A Christmas Wish In Hudson (2021)

Title: A Christmas Wish In Hudson
Year of Release: 2021
Available On: Roku Channel November 2021
Rating: 2 out of 5 Jingle Bells

Did I start watching this because the main character’s name is Lori and my name is also Lori? Yes, yes, I did.

But let’s talk about the actual movie, shall we? Straight off the bat we stumble into the first cliche of holiday movies: death wife/mom. Grief is no fucking joke, and it’s truly universal, but these movies don’t tend to do a great job with accurate depictions of the human experience. Of course, movies are idealized, on purpose. And these movies are escapism. But this is the best you can do for this poor, deceased woman:

Just like mom always used to say, “When there’s snow, make snow angels.”

I do enjoy that Rib / Patrick, the dad figure, is a mature man. He was born in 1970, and he’s very handsome, but he looks his age. Ope, there it is, Lori’s mom also died and she became caretaker for her little sister.

Patrick is, of course, a firefighter. And a chef. He appears on a TV show and hoards of single women flock to his tiny town in order to woo him. Lori was also taken by Patrick on the TV, however, she’s more subtle in her approach. And she catches Patrick’s eye, too. Lori stays at an adorable smalltown B&B booked as a gift by her sister. Their meet cute occurs in a snowy park when Patrick comes upon Lori making snow angels — actually as he runs over her angel. (Wouldn’tcha know her mom also said the thing about snow angels??)

Woof, the acting is sooooo bad though. Dialogue is stiff as hell. Oh, and it does not get any better.

These are two pouty non-communicators, that much is clear. Y’all can’t use your words? We all know how it ends but I didn’t enjoy the journey that much. I just find it hard to believe that the dealbreaker here is Lori not telling Patrick that she saw him on TV?!?