Review: 'Time To Come Home For Christmas'

As I write this, I am about 30 movies into my quest to watch and review every new television Christmas movie I can in 2018. And I've made my peace with the fact that some things are inevitable. Every movie is likely to fade to black as our new holiday lovers enjoy a long-delayed kiss. A surprising number of families will have decided to make Mason Jar snow globes. And every opening "I'm at my office in the big city before I leave unexpectedly for my small hometown" scene shot by Hallmark seems to have taken place in an almost identical hallway.

But as I cringe slightly every time I see a clumsy Christmas movie trope wheeled out once again (I mean, how many family-owned Christmas Tree lots can there be in rural America?),  I am thrilled when I see a movie play around with the format a bit. You don't need to make big changes to vastly improve the average Christmas movie and I even appreciate the moves that don't quite connect.

There is a lot to like about the Hallmark Movies And Mysteries Channel movie "Time To Come Home For Christmas." The plot is part "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" combined with a dash of "Pure Country." But even the familiar touches are charming and whimsical.

Megan Park plays Cara, an Oklahoma woman visiting New York in hopes of getting a loan for her family's business. Stone Bridge Preserves is a well-known made-in-Oklahoma classic, but they need money to retool & to bring out a new line of candies. After her loan request is rejected, she tries to head back home, but a snowstorm threatens her plans. At the same time, country singer Heath Sawyer (Josh Henderson) is in the same boat. His father recently passed away and he is trying to head home to Oklahoma to spend time with his family. And hopefully write a new song, since he's had writer's block since the death of his father. Cara and Heath are thrown together repeatedly as they try and make their way home. And of course, a romance blossoms.

It's never easy when an actor has to pretend to be a world-famous singer. Performers of that caliber have a certain gravity and casual acceptance of their fame that is extremely difficult to capture. But Henderson hits all of the right notes (so to speak) and manages to be both accessible and casually charismatic in a way that seems authentic. 

It also helps that despite some of the familiar plot points, "Time To Come Home For Christmas" deftly manages to create its own path in the Christmas movie genre. Megan Park's Cara is a small-town girl. But she's also a capable businesswoman. Her character breaks with the familiar "smalltown girl in big city learns to love her hometown." She can navigate New York City without apology but her home (and heart) is in Oklahoma. Park makes it all seem effortless and it's easy to see why someone might find Cara a charming and confident woman.

And in the end, the on-camera chemistry between Park and Henderson pulls everything together. The story takes a few unexpected turns and the resolution - other than the inevitable kiss - might also surprise you. "Time To Come Home For Christmas" is what you want in a Christmas movie: some feel-good moments, a couple of surprising twists and the awwww final scene.

A couple of quibbles. One of the movie's plot points is that country singer Heath Sawyer is due in the studio to record a new Christmas song. Which is weird, because the movie is set in the days leading up to Christmas. And no singer is waiting until the week of Christmas before recording a new holiday song. It would have been easy to just have him struggling to write a new single and then write a Christmas song instead after the inspiring trip.

The other issue is Henderson's voice. His first exposure on television was on the competitive singing series "Pop Star," so he obviously can sing. But his voice isn't at all what you would expect to hear from a world-class modern country music star. He is 100 percent the famous singer until the couple of moments in the movie where he sings. He's not bad, he's just not country. 

Despite those mild complaints, "Time To Come Home For Christmas" should be added to all of your "must-watch" lists for the holidays. It's charming, it's sweet and most importantly, it's a throwback to an earlier style of Christmas movie where the romance is less important than the journey to get to that kiss.

"Time To Come Home For Christmas" premiered on the Hallmark Movies And Mysteries Channel on Sunday, December 9th, 2018.