Five Star Christmas
Another spin on the big family Christmas
Once December 1st hits and my Christmas trees (yes, plural) are up, I start to pivot to the more classic Christmas movies and away from the TV movies. And when I do watch TV movies, I try to stick to current year additions because otherwise there are just waaaay too many.
Five Star Christmas was a 2020 release but I misread the blurb and watched it anyway, and now I’m legit glad that I did. Quite enjoyable!
Lucy Ralston and her siblings Amber and Will (plus Will’s wife, Suzanne) go home for Christmas only to find that their longtime widow father, Ted, has converted their family home mansion into a B&B. Word on the tree-lined, festive local street is that a secret B&B reviewer is in town and they’re all on alert in case she ends up at their B&B.
Lo and behold, Beth, the reviewer, shows up and the siblings and their dad agree to pretend to be staff and guests to help secure the coveted 5-Star review. And as quickly as they agree to the ruse, but a second surprise guest (Jake) arrives, so now they have two people they need to keep up act for.
The guests, real and pretend, take part in many classic Christmas activities - Dickensian costumes for carollers, Christmas tree farms, snowman building, BJL sings… there’s one of everything.
Oh, and romance. Obvs. BUT, I will say that I totally bought into Bethany Joy Lenz (Lucy) and Victor Webster (Jake)’s blossoming romance. Unlike many (most?) of Hallmark fare that seems SO rushed and based on, well, very little, these two had decent opportunities to depict actual adults having actual conversations and actually connecting to each other. And they were allowed a mid-third act kiss - practically scandalous in the Hallmark world.
Spoiler - the big twist is that Jake was the actual secret reviewer who writes using a female pen name, and the dad ends up falling for Beth, the other surprise guest.
SCORE: 7/10
Tell me more!
When a travel writer shows up unexpectedly at their dad's B&B, the Ralston family all pretend to be guests in hopes of a good review. Lucy falls for guest Jake but can't share her secret. Stars Bethany Joy Lenz and Victor Webster.
