Love, Lights, Hanukkah!: The Hallmark Television Movie

 

LOVE, LIGHTS, HANUKKAH!

Hallmark Channel is keeping things kosher with another Hanukkah-centered film. Love, Lights, Hanukkah! is curiously part of the channel's Countdown to Christmas series. I guess since this year both Hanukkah and Christmas fell at the same time, it works. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Love, Lights, Hanukkah! even with some flaws that would normally set my teeth on edge.

Restauranteur Christina Rossi (Mia Kirshner) is still grieving the death of her adoptive mother Sophia, who started the ristorante. The upcoming Christmas season brings mixed feelings: sadness at her mother's absence, joy in the decorating and upcoming Christmas Eve invite-only dinner. Sudden repairs at the ristorante force Christina to shut down temporarily, but it gives her a chance to find out about her past. The DNA results come in and she is delighted to find that she is indeed half-Italian.

She also finds out that she is half-Jewish.

With that, Christina searches out her Hebrew heritage, which leads her to a "close match" of Becky Berman (Advah Soudack). She and her brother Scott (David Kaye) are also restauranteurs who also took over their late father's restaurant. Becky and Scott want to know how close the close match is, so they all go for lunch with Ruth Berman (Marilu Henner). It is not long before Ruth puts things together and reveals a family secret: Ruth is Christina's mother! Ruth had impulsively married Giorgio, an Italian soldier, while she was studying in Italy. Giorgio's family forced them to get an annulment and cut off communication with Ruth, who could not tell Giorgio that they had a child.

With that mystery solved, Christina begins exploring what it means to be Jewish. This includes integrating Hanukkah with her beloved Italian Christmas celebrations. One thing she initially does not want to integrate into things is David Singer (Ben Savage). He is a Berman family friend but also a food critic who described Christina's lasagna as "predictable", something which she is still bitter about. In both their defenses, she had made that lasagna shortly after Sophia's death and he was unaware that she was emotionally distraught at the time. Despite themselves, Christina and David soon start seeing each other and enjoying each other's company. Will they get together through a Jewish mother's intervention? Will their seemingly separate careers allow them to bring these two lovebirds together? Are latke enchiladas kosher?

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! is a surprise in how it actually manages to make the romance between David and Christina natural. They do not officially date until late into the film. They also are seemingly unaware that they hold hands and wrap their arms around each other. Everyone else sees it, but David and Christina do not.

The movie also manages to introduce the conflict that keeps them apart quite well. David leads a peripatetic life and is on his way to Europe to research Jewish influences on Italian cooking. Christina wants to focus on building up her business. While not the most commonplace reasons to separate people, at least it is not without some logic.

Kirshner and Savage have good rapport with each other as Christina and David. I think it is because Karen Berger's screenplay did not force the relationship. In their scenes where it is just them, Kirshner and Savage have a strong chemistry and make the relationship natural. Their scenes are well-played.

Others though are quite shockingly weak. Kirshner is a bit too weepy and almost whiny when not with Savage, who is able to play his scenes with everyone well. As such, it cannot be all director Mark Jean's fault. I give credit to Henner when she steps away from the kitchen table on first hearing Christina's story. She plays the realization that her long-lost daughter has returned well, when she is alone. It is when she returns and tells everyone the truth that things look bad. For a shocking revelation of secret marriages and lost children, everyone seems pretty underwhelmed by the news. Of particular note are Soudack and Kaye, who do not look particularly shocked or upset or delighted to have a new half-sister pop out of nowhere.

As a side note, Kaye also appeared in Eight Gifts of Hanukkah also playing the loving brother to the female protagonist. I wonder if he is condemned to forever play "the nice, slightly wacky Jewish brother" in future Hallmark Hanukkah movies. He did have the few overtly funny lines in Love, Lights, Hannukah! whenever he proposed new Hanukkah dishes. His creations of Holy Guaca-latke and the Whole Enchi-latke will I'm sure appeal to that demographic of Jewish Mexicans who have yearned for kosher tamales.

Are tamales kosher? At my family's Christmas party, brisket was pretty big. Could we be descendants of Spanish Jews forced to convert? However, I digress.

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! was pleasant and respectful of the Judeo and Christian holiday traditions, where both sides got to show the other their specific customs. There is something amusing about David donning a Santa apron to make noodle kugel and listening to Christmas music. You have the Festival of Lights and the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which I figure is an Italian holiday festivity. The blending of holiday traditions, the importance of family, all blend surprisingly well in Love, Lights, Hanukkah!

The aspect about finding Giorgio felt a bit tacked on, but it was not a major element. 

Love, Lights, Hanukkah! is a nice, charming bit of comfort watching. Respectably acted, with no great disasters, this is a pleasant enough production.

One thing did puzzle me about Love, Lights, Hanukkah! How is it that David bragged about knowing how to say goodbye in 40 languages, but not once did he ever say "Shalom"?

8/10