Hallmark are doing a stellar job this year. The variety of different festive stories told in 2023 has been fantastic.
The alternate reality trope has been done very well by Hallmark and others and it has been done very poorly as well.
Thankfully, 'Take Me Back for Christmas' belongs firmly in the former camp, rather than the latter. Thanks, almost wholly, to Vanessa Lengies, who plays Renee with such heart and emotion as she is propelled on a journey through the alternate universe following a flippant wish for a different life. She finds she has everything...except for one key thing: her husband.
Corey Sevier (a very reliable actor in these sorts of movies, who directed this one, too) somewhat takes a back seat to Lengies in this one, appearing as her husband Aaron in this universe and an ex-boyfriend in the alternate one.
The storyline involving Renee and her mother added a good amount of emotional weight to proceedings. Hit me right in the feels with that one, they did. Sometimes, though, a bittersweet ending, rather than just a sweet one, suits the circumstances in the film, and that is definitely the case here.
The alternate reality trope has been done very well by Hallmark and others and it has been done very poorly as well.
Thankfully, 'Take Me Back for Christmas' belongs firmly in the former camp, rather than the latter. Thanks, almost wholly, to Vanessa Lengies, who plays Renee with such heart and emotion as she is propelled on a journey through the alternate universe following a flippant wish for a different life. She finds she has everything...except for one key thing: her husband.
Corey Sevier (a very reliable actor in these sorts of movies, who directed this one, too) somewhat takes a back seat to Lengies in this one, appearing as her husband Aaron in this universe and an ex-boyfriend in the alternate one.
The storyline involving Renee and her mother added a good amount of emotional weight to proceedings. Hit me right in the feels with that one, they did. Sometimes, though, a bittersweet ending, rather than just a sweet one, suits the circumstances in the film, and that is definitely the case here.