Meddling Moms and Fake Dating at Christmas
I was a big fan of the 90’s sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch back in the day. (Okay, fine, I happen to have all the DVDs, too. It’s still a fun show.) So when I saw that Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea, who played Sabrina’s aunts on the show, were reuniting for a Hallmark Christmas movie, I was all in. And Holiday Mismatch was as much fun as I was expecting.
Barbara Harrison (Beth Broderick) has recently retired from her job as an accountant and is trying to figure out what to do with her time. So she decides to volunteer for the local Christmas committee that puts on several community events during December. However, she quickly finds that Kath Stone (Caroline Rhea), the head of the committee, is anything but organized. The two start butting heads over almost everything.
Meanwhile, both women are trying to set up their kids via a local app for meddling moms. (Really? We’re going to go there? Yes, I get it has to work for the storyline, but still.) Unbeknowest to each other, they’ve set up Shane Harrison (Jon McLaren) and Lauren Stone (Maxine Denis) on a blind date. It goes better than either of the young adults expects, and they agree to fake date through Christmas to get their mothers off their backs.
However, Barbara and Kath are horrified when they realize what they’ve done. So they set about doing what they can to break the couple up. What will happen as the season unfolds?
Anyone who is surprised at the plot points along the way obviously hasn’t watched very many romantic comedies, much less Hallmark Christmas movies. I wasn’t that surprised by much of anything, including the big act three turn. But, as always, I didn’t really mind. I was having fun. And that’s the most important thing for me when it comes to watching a movie.
I will say one thing that surprised me was that the kids have the personalities of the other mother. I also appreciated that Barbara’s husband was the voice of reason. When he wasn’t driving a couple of plot complications, that is.
Unfortunately, this movie seemed to have its fair share of low budget cheese. It infected the acting from several members of the cast as well as some of the writing. As long as you know to expect that, you should be fine.
Given that the mothers are more of the leads than their kids, I suspect this movie was written for Caroline Rhea and Beth Broderick. I loved a couple of nods to their roles on Sabrina that Kath is given over the course of the movie. And any fans wanting to see them playing off each other again will love this. Their characters are very similar to what they played on Sabrina, but it worked well there and works wonderfully again here.
All told, Holiday Mismatch is another enjoyable Hallmark Christmas movie. As long as you go into it knowing what you’re watching, you’ll be fine.
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