Hallmark Channel
With the launch of Hallmark’s new streaming service, Hallmark+, the company needed a lot of new, exclusive programming to draw in new subscribers and along with the new series and movies, they produced a reality series titled Finding Mr. Christmas, a competition to find their next Christmas movie leading man. As the men dropped one-by-one (and one who seemed like a sure thing being eliminated twice — he was saved by the others for a second chance), the competition got down to three men and it seemed pretty obvious who the winner would be simply because he had the look of a Hallmark hunk, in spite of his not-so great performances in the competition’s acting challenges. Yes, Ezra Moreland pulled out the win because he was able to take direction well in the final acting challenge showing some promise — and he’s gorgeous to boot — but is throwing a man into a lead role in a major movie who has had no previous acting experience going to reap the rewards everyone is hoping for?
Well …
Happy Howlidays, which first premiered on Hallmark+ ahead of its Hallmark Channel debut, centers around Mia Park (Jessica Lowndes), a young woman living in Seattle who has apparently gone through a series of jobs after moving away from her home in Miami, an attempt to get somewhere as far away as possible for reasons unknown at the beginning of the story. She is also actively avoiding her parents. Taking a desk job with the Seattle Tourism Board, Mia finds herself thrust into finding things to do in Seattle for the holidays to be posted to the Board’s social media account … except Mia isn’t really familiar with Seattle as she’s only been there six months but her boss and friend Isabel insists she do it, not just because it’s her job but because it may be good for Mia as well. On her way home she comes across a shaggy dog stuck in a fence which she rescues but is dismayed to find the pooch has followed her home. She can barely take care of herself, let alone another creature that would be totally dependent on her.
After the dog tears up her house and pees on the floor, Mia takes him to the nearest shelter where she encounters Max Covington (Moreland), who refuses to accept the dog into his shelter because they are full up. She’s stuck with him unless she wants to be heartless and just drop him off somewhere in the wild. Mia isn’t that person so she keeps the dog, coming up with the name Russell (from Russell Crowe), and goes on her way. But at the dog park Russell runs off and starts canoodling with another dog … which happens to belong to Max, of all people. Their relationship is still frosty, and Max isn’t happy that Mia has taken some video of their dogs playing and cuddling, but she realizes this could be her story, a holiday doggy romance. She’s right because the video goes viral, forcing Mia to produce more content … which means she has to suck it up and deal with Max. Max, however, agrees and they form a truce but is there more than a doggy romance blooming? Things get complicated when Max’s ex shows up with the dog they shared (whose absence his dog has been grieving), and Max gets the bad news that the benefactor for his shelter can’t provide the usual funding, putting the place in danger of closing. To make matters worse, Mia’s parents show up unannounced, forcing her to reveal why she’s run away and reassess her current life situation. With her relationship with Max apparently on the rocks and the doggy romance split because of them (upsetting most of Seattle), is returning to Miami her best move? And does she keep Russell after agreeing to foster him until the right home becomes available? Or does she stay and admit that she and Max do have chemistry worth exploring?
Hallmark Channel
We so wanted Happy Howlidays to be a home run for Hallmark because we were rooting for Ezra to win Finding Mr. Christmas (by the way, that show’s host Jonathan Bennett makes a cameo appearance and gives a sly reference to the competition), hoping that by the end he would loosen up and ease into the world of acting. Perhaps Hallmark could have given the winner of that show a supporting role in a movie instead of thrusting a complete novice into the spotlight in a lead role (while the other two in the final had much more experience but perhaps not the look Hallmark wanted). Pairing him with an experienced Hallmark veteran also does him no favors. Lowndes acts rings around Moreland, occasionally giving his acting a boost but his handsome face remains mostly blank, only showing the briefest flashes of emotion, for the entirety of the movie. Moreland also has to contend with experienced co-stars Cassandra Sawtell as Max’s sister Penny, and Christopher Shyer and Lynda Boyd as Mia’s parents. (Quick note — this is Shyer’s third Christmas film with Hallmark this year following Three Wiser Men and a Boy and Leah’s Perfect Gift.) One has to hope that Moreland can take something from this experience, take some acting classes, loosen up a bit, learn how to show some emotion (because he showed plenty on Finding Mr. Christmas, crying at almost every elimination), take some smaller acting gigs, and come back to the Hallmark family a much stronger performer. He’s got the look, he’s got the body (we get a rare moment of beefcake from a Hallmark movie in one scene to show off said body), he just needs the experience to carry a movie on his shoulders, maybe give him a recurring role on When Calls the Heart, The Way Home or The Chicken Sisters. It would be a shame if this were Moreland’s debut and swan song because we really want to see him fulfill his dream.
Lowndes is excellent as Mia, making her a complicated character and the screenplay does a good job of keeping her reasons for fleeing Miami hidden until just the right moment. She has a great connection with Moreland, and her performance does overshadow his, but she never gives the impression that she’s carrying him. It must be difficult to work with someone that green as your co-star but she still pulls it off and keeps us engaged in Mia’s life and her romance with Max. She and Ezra also work well with the dogs, and the doggies are so adorable together that you can’t help but root for them and for Mia and Max. Sawtell is delightfully perky as Penny, and she also works really well with Moreland. Sarah Formosa is fun as Mia’s boss, having to wear the hat of Friend Isabel and Boss Isabel, pushing Mia to see how good she’s doing with her work and to see that maybe there is something with Max. Shyer and Boyd lend a little more gravitas to the situation as Mia’s ‘secret’ is revealed, doing their best to make her see that what happened was not her fault, and she shouldn’t give up her previous career because of one incident. They are also very supportive of whatever she chooses to do, whether that means returning home or staying in Seattle. Ellen Cannon as Amy played the part like she was there on a mission to get Max back, bringing a totally unlikable vibe to the character, making you wonder what Max ever saw in her (she does finally lighten up in the final scenes).
Allyssa Lee’s screenplay is actually quite good, creating a complex character in Mia, perhaps making Max a little less daunting for Moreland, but giving all of the characters some nice moments to shine. Director Terry Ingram does a good job of making British Columbia stand in for Seattle (although the final shot may have Seattle residents wondering just where that is), but he certainly had his hands full with not only a novice actor, but several dogs as well. It’s a shame that Ali Liebert, who directed and guided Ezra through the final Finding Mr. Christmas acting challenge wasn’t on hand to direct Happy Howlidays because she may have been able to bring more out of him as she did in the challenge, which undoubtedly helped him win (perhaps casting his challenge co-star Nikki DeLoach would have helped too since he’d already worked with her and could have felt a little more at ease on a shoot that lasted about two weeks). As it stands, Happy Howlidays ends up being a so-so conclusion to the 2024 ‘Countdown to Christmas’ event that’s worth a look for the curious, but still holds a decent enough story with some very good acting that keeps it from being a complete dog of a movie.
Happy Howlidays has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is streaming on Hallmark+.
Preview – Happy Howlidays
Hallmark Channel
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Terrible acting by both actors