Hallmark For All Seasons

“The Christmas Promise,” starring Torrey DeVitto, Dylan Bruce and Patrick Duffy, aired on October 30 during 2021’s Miracles of Christmas on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel. It also featured Giles Panton as DeVitto’s deceased fiancé, Henry.

Kathy Kloves provided the screenplay.  Hallmark fans thoroughly enjoyed her other Hallmark movie this year, It Was Always You (I enjoyed it as well). Director Fred Gerber was in charge of “Sand Dollar Cove,” also from earlier this year. The movie was filmed in and around Vancouver, Canada, including some scenes in Langley, where a LOT of Hallmark movies film.

I like this movie poster.  Similar to Coyote Creek Christmas it doesn’t show a whole lot as far as what the story will be, but I dig the darkening sky because it tells me this is more of a dramatic movie in tone.  And then the sunlight peeking in tells me it’s still going to be a happy ending.  Very nice even if it’s not colorful.

Music: I tried to identify all the songs, but the only one I could get was the Stuart Roslyn song with Ray Dixie, Christmas Time.

In a nutshell

This was a GREAT movie, you guys.  Simply fabulous.  It had a nice mix of emotional vulnerability as well as a couple who genuinely developed a friendship that blossomed into something more.  So well done, and I really, really liked it.

The Plot of “The Christmas Promise”

Nicole learns to deal with grief, with the help of her grandfather and a carpenter she hires to renovate the home that was once meant for her and her fiancé. 

Actors & Chemistry

Torrey DeVitto was perfectly cast as Nicole.  She had the perfect balance of stoicism and sadness throughout the movie, and yet showed her slowly open up to Joe’s friendship as well.  I enjoyed DeVitto’s scenes with Patrick Duffy, even if he should have played her FATHER not her GRANDfather.

I thought Dylan Bruce as Joe was well cast, but I’m SO SAD that once again Giles Panton didn’t get the play the lead.  HALLMARK, GIVE THAT MAN A LEAD ROLE, PLEASE!!!  I also laughed when I saw Matthew James Dowden pop up for the fourth time in 6-7 weeks as a secondary character (this time he played Nicole’s best friend Alan).

The general cast chemistry was good, even if I preferred the friend vibes between Nicole and Joe.  I didn’t necessarily buy them as romantic interests and the kiss at her apartment literally came out of nowhere.

Tropes

Pretty kitty on the store counter!  That was a gorgeous cat.  Old red Ford truck! Beautiful house with a front porch. CGI snow. And at this point we were only 7 minutes in.

Nicole was wearing a big scarf when she met the realtor at the house.  Speaking of which – they filmed the movie in August, so I’m sure the actors were SWEATY as they did all the outdoor scenes in bulky winter coats and scarves!

Empty coffee cup sighting.  Two handed drinking, but she was drinking tea.  I kept looking for a snowglobe and we finally got one as lawn decor at the holiday festival. Nicole eventually went tree shopping, even after she started decorating the giant town tree.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

The biggest plot hole of the whole movie is that Teddy set up Joe to be Nicole’s carpenter at the house, but they never swapped numbers?  Surely even if I never want to walk in the house my dead fiancé was working on, I’d still want the carpenter be able to get in touch with me OTHER than randomly meeting in town every day?  That’s the main issue with the movie.  In the real world, she’d know he had the number.

Does Nicole’s sister bring a casserole PER DAY?  Because she’s in an apartment with a single fridge – there’s no way all those casseroles would still be fit to eat if she was getting one a week.  So she basically narrowly avoided food poisoning by heating up casseroles that sat in her fridge for weeks.

I admit I’m not a great knitter, but I sincerely doubt her new business “Nic’s Knits” will succeed because if one store sold so many things in such a short amount of time, she will NOT be able to keep up with demand.

Feelgoods

Those white robes the women wore on their spa day looked divinely soft and fluffy!

I love that Nicole bought the Charlie Brown tree to have in her apartment.

So I already said that the kiss at her apartment came out of nowhere, and that I preferred the characters as friends, but I still laughed in delight when she randomly kissed him a few seconds later.

General Thoughts

Knowing that the mystery text friend wasn’t a ghost, it was obvious that it was going to be Joe who was texting Nicole from Henry’s old number.  Even with that, I didn’t understand why he left her at the restaurant after realizing who she was.  They had just shared a kiss moments earlier in the evening – so why not let her find out that the person she’s been confiding in and becoming emotionally intimate with is the same person?  I watched this movie while typing in my notes, and was gratified that Nicole basically said the same thing I did.  He should have gone in and met her at the restaurant!

Re-watchability of “The Christmas Promise”

This is the kind of Hallmark movie that if I happened to see that it was on, I’d tune in for a bit, but I may not watch the whole thing.  I definitely liked it, but I’m not sure it’s a rewatchable in the sense of deliberately making the choice to re-watch it.

The Ranking

“The Christmas Promise” was a winner and the score shows.  It’s interesting that it’s final score nearly tied with Karen Kloves’ other movie this year, “It Was Always You.”

1. The Santa Stakeout (air date: Oct 24) – 730 pts – weighted score: 122.3 (85.8%)
2. You, Me and The Christmas Trees (air date: Oct 22) – 716 pts – weighted score: 121.3 (85.1%)
3. Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
4. Boyfriends of Christmas Past (air date: Oct 23) – 673 pts – weighted score: 116.1 (81.5%)
5. It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
6. The Christmas Promise (air date: Oct 30) – 675 pts – weighted score: 114.1 (80.0%)
7. Christmas In My Heart (air date: Oct 23) – 675 pts – weighted score: 113.9 (79.9%)
8. You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
9. Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
10. Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
11. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
12. Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
13. As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
14. Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
15. The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)
16. Love Strikes Twice (air date: Oct 2) – 608 pts – weighted score: 105.2 (73.8%)
17. Christmas in Harmony (air date: Oct 29) – 605 pts – weighted score: 104.8 (73.5%)
18. A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
19. Coyote Creek Christmas (air date: Oct 30) – 614 pts – weighted score: 104.3 (73.2%)
20. Love, For Real (air date: July 31) – 607 pts – weighted score: 103.6 (72.7%)
21. Rise and Shine, Benedict Stone (air date: Oct 1) – 595 pts – weighted score: 103.0 (72.2%)
22. Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
23. Advice to Love By (air date: Oct 16) – 599 pts – weighted score: 102.2 (71.7)
24. Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
25. Taking the Reins (air date: Sept 28) – 574 pts – weighted score: 101.2 (71.0%)
26. Raise a Glass to Love (air date: Sept 18) – 590 pts – weighted score: 100.7 (70.7%)
27. Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
28. Roadhouse Romance (air date: Sept 11) – 571 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
29. Sweet Pecan Summer (air date: ) – 576 pts – weighted score: 97.3 (68.3%)
30. Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
31. Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
32. Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
33. A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
34. Finding Love in Mountain View (air date: ) – 504 pts – weighted score: 89.5 (62.8%)
35. A Little Daytime Drama (air date: Aug 21) – 511 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
36. Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
37. Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
38. Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
39. Journey of my Heart (air date: ) – 450 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)
40. Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)

To see where this movie lands in my overall rankings of Hallmark movies, visit my Hallmark Movie Rankings page!

What did you think of “The Christmas Promise”?  Comment below and let me know!