Check Inn to Christmas (2019 Hallmark)

Check Inn to Christmas (2019 Hallmark)

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Synopsis (via Hallmark)

When New York City lawyer Julia Crawley returns to her Rocky Mountain hometown and her family’s lovely inn for the holidays, she finds herself at the center of a generations-old feud with the family that runs the town’s other inn. As the ongoing competition between the two inns escalates, “forbidden” romance blossoms between Julia and Roger Mason, whose family runs the inn that is her family’s big competitor.

Thoughts

Julia Crawley is a lawyer who is up for a promotion to senior associate. (Her friend Melissa is also up for the same job.) While the partners (One of them is Tim Reid!) make a decision, Julia is going home to Colorado to help her father with the family inn. On her way home, a handsome man named Ryan Mason stops her to give her a laptop she left on the train.

Once she is home, her family is thrilled; she is back and hopes she will stay forever. Her dad (Al from Home Improvement.) is particularly overbearing and competitive about holiday decorations/traditions. He wants his Inn to be the best in town and is feuding with another family-run inn in town. (Run by Ryan, the handsome man, and his family.)

Even though Julia and Ryan’s families are rivals, the two are not at odds with each other. They both see the fancy Edgestone Resort in a nearby town as the real enemy. (Both small family businesses have been offered to be bought out, and both turned them down, for now.) To distract themselves from real problems, the families partake in a snowball toss. (Which is like skee ball with snowballs! Looks fun.) It comes down to a shoot out, and Ryan wins. He also places a bet with Julia that he can take her out for dinner if he wins.

There is no rest for anyone in the Crawley family. Julia’s dad is insistent on his daughters, helping him decorate the inn to out merry the Mason Family’s decoration. The girls help decorate and talk about how the feud is outdated.

Julia and Ryan meet to get coffee and brainstorm about saving their family inns. Edgestone Resort offers amenities that neither one of them can compete with. Ryan is confused as to why Julia cares if she left the town. In the next scene, they apologize and get some hot chocolate while talking. They realize if they convince their fathers to join forces to defeat Edgestone. They decide to gather all the family members together to make Christmas baskets for the troops.

At basket making, the fathers bicker over the proper way to make a Christmas basket. They don’t seem to hate each other, and the rivalry appears to make them happy. Later at Christmas trivia, everyone finds out that the bar owner and the whole strip of stores sold to Edgestone Resort.

After the failed attempt to bring the families together, Julia cuts the power to the kitchen forcing her father to call the Mason family to ask if they can borrow some kitchen space to prepare for the Christmas bake-off. The father does start to realize a shared enemy and talk about it with the business owners who are going to sell. (The paperwork hasn’t been signed, but the writing is on the wall.)

Julia comes up with an idea; she thinks the Masons and Crawleys can buy the bar if they pool their money. Then they would build their fancy resort with a spa and a gym. She pitches the idea to Ryan, and they work up the contract, business proposal, and budget.

At the town Christmas dance, Ryan and Julia talk to their families. Then they slow dance while everyone mulls it over. Julia tells Ryan that she got the promotion, and she will have to go back to New York. He says that he is happy for her and she deserves it.

The families agree to the proposal, and Ryan offers to impliment and run the new joint family inn. The family feud is over!

Julia and Ryan meet in the town square with beautiful Christmas lights. Julia is not going to take the promotion and start a law firm in the town. She wants to stay in town for her family, a job she can be proud of, and Ryan. They kiss, and we get a title card that reads “The End” (Thanks, Hallmark!)

Side Note

Minority Report: Blake. The mayor

Wes Brown and Rachel Boston have good chemistry.

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Overall rating

🎄🎄🎄 (3 Christmas Trees)

🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required)