Holiday Engagement (TV 2011)

Thirty-something Hillary Burns has spent her life trying to get the approval of her parents, most specifically her judgmental mother, Meredith Burns, thus far without success. Part of that ... See full summary »

Director:

Jim Fall

Writers:

Barbara Kymlicka (story), Charlotte Clark-Gamache (story),

Stars:

Bonnie Somerville, Shelley Long, Jordan Bridges

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bonnie Somerville	...	Hillary Burns
Shelley Long	...	Meredith
Jordan Bridges	...	David
Sam McMurray	...	Roy Burns
Haylie Duff	...	Trisha Burns
Carrie Wiita	...	Joy Burns
Chris McKenna	...	Jason King
Edi Patterson	...	Sophie
Christopher Goodman	...	Peter
Jennifer Elise Cox	...	Connie
Sam Pancake	...	Julian
Susie Castillo	...	Lindsay
Michael Monks	...	Father Macy
Sam Horrigan	...	Surfer Dude
Roy Jenkins	...	Boring Man

Storyline

Thirty-something Hillary Burns has spent her life trying to get the approval of her parents, most specifically her judgmental mother, Meredith Burns, thus far without success. Part of that approval for Hillary is to marry the right man. That's why Hillary is so happy that she is engaged to successful lawyer Jason King, who she will bring home to meet the family for the first time at their Thanksgiving get-together weekend in a week's time. However, Hillary's life starts to fall apart when simultaneously she loses her part-time newspaper writing job when the newspaper itself folds, and Jason dumps her as he tries to focus on his career which is seemingly more important to him than Hillary. On the advice of her best friend Sophie, Hillary - who feels she can't go home without Jason, especially as her two sisters' lives seem to meet their mother's approval - decides reluctantly to go to an online dating site to find someone to pose as Jason at the upcoming family weekend. Who Hillary ...

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Plot Keywords:

christmas

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 November 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Compromiso en vacaciones

Company Credits

Production Co:

Johnson Production Group, Tim Johnson Productions

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

User Reviews

virtually Duff-less

If you are avoiding this movie because you dislike the Duff sisters, fear not. Even though Haley Duff gets top billing, she doesn't get more than about 10 minutes of screen time, for much of which she's in the background, and maybe five lines of dialogue.

This movie is only slightly more improbable than a lot of seasonal romantic comedies. The trope of bringing an imposter as your date to a a family event is not really grounded in reality anyway, so if you're willing to suspend disbelief that far, it's a nice enough diversion for a couple of hours around Thanksgiving.

The cast is reasonably solid, if under-exercised, with some halfway decent comedy chops available (but not accessed) in Shelley Long and Sam McMurray. The two leads are cute and sad by turns, mostly at appropriate moments, and sing well together for one nice scene. Other supporting characters... well, they look their parts and speak their lines but don't expect to find gold in their emotional range.

The script and performances didn't quite gel, leaving plenty of avenues for both comedy and heart under-utilized. Real dramatic situations were barely nodded at in passing while the most potentially humorous moments were signalled more by the characters' laughter than by any similar urge in the audience.

If you combined 'The Family Stone' (where only Sarah Jessica Parker is lacking the necessary depth of character) with 'My Best Friend's Wedding' (where everything is deliberately shallow and the moments of heart stand out better for it), and made a college film class movie, this is about what you'd get.