In the third installment of the “Come Home for Christmas” franchise, Lacey Chabert and Stephen Huszar star as Sarah and Ben, respectively, who meet at Ben’s inn following a mysterious reservation. Interestingly enough, it’s not just Sarah who has been given this invitation. Four other guests appear without a clue as to who reserved it for them. With no leads or clues as to who is behind this, Sarah makes it her mission to get to the bottom of it. With the help of Ben, both of them end up finding more than just a secret identity. In fact, not only do they find a connection between each other, but with the other four guests as well.
It looks like the Queen of Hallmark pulled double duty this season. While Chabert killed it in Christmas Waltz just the other weekend, she managed to sneak in another memorable performance in this movie. Watching her and Huszar in the film was really fun, and while I loved their storyline, this movie was more of an ensemble when it gets down to it. The most exciting part of this movie was the hunt for the mysterious person who sent the invitations — and I like a good mystery. It took me and my mom until we were about halfway through to make the correct guess at who invited everyone, and even then, we weren’t completely set in our decision, which is a rarity when it comes to Hallmark movies. Usually, we can guess everything right down to the ending of most of these movies, so kudos to the writers for making this more of a guessing game. It kept us that much more engaged and invested in the story. A fun fact about this film that you may not know is that this film was produced by country singer Blake Shelton. Not only that, but he also produced the first two films in this franchise as well. Pretty cool, right?
As you probably can guess, I try and find myself in at least one of the characters in every film I watch. It’s purely just something that happens, and I think most movie makers would agree that that’s what they want you to do. I mean, how else can you immerse yourself in a world if you can’t empathize with the characters? Nevertheless, I digress. I found myself absolutely loving Owen (played by Doron Bell). His enthusiasm for the snow and the holiday itself is so sweet that I wish he existed in real life. Of course, nothing holds a candle to his love for his daughter, which makes him all the more endearing. I was also really fond of Jasper’s character, played by Leon. His compassion for everyone he meets is something I find super sweet and it’s lovely to watch him interact with everyone on screen. The way he encourages Owen’s daughter, Cassidy, with her music and his love for his deceased wife, whose name takes on a bigger meaning as we get further into the movie, makes him that much more appealing as a character.
In my opinion, Time For Us To Come Home For Christmas supersedes its predecessors in terms of charm. I loved how every character’s story is connected, all while being set in a warm and cozy Christmas setting. Furthermore, on top of traditional Christmas activities such as baking cookies and a tree lighting, you also get a festive Christmas party to put all the finishing trimmings on this fun film. What could be better than that?
***I do not own this photo.
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