Hallmark Review: 'The Thanksgiving House'

Lawyer Mary Ross (Emily Rose) seems to have it good: a thriving career, a devoted assistant, and a handsome restaurant owner boyfriend. But Mary's fast-paced life comes to a screeching halt when she gets upsetting news: her aunt Phyllis died a month prior, and has left her Plymouth house to her in her will. Upon arriving in Plymouth with boyfriend Rick (Adam Kaufman) in tow, Mary gets some more surprising news: local historian Everett Mather (Justin Bruening) has been doing excavations and research on the land, convinced that Phyllis's home is built on the site of the first Thanksgiving.

While initially intent on selling the house and getting back to the city, memories of her childhood prior to her parents' divorce have Mary reconsidering—and fighting to stop Everett's continued research and attempts to have the land declared a landmark. As their differences threaten to pit them into a legal battle, however, Mary and Everett begin to forge a tenuous friendship as they begin to understand each other better—and Mary will be forced to confront the long repressed feelings that have caused her to become so attached to her aunt's house.

The "Save the Beloved (insert locale)" plotline has become something of a staple among Hallmark films, particularly their Christmas fare. But with The Thanksgiving House (acting as a rare Thanksgiving Hallmark flick), the concept is given a historic shot of originality in addition to a subversion of one of the tropes associated with this plot. In a more typical Hallmark film, Everett would be the money-grubbing villain, but here, he's just a sweet-natured (if innocently insensitive at times) man wanting to see his life's work realized. As the plot progresses and we learn more about Everett and Mary, you get a clearer sense of who both of them are and why they act the way they do during their conflict over the house.

While the dynamic is nothing that Hallmark hasn't done before, it's a dynamic that is well carried by Emily Rose and Justin Bruening, who share viable chemistry as two people whose opposing desires inadvertently pit them against each other before they come to their senses and try to compromise. On their own, Rose and Bruening do well in their respective characters, with Bruening selling Everett as a socially awkward man finding himself out of his depth with his and Mary's legal battle and Rose bringing emotional depth to Mary as her troubled past regarding her parents comes to light. The Thanksgiving House also deserves a bit of credit for taking time to mention the tragic side of the first Thanksgiving rather than addressing the event solely through rose-colored lenses. For a channel so often criticized for being saccharine, this brief touch of realism is sure to take many by surprise.

(And this may be me reading too much into it, but I definitely feel that this touch of blunt historical accuracy being sparked by a Black student of Everett's was a deliberate choice to further the nod to realism)

Lindsay Wagner and Bruce Boxleitner are charming as Everett's parents Abigail and Parker, with Wagner in particular sharing strong chemistry with Rose as Abigail and Mary form an unlikely rapport. Julia Jones brings a similar charm to Mary's assistant and best friend Victoria, and Cerina Vincent is clearly having fun as sleazy local blogger Ashleigh Mulligan. SPOILER ALERT Joining Vincent on the antagonist side of the cast is Adam Kaufman as Mary's boyfriend Rick Allen. While his character's accent throughout the film is....questionable at best, Kaufman brings a twisted charm to Rick as he goes from seemingly perfect boyfriend to greedy and entitled jerk. The film wisely provides a few hints throughout the film's first half towards Rick's true nature, thus making his full transition feel natural rather than just a cheap excuse for Mary and Everett to end up together (more on that soon). This also leads to the film ending on another twist to the formula, with Rick and Ashleigh getting away with their actions and running off together for the Thanksgiving cruise, with Rick implied to be planning to try and steal the house from under Mary. Spoilers Over Ramon De Ocampo and Ben Giroux (particularly the latter) also appear as charming side characters Spence and Quincy, and Jack Scalia brings emotion and heart to Mary's estranged father John, with his and Mary's arc reaching a satisfyingly realistic conclusion.

As satisfying as these twists to the age-old "Save the Beloved House" formula are, The Thanksgiving House does in many other ways follow the standard practices, with the pacing at times dragging the film to a stall and making the routineness more noticeable. The film also takes the mistake Win, Lose or Love made regarding its lead romance and doubles down on rushing the relationship between Everett and Mary. MINOR SPOILER ALERT Going into the conclusion, The Thanksgiving House had me hopeful it would go a different route and have Everett and Mary end the movie as new close friends; a dynamic Rose and Bruening's chemistry is more suited for. But at the last second, the film shoots that idea in the foot and has Everett and Mary's relationship suddenly spike into romantic territory in the last few minutes of the film, with next to no build-up to justify it. In a film with so many other twists on the Hallmark formula, seeing The Thanksgiving House fumble its golden chance at crafting a unique ending for itself is more than a little disappointing. Spoilers Over

On the whole, The Thanksgiving House is an adequate Thanksgiving flick that is risen up from its mixed bag plotting and rushed romance thanks to a charming cast and a few twists on the traditional formula. It may not hold a candle to some of Hallmark's more charming romance films, but if you're in the mood for a serviceable Hallmark feature with a strong cast that brings heart to its family-driven story, The Thanksgiving House has a fighting chance of fitting the bill.

Score: 6.5 out of 10 sugar slugs.