Casual Hallmark viewers may not be aware that Hallmark pulled a movie off their Christmas roster and shelved it in 2019. Fortunately, they dusted off the movie and presented “A New Year’s Resolution” last night, January 9, 2021. It was filmed in and around Winnipeg, Canada.
It was very surprisingly that it got removed, since behind the scenes it featured many good things. First, Lesley Demetriades directed and Stan Spry and his team at Cartel Pictures produced. Sarah Montana (Two Turtle Doves) wrote the screenplay. Not only that, but the movie starred Hallstar Michael Rady and Aimee Teegarden, who last starred in 2018’s “Once Upon a Christmas Miracle” on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel. It has pedigree written all over it. No one knows why it was pulled from the schedule, but it was nice that they brought it back.
In a nutshell
I was so looking forward to this movie, and while I liked certain things about it, this was a miss.
Plot of “A New Year’s Resolution”
When a morning show producer makes a New Year’s resolution to say yes more, she crosses paths with a confirmed Yes man who just might hold the key to her biggest story and to her heart.
Actors & Chemistry
Let me start by saying I LOVED Kelly’s friends in this movie. My favorite scene was when Kelly and one friend were at the obstacle course and the friend said, “Maybe Tom will be here. Isn’t that his name? Tom? TOM?” and got progressively louder in case he was nearby. That is a true friend right there.
Rady is radiant. I just adore him in all his movies and even when it is a flawed movie, he is still great. And while I know a lot of people have a dislike of Aimee Teegarden because of her character on “Friday Night Lights,” I thought she was good in this, even if her character is not necessarily a good person (more on that later). But from a chemistry standpoint, I liked Teegarden and Rady together.
Tropes
Almost NO tropes in a movie that began with Christmas Eve. How is that even possible? Of the ones we did get, we had the movie opened with a big city drone shot. We had a few empty coffee cup shots as well. The characters enjoyed some hot cocoa and attended a fancy dress gala for the bank.
Did I Hear/See That Right?
So here is something I have noticed in a few Hallmark movies recently, and now I obsessed with it. It was noticable in “Christmas in Vienna” and now again in this movie. There are times when the actors are filming over-the-shoulder shots, and it is CLEAR the the person facing camera is NOT looking at their fellow actor. Sarah Drew did it in a scene in “Christmas in Vienna” with Brennan Elliott, and Aimee Teegarden did it with Michael Rady at the obstacle course scene. In the 2nd picture below it looks like she’s not speaking, but I managed to pause the movie in between words she was speaking after he called her a pessimist. WHAT IS SHE LOOKING AT, CUZ IT AIN’T HIM!!?!?!?!?
I think it was not smart for the TV station to put on the morning show that she was going to say yes to every social invitation she gets. All the crazies will be begin calling the station asking for dates!
I wanted to just ignore the whole bank fraud storyline. It was not well executed at all. Let’s face it. Tom should have immediately gone to the legal department instead of “I told Kelly I’d tell her first.” And Kelly should have known that it is completely unethical to ask Tom to come to her for the story instead of going through the proper channels at work to report the fraud.
Feelgoods
I really appreciated that this was one of the rare Hallmark movies where the attraction was there right from the get go. Tom invites her to a NYE party after they meet, which is obvious intent. And then when they see each other at the Polar Plunge, he declines to ask her out (at her invitation) when she HAS to say yes and says he’ll wait until the month is over. And then at speed dating he confirms his interest again by just telling her, “There is no world in which I say no” to her asking him out.
I loved that during speed dating Tom’s friend Patrick used his 3 1/2 minutes to pitch to Kelly why Tom was so great. And that Kelly’s friend used her 3 1/2 minutes with Tom to grill him for info.
Re-watchability
Even though I really liked the fact that these two did not hide the fact that they liked each other, it wasn’t enough for me to want to watch “A New Year’s Resolution” again. *insert sad face here*
The Ranking
“A New Year’s Resolution” obviously ends up in 2nd place after two movies, but we’ll see how it fares as the year progresses. 63.5% is a pretty low score, although I’ve given out lower before. The only thing that kept this movie from ranking even lower was the cast and their chemistry.
- Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
- A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!
What did you think of “A New Year’s Resolution”? Comment below and let me know!
I found this one pretty bad. It was a shame because It had such a fun theme. The bank story made no sense what so ever. Also, it was just moving so fast and they didn’t need all the gimmicks of all the events. They should have cut out the Checkers game at the cafe as it did nothing at all. ( also who the heck picks checkers at a board game cafe) The first third was fine but the 2nd half was really confusing. I wish we could have seen the side characters doing their resolutions. I give it a 4/10. Also hate that they changed the name of the season. Winterfest was a fun one.
LOVE LOVE LOVE your reviews! Criticisms are absolutely SPOT-ON! I have a few generalized “HM Movie Beefs” about lots of them so I’ll look forward to see if mine crop up in your reviews. Sometimes, I wonder if they take the time & effort to get outsiders unfamiliar with the movie to closely watch it for the kind of overlooked details you mentioned. Seems to me it would up the quality of HM Movies quite significantly!