Two rival real estate agents have to pair up in order to sell a house before Christmas in the Great American Family romance Meet Me Under the Mistletoe, which is also available on Hulu. Pretty soon though, their hearts are in escrow as they realize they have more in common than they thought. However, my appraisal is that this film is worth far less than it’s list price.
Opening Shot: The camera pans across a charming Christmas market in a charming little town called Mountain Laurel, and then pans across the entrance of a real estate office. A real estate agent, Eva Rogers (Sarah Fisher) congratulates a client who just closed on a new condo.
The Gist: Eva has a competitive rivalry with another realtor in her office, Jeff Morgan (Simon Arblaster). When a couple, Frank and Kelly Greer, come to their real estate office to find a broker to sell their house by Christmas, Eva thinks it would be a great opportunity, but Jeff completely undermines her and tries to steal them away. The Greers decide they want the two to pair up and sell the house together, and while neither Eva nor Jeff is thrilled at the idea, they reluctantly agree to work together.
While they work with the Greers, they learn that Kelly is a renowned botanist and she and Frank have run the “Merry Mistletoe” booth at the town’s Christmas fair. Over the years, 13 couples who have kissed under the mistletoe at their booth have gotten engaged. Surely these two sparring real estate agents who don’t enjoy working together will not become one of those couples!
Here’s the thing about Eva: even though she’s competitive at work, she really wants to be a writer. In fact, she wrote a Christmas-themed mystery novel called… wait for it… Probable Claus (!) and everyone in her life, including her teenage niece, Bonnie (Jerni Stewart), who lives with Eva, thinks she should stick with writing.
Here’s the thing about Jeff: he’s not the pompous blowhard that he seems to be! He’s sensitive, an artist, even! He does sketches of the houses he sells. But he’s so focused on work that he doesn’t have time to find love.
As the days go by, Eva and Jeff reveal their true selves to one another. But Jeff, who proposed to his last girlfriend under the Greer’s mistletoe and got rejected five years ago, doesn’t want to get burned again. Will he realize that Eva is his soulmate in time to kiss her at Christmas?!
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? I mean, considering the harsh real estate rivalries here, this show is like Selling Sunset with winter coats. Just kidding… But it actually has the same vibe as Hallmark’s Flipping for Christmas, which is kind of like HGTV meets holiday romance when a house flipper falls in love with a rival contractor.
A Holiday Tradition: The “Merry Mistletoe” love thing seems like a pretty solid candidate for this.
Does the Title Make Any Sense?: See above! Yes, it does. There’s mistletoe, and people meet their eventual spouses under it. Or re-meet them, I guess.
Our Take: Meet Me Under The Mistletoe contains just about every holiday movie trope you can imagine. Actual magical mistletoe that helps people fall in love. A couple who initially doesn’t get along. Characters who secretly have artistic aspirations and are pushed to follow their creative dreams. A big old happy ending. One by one, the cliches have been hung like ornaments on the tree.
Meet Me Under The Mistletoe is the kind of movie that makes you wonder who is in charge. Who’s greenlighting this movie that’s just taking up space without really delivering any emotional impact, humor, or heart, that’s so predictable and tension-free? Why is anyone putting resources into such a bland, non-entity? It’s not that the film is bad, but it’s also not good, it just is. You know when a character is turned into a spirit or ghost on old movies and TV shows, and everyone around them walks through them like they don’t exist because they can’t see them? That’s this movie. It’s just not really even there.
Parting Shot: Eva and Jeff place a “Sold” sign in front of the Greers’ house, and, as she holds a sprig of mistletoe, they kiss.
Performance Worth Watching: Sarah Fisher has a warm likeability that saves the movie from being overly cheesy.
Memorable Dialogue: “Every house is gonna have its issues. So I can either avoid that for the rest of my life or tackle them head on and try to build something beautiful,” explains Mitch, a friend of Jeff’s who has been looking for the perfect house and is never satisfied. Ultimately, he buys the Greer’s home, and the thing is, the way he’s talking about his dream house is the same way that Jeff talks about finding true love. Metaphors!
Our Call: SKIP IT. Burl Ives as Santa Claus in Rudolph The Red-Rosed Reindeer stirs up more emotion and heat in me than this movie.