“See, He Gets It.” “No, He’s Being Sarcastic.”
When I was looking at Christmas movies in 2024, two that were obviously Hallmark poking a little fun at themselves caught my eye. Considering they also starred actresses I like, I had to give them a chance. The first one I watched was Sugarplummed, and it was a delight.
Emily (Maggie Lawson) is a lawyer with a family. Between juggling her demanding job and her efforts to create the perfect Christmas for her teenagers, December is a very stressful time. But she has her list of the things she needs to do to make this Christmas perfect for her family.
However, things are going wrong. Frustrated, she makes a wish that her life could be like the Sugarplum movies. This extremely popular franchise on the Harmony Home network features a character who is great at bringing Christmas magic to life with movies that always end happily.
Much to Emily’s surprise, Sugarplum (Janel Parrish) pops out of the screen and into the real world. She even comes with her book of rules for a magical Christmas. And they seem to be working even though Sugarplum is now in the real world. Could this be the ticket to Emily’s perfect Christmas?
Yes, we’ve seen this kind of story telling before. Disney’s Enchanted comes to mind. But I didn’t care in the slightest. I enjoyed all the winks Hallmark put in. If I caught quite a few, I’m sure a diehard fan would spot even more than I did. And yes, that includes a few Hallmark channel stalwarts who have cameos.
But what really makes the movie work is the chemistry between Maggie Lawson and Janel Parrish. Honestly, I thought Janel’s over-the-top performance as Sugarplum was going to get annoying. I couldn’t have been more wrong; she is perfect, and I was sold on her performance after just a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, Maggie has just the right gravitas to anchor the movie. The two play off each other wonderfully. There are so many laughs from just the two of them. The rest of the cast is great as well, but these two really do shine.
Yes, the movie is fairly predictable. I didn’t have all the details nailed down, but I wasn’t that surprised when some of the twists came along. But I didn’t care. Yep, I was having fun.
And the Christmas touches were nice. Things looked great, and there’s a great Christmas song as well.
Sugarplummed didn’t come out until December of 2024, so it might have been a little harder to catch. If you’ve missed it, I highly recommend you watch for it again. This was a delightful addition to Hallmark’s Christmas movie collection.
Sugarplummed is part of this DVD collection of Hallmark Christmas movies.
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