Christmas on Cherry Lane

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I really enjoyed seeing Catherine Bell and James Denton back together again after watching them for years in The Good Witch. Jonathan Bennett is one of my favorite Hallmark actors as well and never dissapoints. Once I realized this story line was about residents of the same house, it was fun putting together the clues to see how they all would be tied together. As one reviewer said, it brought back memories of "This Is Us". I thought all the actors had great chemistry, especially Bennett and his partner. I had to give only 8 stars because I felt one again Hallmark avoided reality by having the entire kitchen rebuild completed in less than a day! Counter top installation, cabinets, etc. All done in time for a holiday party. At least they had Jonothans character cook it elsewhere!! But... another wonderful Holiday movie.

This movie was wonderful. It was different than most Hallmark Christmas Movies and that surely added to its charm. Although it had its moments of romance, I wouldn't consider it a typical romance movie. Don't watch this movie is you're feeling a tad sleepy or plan to be on your phone the entire time; you have to pay attention to the details to fully understand the ending. I believe I made every connection there was, except for one! How did the car end up with Conrad? Did they not fully explain it or did I just miss it?? I loved the one constant throughout the entire movie and felt it added comfort.

I was a huge Good Witch fan (I wish more of those were being made) and I love Catherine Bell and James Denton, which is why I was excited to see them together in a Hallmark holiday film. So, I came for the two of them...but found myself enjoying quite another storyline instead, that of John Brotherton (John Hamilton) and Erin Cahill (Lizzie). John and Lizzie play a couple who have just moved into their first home, expecting a new baby, money is tight, they haven't unpacked, and Lizzie's big family descends on them for Christmas when they expect to have a quiet Christmas Eve just themselves. Funny and real with each other, this was definitely the story at the heart of this film. Cleverly the writers tied three stories in three different time periods together in the same house...and with some of the same people, like their neighbor on Cherry Lane played exceptionally by the same actress in all three time periods. There were some inaccuracies with their time frames, but they did try to throw in some time period specific notes...like the oil crisis and a hallmark keepsake Christmas ornament. I appreciated having a foster child pay it forward and make another foster kid's Christmas special. That was a really nice touch. This wasn't really a romance, but it was a family drama. If you like holiday family dramas then this might be for you.

I come out other other end of this movie just a bit bewildered about the connectedness of the families portrayed in the movie. It's stellar cast did predictably well but the timeline jumps around. Is this the same house but different families over the years? How is the cop involved? So many foster children. I wish I had the time and the patience to watch this movie again just so that it all comes together a little more easily. Watching hallmark Christmas movies is like eating junk food - you can't stop at one, knowing there's several more out there, hoping the next one is a little bit better than the last. There's only so many hours in this life to watch all these movies once, so I'll close the book on this experience in a state of confusion, but Christmas on Cherry Lane was entertaining nonetheless.

I enjoyed this movie. It's well constructed and acted with good performances all round in particular I liked Vincent Rodriguez III as Jonathan Bennett's long-suffering carol singing partner. The 3 story lines weave seamlessly if somewhat confusingly together and there is a heartwarming end. What more could you want from a Hallmark LGBT inclusive Christmas movie? Well, I for one would like to see Hallmark (and others) push just a little further. For all its diversity credit, this film is still wholeheartedly about the conformity of the family ideal. The gay men are cute with the children. The adopted girl is set firmly on the path to become a little princess. Religion rears its secular head through the singing of carols. None of this bothered me too much - but one detail did. The gay kiss. This was very much a 'no sex please we're hallmark' movie. No shirtless reveal. No steamy shower scene, and the kiss between the two men is blink-and-you'll-miss-it brief, and shot carefully to be out of sight of the child. A pity.

This movie is about one house and 3 families each a generation apart. It is very confusing even before you realize that there are pieces to this jigsaw puzzle to link together. To me that is the only redeeming thing about this movie - trying to figure it all out. Sure there is a theme about family. There is the repeated idea that parents don't know what they are doing and just work it out but that's ok. There is one neighbor who is common to all the stories - Lizzie. Of course she ages according to which family she is neighbor to. The first couple gets deluged with both sides of their family immediately after they first moved in. The second is a widow about to remarry and move who has just informed her two grown children. The last couple is two married men who are taking in a little girl as a foster child hoping that their house remodeling gets finished before the child arrives. Each family faces some surprise crisis which creates drama and humor. I'm a huge fan of Erin Cahill and a big fan of Catherine Bell so I was hoping for more.