A Heidelberg Holiday movie review by Movie Review Mom!

MOVIE TITLE: A Heidelberg Holiday
This delightful, albeit cheesy, movie is now available on Netflix, Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Hallmark Movies Now, and Apple TV.

RATING: TV-G
LENGTH: 1 hour 28 minutes
Movie Review Mom GRADE: B

SPONSOR of Today’s movie review:
One of the themes of the movie features learning about our heritage and honoring our family’s legacy. My twin sister and I wrote a book about how to research your family’s roots and climb your family tree.

You can purchase it on Amazon and even snag a FREE copy of it on Kindle from January 1 – 5, 2025! Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/2PNW9bh

IN A NUTSHELL:
The story is about Heidi, who heads to the Heidelberg Christmas market to sell her hand-painted ornaments. While there, she falls for a local artisan who helps her reconnect with her lost heritage.
The film was directed and written by Maclain Nelson.

I was excited to see this because I’ve been to Heidelberg, Germany and thought it was so charming. Even more, I’m going to Germany this year to see a bunch of the Christmas markets along the Rhine River! I’m soooo excited! It’s going to be freezing, but magical!

THINGS I LIKED:
Ginna Claire Mason plays Heidi Heidelberg. Yes, that’s her name! She’s sugary-sweet in this role. Did you know she played Glinda in Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre, after going on the national tour? She sings in this movie too.
Frederic Brossier plays the romantic lead. I had never seen him in anything before. I thought he did a good job and was definitely believable.
Hallmark’s Christmas movie linup is called “Countdown to Christmas”. During the second scene, Heidi says to her father, “Dad, you know it’s still Thanksgiving for another nine hours!” He replies, “Yeah, but my countdown to Christmas started the last week of October.”
Hallmark actually offers a new keepsake Christmas ornament every year, a tradition they have carried since 1973, so the fact that the protagonist in the story makes and sells ornaments is a terrific way to honor their 50 years of holiday collections!
We get to spend a lot of time in Heidelberg! The majority of the movie is actually filmed there and we get to see some of the touristy sites with Heidi. Yay!
It’s fun to learn about some of the German Christmas traditions. My grandmother grew up in German!
I admit that I get tired of seeing the same actors in all of the Hallmark movies, so I appreciated this new cast.
I liked how the movie ended by showing a new kind of beginning (no spoilers). It featured artists coming together in a new, creative way.
It was interesting that the movie included mention about how aggressively Americans tend to sell their products as compared to the “soft sell” style in Europe.
I loved how they showed a tradition of setting a service goal and then the characters shared with their family how their projects went. Great idea!

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:
The ending romance is extremely predictable.
For a woman working the Christmas market booth, she sure had a lot of spare time to hang out and play tourist!
It would have been fun to see more of the booths at the Christmas market and learn about the special foods that are featured there each year.
Not all of the acting moments are good.
Like many Hallmark movies, the dialogue is saccharine and unrealistic.
There are some very unrealistic plot points, so try not to get bogged down in them and then you’ll enjoy the film more.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:
Kids will be bored, although the movie is perfectly family-friendly with no objectionable content.
Some German is spoken with subtitles.