Trading Christmas is an older Hallmark film which is an obvious knock off of the then-contemporary film "The Holiday." That said the film is much better than it has any reason to be. That may be because it was adapted from a novel by someone named Debbie Macomber. Many of her novels are turned into Hallmark movies.
An uptight yuppie and a lonely widow decide to swap his Boston apartment for her cozy suburban home. He is writing a novel with a female character we never learn much about. She badgers her adult daughter to come home for Christmas who instead wants to spend time with her boyfriend.
These characters would normally be caricatures in other movies. Here most of them have a backstory. The main guy's girlfriend broke up with him and he isn't over it. The main woman's husband died and she hasn't figured out how to process his death. The adult daughter is trying to find her own identity.
The main storylines give each character enough time to bond with the lover interest character. The relationships are given time to be portrayed organically. I admire the woman's admirer who is a retired businessman. He seems like a man ready to slow down a bit and admires her sensitivity. Big city life makes women vain apparently. The film certainly plays into the channel's belief that small town life is superior to urban dwelling.
An uptight yuppie and a lonely widow decide to swap his Boston apartment for her cozy suburban home. He is writing a novel with a female character we never learn much about. She badgers her adult daughter to come home for Christmas who instead wants to spend time with her boyfriend.
These characters would normally be caricatures in other movies. Here most of them have a backstory. The main guy's girlfriend broke up with him and he isn't over it. The main woman's husband died and she hasn't figured out how to process his death. The adult daughter is trying to find her own identity.
The main storylines give each character enough time to bond with the lover interest character. The relationships are given time to be portrayed organically. I admire the woman's admirer who is a retired businessman. He seems like a man ready to slow down a bit and admires her sensitivity. Big city life makes women vain apparently. The film certainly plays into the channel's belief that small town life is superior to urban dwelling.