Nov 20

Nov 20 'Countdown to Christmas' movie review: 'Reunited at Christmas'

Amid a catalog of some high-concept or overly complicated stories, the refreshingly grounded holiday romance "Reunited at Christmas" (airing throughout Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas) is closer to a sincere romantic drama than the typical Hallmark holiday film.

In short: Happily unengaged Samantha (Nikki Deloach) brings her boyfriend Simon (Mike Faiola) back to her hometown for one last Christmas in late grandmother's home with her divided family.

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The typical Hallmark movie starts with some adorable meet cute or an unexpected reunion of old flames, but "Reunited" isn't about bringing two strangers together. Samantha and Simon are perfectly fine in their life together. Their respective careers are blossoming and they are a blissfully content couple unencumbered by any expectations of marriage. Instead, it follows a happily unwed couple falling back in love with each other.

So it's just as surprising to the audience as it is to Samantha when Simon proposes to her. And caught up in the moment, Samantha hastily accepts his proposal - only for her to grapple with a previous broken engagement and her parent's failed marriage. And the rest of "Reunited" lives in the conflict between Samantha's lingering doubts and her love for Simon.

Hallmark movies are delights - but some of them really strain the limits of believability: specifically the stories were a couple falls in love and completely shakes up their respective lives ... mere days after meeting each other. These movies can still be totally enjoyable, even if they're closer to fantasy than anything else. If those movies feature two broadly defined characters thrown into a preposterous high-concept plot, then "Reunited" is the complete opposite of that formula.

Samantha and Simon are a pair of beautifully layered characters - and it's all too easy to identify with either of them. Her uncertainty about marriage isn't just because she loves the freedom of being unattached - watching her parents get divorced and her own past relationship soured Samantha on the concept of marriage - but not in a way that makes her cynical or bitter. For his part, Simon is obviously and earnestly in love with Samantha. And he's not blithely unaware - he quickly realizes that Samantha is not excited about getting married, which puts Simon in the difficult place of trying to understand her reticence without trying to push her too hard.

Final verdict: "Reunited" is a more mature and thoughtful addition to the Countdown to Christmas - a humane and lovely romance that also evokes the best aspects of the holiday season.