“Promise You Won’t Be Mad When I Tell You What I Did?” “No!”
When I’d been looking at Christmas movies last year, Jingle Bell Run caught my eye. As a fan of The Amazing Race, a movie centered around a holiday themed race around the country sounded like fun. While the movie was predictable, it was still enjoyable.
Avery (Ashley Williams) is a bookworm and teacher whose family has all made other plans for the holiday. However, they’ve decided to sign her up for The Great Holiday Dash so she doesn’t spend the holiday alone. However, she didn’t think the idea of a holiday by herself was all that bad.
Meanwhile, Wes (Andrew W. Walker) has retired from hockey. He’s struggling to find his place in the world, especially as he finds his star is fading quickly.
The two meet before the race starts and don’t get off on the right foot. But things get more complicated this year when the race decides to pair up the contestants. You guessed it, Avery and Wes are teamed up. Can they find a way to work together win the prize?
If you’ve watched a romantic comedy at all, you know exactly where this is going to go. Even the complication that comes near the beginning of act 3 is predictable. I will say, I like how that complication was handled overall. It showed maturity from the characters plus the writers didn’t try to milk it for more than they should have.
Having said that, I feel like a few things get introduced and then dropped. But I get it, we are supposed to get to know some of the other teams and watch them solve clues and do tasks and have travel snags. There was a lot to cram into a movie that’s just under 90 minutes.
So this is maybe a movie to turn off the logic and expectations a bit more than some of the others. If you can’t do that, you’ll find plenty of flaws. But if you just go with the flow of the movie, you’ll find a fun movie with some romance.
I’d say the romance is the one thing that is handled well. The action slow down enough for us to witness Avery and Wes getting to know each other. Okay, so it’s still incredibly fast, but I bought it.
With everything going on, only the leads get a chance for much in the way of real acting challenges. They both do good jobs. The rest of the cast is fine with what they are given, but it isn’t much.
This is really probably a 3.5 movie if you are being generous, but I’m rounding up. I know, I know. But I had fun while I was watching it, and I appreciate them attempting something this ambitious.
The real problem is, this movie was too ambitious for a Hallmark movie, especially with the run time they have. I feel like an extra 30 minutes would have given them enough run time to really develop this properly.
So yes, I do recommend Jingle Bell Run as long as you go into it with the proper expectations. But if you can do that, you’ll find yourself enjoy this race to the finish.
This movie is part of this two movie set.
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