Hallmark Channel
What is more fun than a holiday party? Why, crashing a holiday party, of course! You get to meet people you would have never met before, you might find yourself actually helping someone out, and there may even be some romance in the air. That’s the basic premise of Hallmark’s latest ‘Countdown to Christmas’ movie, Holiday Crashers.
Toni (Lyndsy Fonseca) and Bri (Daniella Monet) are best friends who work together in a shop whose main function, at least this time of year, is printing invitations. If too many are printed or don’t make it into the batch for delivery (there are always a few extras included) then the leftovers go into the scrap pile. But Bri has a better idea — use the scrapped invitations as her and Toni’s key to fabulous holiday parties around town, many of them corporate, charity or high society functions. They masquerade as various characters and one party finds them at a corporate function where one of Toni’s friends, Letisha (Heather-Claire Nortey), spots her and basically blows her cover to her co-worker Justin (Chris McNally), revealing that, no, Toni is not a doula. The two actually attended law school together. Before Toni has a chance to explain her story, Letisha goes into labor and asks Toni to take on an important project that Justin is heading up, a corporate acquisition of an auto manufacturer, Skyline Motors. Toni knows she can’t because she never passed the bar and isn’t certified to practice law in Connecticut, and while she may be able to consult, she certainly cannot be compensated for any legal advice she might have to offer.
Which complicates things because her father Lou (Keith MacKechnie), a local lawyer, is about to file a class action suit against Skyline Motors for knowingly installing defective seatbelts in their cars, leading to many serious injuries. He just needs the smoking gun to prove the company knew the devices were defective. Toni can save Justin’s company billions by alerting him to the upcoming massive amount of debt Skyline Moters is going to have once the case moves forward but she knows she really can’t get involved … or perhaps she can unless Justin learns the truth about her (and his assistant Sebastian (Daylin Willis) is hot to dig up some dirt on this woman who seems to have no online presence). Meanwhile, Bri has found a spark with the valet who seems to turn up at every party, Vinny (Jag Bal), and she feels that they really have some chemistry. Bri also uses her talent for meddling to suggest some changes to the hot chocolate caterer at the lodge she and Toni have been invited to by Justin, a sort of corporate retreat where no one talks business, which are implemented and actually help business. Bri only learns later that the woman she’s been talking to is the event planner she was hoping to meet, St. Jack-John (Luvia Petersen). But as the retreat is coming to an end, many secrets are revealed that put the relationships Toni and Bri have formed in danger, so will this holiday actually end up crashing and burning?
Holiday Crashers is another charming Hallmark holiday movie that falls into the old cliché of two people having a romantic connection, one of them has a secret, and keeps that secret to stretch out the running time, whereas if the secret was simply addressed right up front … well, we’d have no movie. Or it would be a different movie, which might not be so bad. Let the main characters meet cute and establish some honesty right up front and let them experience that romance for the rest of the movie with some different drama thrown in to spice things up. Luckily, the script by Tracy Andreen, Lee Friedlander and Hope Juber is pleasant and engaging, with several very humorous moments throughout.
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What really helps the film not become bogged down in tropes is the winning cast headed by Fonseca and Monet. Fonseca, a Hallmark regular, just starred in Lifetime’s decidedly more dramatic The Girl Who Wasn’t Dead, and it’s nice to see a different, more light-hearted side of her here. Fonseca is able to convey through expression and body language Toni’s discomfort at crashing parties (though she eventually enjoys taking on new personae) and keeping the truth from Justin, while at the same time is clearly crushing on him. She’s also fiercely loyal to her friend and her father, especially after she hears some of Justin’s co-workers mocking his comical TV ads for legal services. She certainly makes Toni someone you’d want to have as a friend. Monet plays Bri as the more fearless and forward of the two, dragging Toni into her schemes, but showing she has talent that she really should be putting to use as an event coordinator. It’s just puzzling when she walks away from Vinny after she learns who he really is. But she and Fonseca have such good vibes together that you buy them as the bestest of friends.
Chris McNally is fine as Justin. For being one of the four main characters, he seems to be given very little to do except stalk Toni … in a friendly way, that is. He is desperately trying to pursue her around the lodge and on the slopes (one co-worker met her at another party where she claimed to be an Olympic skier) during the retreat while she keeps finding new excuses to avoid him, yet he persists which makes his sudden steely demeanor when he learns the truth a bit severe to the point that it really seems like those two really have no future. Jag Bal is more personable as Vinny, showing a spark with Bri from the moment they meet. He comes in and out of the story, but he makes his connection with Bri very authentic and he really generates sympathy when she ghosts him. Of course, this being a Hallmark movie you know something’s gotta give, even if a year passes in the story’s timeline. Keith MacKechnie is also very good and believable as Toni’s dad Lou. He does play Lou as the goof for his TV commercials, but he’s a very down-to-earth guy who only wants the best for his daughter … even after she stabs him in the heart by degrading his TV persona. MacKechnie really does give a very nice performance.
As always with a Hallmark film, the production is top-notch, the set design of the lodge screams Christmas, the performances are all pretty great, and it puts you in the holiday spirit. It may not be as good as ‘Twas the Date Before Christmas but it’s entertaining nonetheless.
Holiday Crashers has a run time of 1 hour 24 minutes, and is rated TV-G. The film is available On Demand and is streaming on Peacock.
Preview – Holiday Crashers
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