The Hallmark Channel’s Operation Nutcracker was actually part of Hallmark+’s Christmas in July film slate, and it’s making its network premiere on the channel during their Countdown to Christmas. This sweet romance is an homage to family and Tchaivovsky’s The Nutcracker, where a party planner helping organize a charity auction is tasked with finding a priceless nutcracker that has gone missing. Starring Ashley Newbrough and Christopher Russell, the festive and fun film is saturated with the Christmas spirit.
Opening Shot: Nutcrackers! So many of them. The movie opens with a montage of a small army of these militant, shell-crushing soldiers, each one more glittery and festive than the next. And then we cut to an even more decorative scene, that of a hotel lobby being decorated for for an upcoming wedding that will be held there, planned out by a very discerning woman.
The Gist: Lottie Morgan (Ashley Newbrough) is a sought-after event planner, she’s got an eye for beauty and detail and that’s why the reputable, philanthropic Warby family is considering her to plan their upcoming Christmas charity auction. The centerpiece of this auction is a rare, valuable nutcracker, the sale of which will help raise money for a local children’s hospital. But Lottie has to fly to Boston to make her pitch to the Warbys in order to win the business.
As Lottie arrives to the airport, she crosses paths with a bearded (like, comically fake-bearded), rugged-looking traveler who happens to be Tristan Warby (Christopher Russell), the black sheep son of the very family she’s planning to meet. Tristan has been tasked with transporting this priceless nutcracker to Boston – and, LOL, he has thrown it in his luggage, wrapped in nothing but a rag. Lottie chats with this cute stranger, explaining that she’s flying to Boston to meet the famous Warby family, but Tristan doesn’t let on that he’s one of them. Despite being total strangers, these two have a definite spark. Thanks to an overbooked flight, everyone’s carry-on luggage has to be checked, and at the baggage carousel, a stranger grabs Tristan’s suitcase with the nutcracker in it.
The next day, Lottie shows up to the palatial Warby home outside Boston and who should answer the door but Tristan. He was expecting her. After she makes her business pitch to Tristan’s mother Erica, she learns she got the job. Tristan is on hand to help with anything she might need before the event, and when he offers to show her the nutcracker that the event is built around, Lottie is excited to see it… except that the suitcase Tristan opens doesn’t contain a nutcracker. The stranger at the airport took it. Tristan and Lottie make it their mission – dubbed “operation nutcracker” – to covertly find the missing valuable, while Erica is none the wiser.
Meanwhile, the other guy who has the nutcracker, his name is Dave and he’s the father to Joey, a young girl who feels abandoned by her dad because he works and travels so much. Dave has planned to make this Christmas memorable by giving Joey a coveted ballerina doll that’s like the Cabbage Patch Kid or Tickle Me Elmo of its time – impossible to get, and yet Dave got one. But Dave is shocked to learn that there’s no doll in his suitcase, just some measly old nutcracker.
Tristan, Dave, and Lottie all spend the next few days trying to call the airline and report their missing bags (but a very inept luggage handler proves no help for any of them), and Tristan and Lottie try instead to track Dave down with the clues he’s left inside his bag. After several close calls where they almost-but-not-quite find him (but they do hire his wife to help with their auction, unaware of who she is), the bags are swapped and, long story short, all is right with the world.
Our Take: As a holiday romance movie, I spent the majority of my viewing experience wishing I could yell at Lottie and Tristan “Just kiss, you idiots!” The characters are immediately attracted to each other, at first as an innocent flirtation (Lottie even jokes about their bag mix-up as a “meet cute” moments after they meet) and then as something more meaningful as they work together and open up about their lives. While these movies always take their time and let the characters get to know one another, in this case, it’s just kind of obvious that these two hotties should be together from the get-go, the attraction is palpable. As a romance, the film’s biggest crime is simply making us wait to long for them to acknowledge their feelings.
As a caper, one where Tristan and Lottie are trying to recover the missing nutcracker and Dave is the man standing in their way (with his own bag to recover, and a daughter to impress), it’s a little more frustrating. Dave is initially set up as a villain in his family, the “Cat’s in the Cradle” dad who works so hard he’s never home. Except that he is a doting dad, it’s not as if he’s trying to avoid his family. Call me defensive, the trope of an over-worked parent is often unfairly villainized in films like this (I’m also looking at you, Scouting for Christmas). But the more egregious thing is Dave’s choices; since he feels there’s no hope of getting his bag with the ballerina doll back, instead he just gifts Joey the nutcracker that belongs to Tristan. Sure, give away the thing that’s not yours, Dave. I get that movies require tension, but I don’t care for illogical choices made by otherwise smart characters.
findsBy the end, Dave’s family finally Tristan and Lottie, the nutcracker is returned and eventually, a mysterious benefactor buys the nutcracker for a small fortune at the ball, only to gift it back to Joey. Every plot point is conveniently wrapped in a tidy bow, but in a heartwarming way that makes me think that Dave, Tristan and Lottie became friends who probably spend every Christmas together now.
Parting Shot: Tristan and Lottie dance together at the charity ball and share a kiss.
Performance Worth Watching: I’ve mentioned this in past reviews, but as someone who watches more than her share of Hallmark films, I’ve started to have favorite actors who show up regularly in their movies. Ann Pirvu, who plays Tristan’s sister Jules, is one of my current faves. She often plays the sassy sidekick sister, and she just always looks like she’s having fun out there.
Memorable Dialogue: “Classic bag swap, just like in a rom-com!” Tristan jokes when he and Lottie bump into each other at the airport and she nearly grabs his suitcase (which has the nutcracker in it) instead of her own. The first time of many that people mistake each others’ luggage for their own in this film.
Our Call: Operation Nutcracker is certainly no great heist or mystery, it works best as a straight up romance, and thanks to the film’s two leads, they really sell it with appeal and solid chemistry. STREAM IT!
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.