Now for a contender for the most basic film title: A Christmas Love Story. This is part of Hallmark’s Hall of Fame which I think means they spent money on actors and want the film to be remembered in their list of Christmas films. I honestly have no clue. A Christmas Love Story stars Kristin Chenoweth and Scott Wolf who are not your usual Hallmark actors!

Synopsis:

Tony Award-winning Kristin Chenoweth stars as a youth choir director who needs to write a big song for a Christmas Eve show. She is distracted from her task when a boy with a golden voice joins her choir, which comes as a surprise to his widowed father, portrayed by Scott Wolf

I’m ready for lots of singing!

RECAP

We meet Hallmark Heroine Kristin who is currently providing positive feedback to her choir.

Kristin tells the group to take five and talks with the piano man who is worried that she’s going to be late for a fundraising event in a few hours. Kristin assures him that she’s never late.

Kristin is well-connected in New York; she’s a former Broadway actor. The fundraiser is swank as hell and is set up to support her school.

We move on over to Scott Wolf who is a businessman who closes deals. But life can’t be all deals. His assistant asks if he has a special someone to bring to the company Christmas party. Unfortunately for Scott, he’s single and unwilling to mingle. He’s not fully over his DEAD WIFE™.

Back at Kristin’s choir, the poor teacher learns that her star songwriter has pulled out, so her big finale song is no more. It’s up to Kristin to write it herself.

The show must go on though. Kristin is introduced to a high school volunteer named Danny who needs some credits for school. Although he’s tasked with moving props, it turns out he has a golden voice.

She offers him a spot in the choir should he want it.

Kristin speeds off to spend time with her sister and niece, go shopping, write music, and eventually teach the choir. She’s running late for the last one, so she uses a knock-off Uber. Not knowing how these things work, she just jumps into a car. Unfortunately, it already has a passenger in it. But fortunately for the plot, it’s Scott. She and Scott hit it off.

At choir practice, Kristin offers Danny a key role after one performance. Everyone is pleased with this development except for…Scott. He’s Danny’s dad and is a little confused that his son has joined a choir.

Dad isn’t so keen on having his kid sing seeing as it’s a terrible extracurricular when it comes to business school applications, so he takes Danny out.

Danny and Scott butt heads about his desire to sing, with Scott winning out. Dad’s gonna crack though since the whole singing thing came from the DEAD MOM™. He’s also going to crack because Kristin keeps calling and leaving voicemails about Danny’s supernatural singing abilities.

Not only does Kristin telephonically harass Scott, she even goes so far to doorstep him. She pitches for Danny and manages to get Scott to “think about it.” She eventually gets trapped in the house thanks to a snowstorm.

While Danny shovels snow, Kristin and Scott decorate the tree and bond.

The next morning, Kristin departs, leaving Scott a note with a smiley face. They will surely be man and wife by the film’s end. Scott is so taken by the dedicated choir teacher that he lets his kid join the team.

The whimsy continues. Kristin and her sister take Scott and Danny to a knock-off Rockettes show which dazzles them. Scott offers to take everyone out to dinner, but Danny skedaddles away to meet with some of the choir kids and the sis has some Christmas packing to do. This leaves Kristin and Scott alone.

The joy of a potential Christmas bang inspires Kristin to start writing music.

At home, Scott looks at a picture of him and his coworker and smiles. It’s weird to say the least. He goes upstairs to talk to his son. It’s a little stilted until Scott offers hot cocoa, kettle corn, and a Christmas movie marathon ALL NIGHT LONG. The 17-year-old boy can’t resist.

After Scott’s wonderful company party, Scott and Kristin walk romantically through the city streets. She tells the story of how she gave up her baby for adoption. WTF?? They kiss after that, so hooray?

The next morning, Kristin unveils her finale song to Danny and tells him that he’s her choice for the big duet. The other choir members who have worked with her all year must be piiiiiiiiiissed.

In other news, Kristin decides to track down her kid after her out of the blue conversation with Scott. She gets a call from the adoption agency where she submitted her baby ‘lo those many years ago.

Kristin and her long-lost son (??) have a heart-to-heart. She asks for forgiveness and says she’s glad that Scott and his DEAD ADOPTIVE MOM™ raised him. They both start crying.

Scott arrives during rehearsals to support Kristin and ask her to dinner. She gets pretty cagey and rejects poor Scott the widow.

Later that night, Danny reveals to his father that Kristin is his mother.

It’s the night of the Christmas pageant. Kristen steers clear of Scott. To be fair, this isn’t one of those contrived “your girlfriend came back and I saw you kiss” reasons. I’d also probably try not to hook up with my biological son’s adopted father.

Kristin and Danny nail the finale song.

With a spectacular event completed, Kristin gathers the courage to talk to her two boys. Danny dips abruptly to let them talk out the whole insane revelation. It appears that they’re going to stop this romance, but Scott decides to go for it. He says that maybe it’s all meant to be.

Scott invites Kristin over for Christmas. Danny is pretty chill with it. The parents kiss under the mistletoe. FIN.

REVIEW

Wow. So, I was thinking this would be incredibly boring. Kristin and Scott actually keep your interest and are nice to watch. It was going down a paint-by-numbers sort of thing, but that curveball in Act III sent this film into the stratosphere. That adoption threadline came out of nowhere. Not even a sniff of it in the build up! You got me, Hallmark.

Thanks to the adopted son piece, this gets my highest rating: 4 out of 5 adopted sons with the voices of angels.

STRAY THOUGHTS

• I always found Scott Wolf’s nose to be very small. He still has such a boyish look.
• For once, the Hallmark Heroine doesn’t know how to bake and is taught by the two boys. Her bag is singing so she can be forgiven for this indiscretion.
• Danny is into a chick named Nora. It’s like a hint of a secondary love story, but nothing happens with it which I am grateful for.
• Who was Danny’s dad?

NEXT UP

We’re back to slumming it with Holiday Date. In this one, a lady wants a boyfriend and gets a Jewish guy to be her fake significant other for Christmas at home.