Ms. Christmas Comes To Town

It's the holiday season. What? It's not even Halloween! But, come now. Canadian Thanksgiving happened weeks ago. You all know that means it is the start of the Christmas season. After all, these Hallmark Channel films have a large Canadian component!

Well, it's the holiday season (we have a few Jewish films these days and if there are some Kwanza or other themed movies tossed in, it would not surprise) on Hallmark Channel. I personally have two channels now, including Hallmark Channel Movies and Mysteries. I am not a big fan of the "cozy" mysteries but some of the holiday films are good.  

Ms. Christmas Comes To Town has a familiar trio of stars, especially "Ms. Christmas" (a home shopping host) and the male love interest. Ms. Christmas' assistant and chosen replacement is also fairly well known, especially if you are a fan of certain television programs. 

All three do a good job here, especially Barbara Niven (who is in a lot of Hallmark stuff), who has a more serious than usual job here. After all, the plot is that it's her final run because she finds out she doesn't have too long to live. So, her last hurrah is a national tour of sorts (thus the title) with the guy coming along as her nurse. Mixing with the budding romance between the nurse and her assistant, an old love of her returns too.  

This is not totally new material for Niven as shown in the independent film A Perfect Ending. (That will be a bit of a surprise for some of her fans since it contains a lesbian angle.) I won't say the end of this film is "perfect," but do think it was fine. It was not quite your typical ending (the credits rolling was a tad surprising) but I think it worked fine. I enjoyed the film.

Hallmark is (up to a point, fairly) ridiculed for its films. We are talking about a company known for its greeting cards. As I recently noted, CBS used to have "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movies that were supposed to be elite television. Loving Leah, for instance, fell under their banner. 

Many of these films are not that deep. That's fine. The films regularly deal with important topics, including addressing grief and moving on. Family is a big part of these films too, including created families. 

They try to be more diverse these days. One this week had a woman who was scheduled to go to the space station but a car accident made her medically unqualified. Her love interest is a divorced dad with a daughter in a wheelchair. The love interest's parents are in an interracial marriage. I did not see the whole movie. Am not sure if there is GLBTQ content!

(An upcoming film, which looks promising, involves a blind man with a daughter. A recent film involved a woman who went blind.)  

One promotion noted that there will be a new film a week. So, I'm sure they will not all be gems. But, there surely will be a lot, deep into the night. And, this one was very good. Check it out if it comes on.