Movie reviews: Hollywood and Indie, specializing in independent comedies, dramas, thrillers and romance.
Tuesday, November 18, 2025
Christmas in Mistletoe: Movie Review
Making a worse version of the typical Christmas rom-com.
A Christmas movie about making the cliché Christmas movie is starting to become more common than the actual cliché Christmas movies. Making fun of a movie to then make a worse version of that movie, isn’t all that funny or clever. Hallmark has satirized themselves a few times to better effect than whatever this is.
2025
Directed by: Collins Abbott White
Screenplay by: Brian S. Tedeschi, Vicki Vass
Starring: Kabby Borders, Tom Gipson
Willow (Kabby Borders) is a location scout who hates her job. She seems to work exclusively for a director who makes Christmas movies, all set in a different small town that look the same with a bakery and a cozy inn. First of all, if you hate your job this much, it’s time to get a new job, not scout a new location for a Christmas movie. So, of course, Willow does the latter.
She randomly places her finger on a map and a happens across a town called Mistletoe. What could be better than that? She arrives in Mistletoe to discover the perfect small town with their own inn and bakery and a handsome, single mayor.
The problems start when she tries to convince everyone that the town should let them film there because it will boost tourism. The townspeople then decide that no, they don’t want to boost tourism, and more people moving or visiting would ruin it. Willow then continually tells people she doesn’t know why the town doesn’t want the movie filmed there, and then she also keeps trying to sell the townspeople on the idea of increased tourism.
How are we supposed to go along with a character this stupid? First, no, shooting a Christmas movie in a small town does not boost tourism. People watch Christmas movies but they really don’t put any effort to figure out what real town it was filmed in (by the way, the fictional town of Mistletoe is Tyron, North Carolina) and then make travel plans based on that Christmas movie.
Second, and third, they told you why they don’t want the movie filmed there, so don’t keep trying to sell them on that same point. Maybe try to come up with a new argument? We’re told Willow is the best location scout in the business, but based on what we’re seeing, she’s not. She’s a cynical, arrogant, needy but independent imbecile. I have no desire to watch her fall in love.
Of course Willow discovers the true meaning of Christmas as she falls in love with the mayor. It’s a common formula that works when the lead character is actually likable. Also, most Hallmark movies have a plot in addition to that formula, but Christmas in Mistletoe does not. The entire movie is “Can we film here?” “No,” “Ok.” Time to fall in love then.