My goodness, but I love Jill Wagner. She is a doll. And that Victor Webster, with his chiseled face – he’s fabulous. And someone at Hallmark needs to greenlight a leading role for the lovely Rukiya Bernard! The last installment of this year’s Winterfest, Hallmark’s “Hearts of Winter,” originally aired on January 25, 2020. This movie is notable as being the first movie Jill Wagner produced for Hallmark. It was filmed entirely in British Columbia. And it was clearly cold when they filmed because in several outdoor scenes you could see the actors’ breath when they spoke!
In a nutshell
The movie was enjoyable, but a lot of plot holes made this one score lower than it could have. And I acknowledge that my plot nitpicks are due entirely because this is a 90 minute movie (without commercials) and they just don’t have time to close all the loops that make no sense. But the fact is, when those issues become a focus, it becomes a distraction. I ended up having to watch this movie TWICE before my notes made any sense because I had so many questions.
But that’s not to say I didn’t like it – I did. Just not as much as I hoped I would.
Plot
Bethany (Jill Wagner), an interior designer, brings new life to the house of Grant (Victor Webster), a widower and father, after his daughter submits their house into a home makeover contest that Bethany is sponsoring. Will they find love in the process?
Actors/Chemistry
We’re going to combine the actor and chemistry category in the reviews going forward since I tend to repeat the same things in both sections! They will remain separate in my spreadsheet to keep scoring intact, but when talking about them, it’ll be combined.
This was a great cast that all worked really well together. Hallmark fans will recall that Wagner and Webster have already worked together once – in 2017’s “A Harvest Wedding” (a movie that had a gorgeous-looking outdoor wedding at the end). And Evergreen fans will know that Wagner and Bernard co-starred in the 2nd chapter of those holiday movies in 2018.
From a character perspective, I did have issue with the way Grant reacted to his wife’s broken bowl near the end of the movie. His reaction was a bit jarring, and I couldn’t tell if it was because of the writing or because of the way Webster played that scene. I didn’t feel a sense of heartbreak that losing that kind of memento would bring. For instance, I have an unopened bottle of my grandmother’s favorite perfume that I took from her apartment when she passed away. I think if that bottle were to get broken, I’d be devastated. Sure, I could get another bottle of it off Amazon any time I wanted, but it wouldn’t be the one that she had in her apartment. And while I didn’t expect Grant to collapse on the floor in grief, I still expected more than the reaction he gave.
Other than that one scene, the actors in this movie were all stellar and had great interaction and chemistry.
Six Degrees of Kris Polaha: Well obviously Wagner is one step away, making Webster and Bernard both two steps away. Easiest round of the game ever!
Tropes
I did see several tropes. Obviously we had the single dad with the cute kid. They drank plenty of hot cocoa throughout, and made a snowman (thankfully, out of real snow). Bethany wore plenty of big scarves. We also had ice skating on a tiny little rink. There were a few others, but I can’t find my notes (it’s been a crazy week (and it’s why this review is so late in getting posted)) to write them all down.
Did I Hear/See That Right?
Okay, let’s talk about this home makeover contest.
First, this contest just seemed kind of thrown together with little forethought. She announces the contest, then TWO DAYS LATER picks the winner all because a magazine wants to feature the makeover in their next issue. Once again, it’s a case of Hallmark not understanding how magazines work – they do not begin creating content for the February issue in January. But in any event, she has to pick a winner in two days AND meet the winner AND then get the house done in 3 weeks.
What annoyed me was that when Bethany first arrived at Grant’s house, she and her assistant started going through the house discussing what they’d do, without consulting Grant AT ALL about what HE might want to do in the house. That is the sign of a bad interior designer. Fortunately, Bethany makes up for this by admitting later in the movie that she needed to include him in the process more, which she does, but that first 30-45 minutes? She ran roughshod all over him with nary a concern about what he might want his house to look like when all was said and done.
And by the way, who was PAYING for all this stuff going into Grant’s house? Near the end of the movie, he joked that getting free furniture was the best part of the makeover process. So who paid for the furniture? Surely Bethany didn’t pay for it. Did the magazine pay for it? They only came into the picture AFTER Bethany announced the contest, so how did she plan on paying for it BEFORE the magazine stepped up to do a story on it?
One other nitpick is that at the beginning of the movie he claims that he’s super busy as the activities director at the resort, and then spends the rest of the movie pawning off all his work onto some poor woman named Lisa. Lisa deserves a raise after that, y’all.
Feelgoods
I didn’t really have many feelgood moments other than loving the overall winter vibe of the movie.
Re-watchability
I’ve already watched this twice, so the question is: would I watch this a THIRD time? I’m not sure I would. As much as I love the actors, this wasn’t my favorite Winterfest movie. I’d probably seek out a different one if I was in the mood watch watch a winter Hallmark movie.
The Ranking
“Hearts of Winter” sits smack dab in the middle of the pack for this year’s Winterfest movies.
- Winter in Vail (air date: Jan 4) – 623 pts – weighted score: 108.8 (76.4%)
- Love On Iceland (air date: Jan 18) – 563 pts – weighted score: 99.4 (69.7%)
- Hearts of Winter (air date: Jan 25) – 561 pts – weighted score: 98.2 (68.9%)
- Love in Winterland (air date: Jan 11) – 508 pts – weighted score: 90.7 (63.6%)
- Amazing Winter Romance (air date: Jan 20) – 487 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.1%)
To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!
What did you think of Hallmark’s “Hearts of Winter”? Comment below and let me know!
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