Lifetime
When it comes to made-for-TV Christmas movies, Hallmark Channel pretty much has the market cornered. Other networks and outlets have tried to capture the magic that Hallmark manages to infuse its movies with, but few have been able to match whatever it is that makes Hallmark Christmas movies so special. Even poaching Hallmark stars for those other movies is not a guarantee that they will bring that magic with them. Case in point…
Lifetime’s A Christmas Cookbook, starring long-time Hallmark regular Ashley Newbrough. Newbrough plays Veronica Cleary, a copy editor at a Boston publishing house, and after preparing a special dinner to celebrate their anniversary (or meet-iversary), her boyfriend arrives late but surprises her with a small box. Thinking he is about to propose, Veronica is upset to find a pair of earrings. Not that they’re bad, they are the ones she liked at the jewelry store, but it turns out while she is fully invested in the relationship — or at least she thinks she is — he isn’t and thinks it’s maybe best to explore other options. Veronica later delivers the news to her mother and says she’ll be home for Christmas after all … but mom and dad are going on a vacation to Hawaii for Christmas since she thought Veronica was spending the holiday with her boyfriend’s family. No matter, Veronica has a pile of deadlines to take care of before Christmas Eve so she’ll just have a quiet Christmas alone. On her way to work, Veronica spots a new coffee shop that serves up special blends of hot chocolate, and after chatting up the owner, Dana (Paloma Nuñez), and meeting a very brusque man, Cullen (Franco Lo Presti), who orders the exact same drink as she, Veronica heads off to work and finds a note with her drink inviting her to a private group that meets on the lower level of the shop, The X-Mas Club.
Veronica decides to check it out, and there she meets other members of the club including Josie, Raj and Javier. Then Cullen shows up and is less than pleased that Dana invited her since their encounter earlier was a bit tense, but Dana insists that she is more than welcome since she, like the rest of them, is single (newly, at that) and spending Christmas alone (which means they should be called The Ex-Mas Club). Veronica feels that she may have found her people for the holiday, and learns that one of the first group activities is preparing a dessert that will knock their socks off. Veronica frets about baking something fantastic (she’s more of a cook than a baker) and her mom tells her to make her grandmother’s holiday crumble. It’s simple but flavorful, and Veronica comes up with a way to elevate it by how she prepares the fruit. At the club, Veronica prepares the dish for serving but Cullen is offended that she just plops the whipped cream and spice on top, reminding her that baking is a science. (Okay, cool your jets, sir … she’s already baked the dish, she’s just garnishing now. He also reminds her of this rule while making soup later but, again, the science of baking and measuring everything properly does not apply to cooking, which allows more room for experimenting to obtain the right flavors.) But she wins him over with her flavors and she may also be starting to win over his heart. As the two get closer, Cullen reveals that his ex broke up with him on their wedding day, so he hasn’t been looking for love at all, and the club has been his outlet for the holidays (turns out club member Josie is also his sister), but there is something about Veronica, her love of cooking, and her dream of writing her own book that piques his interest. Things get a little complicated when she spots Cullen talking to a woman, and when she approaches he tells the woman Veronica is his girlfriend. Turns out the woman is Carrie, the person who jilted him at the altar, but they’ve tried to remain cordial, and she has offered to donate some food to a big event Dana and the club is spearheading to help the less fortunate in the area … because her new finace is a well-known French chef and they’ve just opened a new restaurant (she’s also jetting off to Paris to get married … which is where she and Cullen were going to honeymoon — ouch). Veronica plays along and accepts her invitation to come to a tasting so they can decide what they’d like for the event, and that freaks out Cullen a bit but he got himself into this mess so he has to now play along. Everything goes well, and Cullen begins to let down his walls more, but he still doesn’t know how Veronica feels. When she is late to meet him to pick up the food, Carrie tells him that it is clear how he feels about Veronice because he never looked at her the way he looks at Veronica and he needs to let her know. He leaves the restaurant just as Veronica arrives, puts down the boxes and plants one on her … and Veronica happens to see Carrie looking out the window at them. She was just flipping the ‘Open’ sign to ‘Closed’, but Veronica thought Cullen was putting on a show to make his ex jealous and she storms off. When Veronica appears to be a no-show at the event, Dana and the others urge him to go after her, but will he be able to convince her that his feelings for her are real? And will there still be an ‘X-Mas Club’ by the end? This ain’t a Hallmark movie, so you never know. (It is a Christmas movie, though, so you kind of do know.)
A Christmas Cookbook has all the elements of a Hallmark movie. It’s got Hallmark actors (Newbrough and Lo Presti, as well as a small role with Patrice Goodman), and a set-up that puts two mismatched people into situations that make their feelings undeniable no matter how much they want to deny them. Everything about this story, by Erica Deutschman (who also plays Josie), has the charm of a Hallmark movie, it has engaging characters, and there is good chemistry that builds between Veronica and Cullen. But somehow, it just doesn’t carry that same spark. Perhaps it’s Mars Horodyski’s direction, which isn’t flashy but does keep the story moving along, or perhaps it’s just the more realistic than idealistic setting and production design. This certainly feels grounded in reality, less escapist, less brightly lit and colorful, so perhaps that’s just what makes it feel less magical. Everything about the story and the characters and the production is exceedingly well done, but you don’t really feel your spirit lifted that much by the end as you do with a Hallmark Christmas movie (no matter how formulaic those can be). Perhaps for those who don’t like the idealism of Hallmark, this movie will actually be more pleasing and enjoyable, but it just doesn’t carry that holiday spirit. It could have been set at any time of the year and still been a good movie. If I have one real quibble with the script, the amazing ‘never-before-seen’ special foods the group members prepare are not that original. Dana prepares a ‘Thanksgiving dinner wrap’ — turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce — that you can get just about anywhere now as a sub or sandwich. And Raj and Josie show off a ham, topped with pineapple rings, Maraschino cherries and a glaze … hasn’t that been a holiday staple forever? I’m not quite sure what Javier was making, but it just seemed like a variation on a tamale. It all just seemed a bit too traditional for Veronica and Cullen to gush over, but at least each dish had a nice story to go with it.
Lifetime
There is nothing here to fault the cast for. Newbrough brings her usual charm to the role of Veronica, and is able to ground the character more in the real world than she has in her Hallmark oeuvre. Her Veronica is a woman who seems to enjoy being comfortable, in her relationship and at her job. She doesn’t like to rock the boat, and she pushes her own dreams to the side just to maintain the status quo, which is her safe space. Newbrough shows Veronica lighting up after she meets Cullen, she shows the character’s growth as he challenges her to pursue her dreams and that allows her to also see him as a potential love interest. Unfortunately, there is the manufactured drama she has to act through where if she could have just listened to Cullen for a second she would not have flown off the handle, but that’s the way the scene was written to get us to the conclusion, and she handles it as well as she possibly could. Newbrough’s performance grounds the story in reality, and it shows off her acting skills, allowing her to play a character a bit more complicated than she usually does.
Franco Lo Presti is also very good as Cullen. His is a very complicated character with some deep issues that Lo Presti has to convey to the audience without being so overt that it’s obvious to the other characters. Cullen is a man with a big heart who was deeply hurt, and Lo Presti has to show this facade he’s constructed around himself to keep from getting hurt again but without coming off totally cocky. He has to tread a fine line of being reserved and confident without being overbearing and a complete jerk. There are times when he almost is a jerk to Veronica, but Lo Presti manages to soften Cullen before it comes to the point that she’d never want to be in the same room with him again. When she does get angry about the kiss, Lo Presti’s performance makes the viewer feel Cullen’s hurt and confusion, almost justifying his desire to not put himself out there again for a romantic relationship, and we root for him to go and get the girl. All in all, it’s a very good, nuanced performance.
The rest of the supporting cast also do some nice work. Nuñez is wonderful as Dana, sort of the matchmaker for Cullen and Veronica, not afraid to stand up to Cullen (even though he started the club), on the ball with organizing events, and showing real joy when her son comes home for Christmas after all. Deutschman gives a nice performance as Josie, delivering sisterly advice to Cullen in an authentic way. Sharjil Rasool has fun as Raj, always the one who gets enjoyment out of watching the foibles of others, but keeping a secret from the group without giving anything away until it’s accidentally discovered by Veronica. Miguel Rivas is also very good as Javier, Cullen’s best friend, a man who loves to share his culture through food. All of the actors in the club mesh so well that we can believe these are very real people, and people we’d all like to get to know.
Everything about A Christmas Cookbook is absolutely fine, it’s well-written, well-produced and well-acted. Just for a holiday movie there was something missing that would have made it more special.
A Christmas Cookbook has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-PG.