couple of aerial shots of Seattle and was filmed somewhere else with ZERO local flavor. I would never presume to set a story in Oklahoma and then proceed to not do ANY research or include ANY local detail in my story. Believe it or not, Seattle is gorgeous at Christmas (in fact it is a beautiful winter wonderland right now in my backyard...with big snowflakes drifting down all amongst the evergreens giving our world the appearance of being inside a snow globe) and it is rich with lots and lots of holiday traditions...Pike Place Market, Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest, the glorious Bon Marche Star, and yes, we have some gorgeous hotels and some great and famous confectioners old and new. Frankly, like most true northwesterners, I am happy to keep our treasures a secret...I just wish film makers, particularly those in the Hallmark stable, would stop fake-setting their films in Seattle. Stick with what you know. (And that is clearly not Seattle.)

This was the best Hallmark movie we have seen this season and may be one of the best ever. It seems everything Tyler Hines is in can be put in the better category and this movies was no exception. Steve Bacic is another Hallmark star we've missed. It was good to see him as a good guy again after a turn on When Calls the Heart and Virgin River as a nasty character! The stars had great chemistry and the story was exceptional with a totally unexpected twist ending. I believe this is the first 10 rating I've ever givin a Hallmark movie. I wonder if there are two sets of writers. One for the familiar plot lines on Hallmark and another for the movies on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries? The HM&M movies seem to never dissapoint and generally have more realistic story lines. I do believe this holiday season Hallmark has done some of the better movies than in the past, this one being tops!

As another reviewer said, the Hallmark M&M series seems to do better in terms of acting range than just Hallmark Christmas movies. I watched this one late in the evening, and though I was pretty sleepy to begin with, it kept my attention until the end. With a somewhat predictable finish, getting to it was interesting and had some mystery and intrigue. I love Tyler Hynes, he plays characters well and seems to always have good chemistry with his leading ladies. I was unfamiliar with Holland Roden, had never watched her before -- she was impressive, not over the top but with enough range of emotion to make her character genuine and likeable. I also liked the fact that there was an element of romance for we "older" folks, (the Carter/Madelyn arc) not just the 20-somethings. Was it cheesy? Of course, only as Hallmark Christmas movies can be, but all a part of the charm or watching them during the season.

I typically don't really watch Hallmark movies unless I'm in the mood for some background noise or something cheesy and predictable to lift my spirits up, and I was in need of something heartwarming so I thought I'd give it a go. I thought going into it I knew what it was going to be about, but I was surprised at how they took a step back from the same formula, adding in a second tale that perfectly converges with the first. The conflict is realistic and justifiable, not something that can easily be solved in the last five or ten minutes and actually starts at the beginning for once, and offers depth and the the opportunity to dig into a range of emotions. They touch on trauma, grieve, and forgiveness and it's truly beautiful to see. It's a relatively different and unique story I was not expecting Hallmark to give.