Watched: I think 12/12/2025
Format: Hallmark
Viewing: Second?
Director: Stefan Scaini
Job: Phony event planner
Location of story: Ireland somewhere
new skill: Faking it til she's making it
Man: Stuart Townsend
Job of Man: Earl? Duke? Something./ Architect
Goes to/ Returns to: Goes to
Event: Christmas Soiree
Food: I forget
My intention with these posts is not to get overly meta, but when this movie ended I said to Jamie:
I rewatched this one because I barely wrote it up before, and couldn't remember it at all, and now that I've rewatched it, I am not going to remember it in three weeks.
Y'all, I didn't even remember to write up Christmas at Castle Hart (2021) the night we watched it. And I only rewatched it because I felt I needed to write it up.
I don't know what kind of personal purgatory I've sent myself to with my whimsy, but here we are.
On to the show.
Chabert plays a caterer who gets fired from her gig because her sister (Ali Hardiman) is a real piece of work but Chabert is a good girl and supports her dimwitted sister. The two head to Ireland to look up some family genealogy since they have the holidays and time to spare (and famously no one is short-handed for catering help during Christmas, and money is not a thing in Hallmarkland).
Their plan: When they get back to the US, they plan to start their own event planning company, but whilst in Ireland - drink?
Well, instead of a relaxing time in the Emerald Isle confusion and lies abound, and Chabert poses as her former boss - an event planner to the stars, hitching herself to a major local event in a sleepy town in a generic North American version of "Ireland" based on post cards and Lucky Charms commercials.
The event Chabert pirates her way onto is being thrown by Man's Sister for a local duchess. Man's Sister clearly doesn't know what she's doing at all if she's planning a party and looking for an event planner with like two weeks to go - I'm assuming someone quit or got sick and had no Plan B. With the tight timeline, the pressure is put on lyin' Chabert, who is not an event planner, local, and has no way to do this.
Meanwhile, Chabert falls for Man for reasons, but I have no idea what they would be as the two barely seem like friendly work acquaintances.
Sister is in a different movie entirely. She is WACKY. And keeps making things worse. I think she's banging the duchess's son by the end of the film.
IMHO, the duchess should have been played by a man in drag doing a Monty Python falsetto. That's how she's written, and that's what I wanted.
Somehow nothing in this movie sticks. I can't say why. It's like a psy-op to make you forget how you spent 80+ minutes. I am sure everyone has arcs, but all I remember is that the sisters' secret gets exposed at the Christmas Ball, and everyone is like "it's fine". And then the movie just sort of ends. If they stay in Ireland, I have no idea.
My feeling is that this was supposed to be funny, and only Ali Hardiman got that note. The movie we get just sort of ambles from scene to scene. There's a b-plot about the sisters wanting to find out about their ancestry, but whenever it pops up, it's like "what? Oh. Right. I forgot I was here to solve a mystery as I am embroiled in this horrendous pack of lies."
I never understand movies like this, full stop. It's one thing if your lead is lying for nefarious reasons or for survival, but 1) do not say you are someone that is highly google-able, and 2) you cannot repeat the lie without being caught, so what is the plan here? They can't even pay you as you can't cash their check. So what's the point, really? Also, contracts do not exist in this universe, just pleasant smiles.
And I know this isn't that kind of movie, but... it's also the kind of thing that makes me think trying marginally harder would make the movie make that much more sense. And it would be terrifying to let someone into your home and life for 1-2 weeks and then find out "oh, yeah, no... they're an unemployed waiter from Poughkeepsie".
But these movies rarely end with people going no contact with the romantic lead.
Is it stupid? Yes. Surprisingly so for a premise that should have been pretty easy to carry off.
But I want to say - this may have been produced at the height of COVID, so god knows what has happening with this movie behind the scenes that made it feel so off.
Is Chabert good? Maybe? I don't know. I know she wears a lovely gown at the end of the movie. That was nice. But I think if there are problems, it's with the writing and directing. Chabert's doing her thing, and the movie is just all over the place.
Btw, we watched this a week ago, and I asked Jamie "remember when we watched the Irish movie with Lacey Chabert?" and, y'all, she looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I had to spend serious energy reminding her of details, and even then, it's possible she had no idea what I was talking about and just wanted the conversation to end so she agreed she's seen it.
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