"Leah's (Not So) Perfect Gift"

     Last night, Hallmark Channel premiered its newest Countdown To Christmas film, "Leah's Perfect Gift". The movie revolves around the title character Leah (Emily Arlook), who was raised Jewish, celebrating her first Christmas with her boyfriend Graham (Evan Roderick). I normally don't like to criticize Hallmark movies, especially Christmas movies, but this movie had SO many problems that I could not let it go. Here are just some of the problems I had with this movie.

1. First, I didn't think there was much chemistry between Leah and Graham. If I'm being honest, there was probably more chemistry in the three minute conversation between Leah and Tricia than there was in the entire movie between Leah and Graham.

2. Unless I missed it, I don't think Maddie's (Sidney Quesnelle) ex-girlfriend (Jade Pattenden) was ever given a name. Even IMDB just lists her as "Maddie's Ex-Girlfriend". Meanwhile, Graham's ex-girlfriend, Julia, was given a name and some much needed character development. For a network that supposedly values diversity, Hallmark Channel REALLY dropped the ball on this one.

3. I know Leah is supposed to be pretty devout in her faith, but how has she NEVER seen a nativity scene in her entire life? 

4. Normally, I love Barbara Niven's performances in these movies but her character in this film (whose name is also Barbara) may be the worst in this movie. Let's start with the fact that her character is ill equipped to handle having ONE extra person at her house for what probably amounted to a week. She doesn't have any extra food lying around her house and the ONE time in the movie she fixes breakfast for her family, she apparently neglected to tell Leah or save any leftovers for her.  To make matters worse, Barbara later admits that she KNOWS she's not a good cook but is too afraid to admit it to her family and apparently THEY're too afraid to tell her she's not a good cook. There's actually a name for this- it's called the "Abilene Paradox".

5. After seeing how Graham's family treated Leah up until the end of the movie, I honestly can't blame Julia and Maddie's ex-girlfriend (Seriously, they couldn't even bother to give her a name; if anything else, name her after her actress like they did with Barbara Niven's character) for breaking up with Graham and Maddie, respectively.

6. Speaking of Maddie, we know that she's (probably) gay since she has an ex-girlfriend, but this is only brought up twice, once at the beginning of the movie and again near the end and doesn't seem to have any bearing on the movie's plot. Honestly, I thought they were going to end up pairing Maddie with Tricia, which would have probably been a much better romantic pairing than Leah and Graham. Heck, Leah and Maddie would have probably been a better pairing than Leah and Graham. 

7.  Normally, I always root for the leads to get together in the end, but after what Graham's family put Leah through, I was secretly hoping she would ditch them for Tricia. 

8. We're never really given an explanation for why Barbara acts the way she does. Is she afraid of Leah replacing her in Graham's life? If she is, why didn't she just say so. It still wouldn't excuse her actions, but it would at least make them somewhat understandable. 

9. Are we really supposed to believe that Barbara and Graham actually loved Leah's respective Christmas gifts (A terrarium and photo album) for them and they just don't know how to express it. 

10. Finally, if this movie is supposed to take place this year, then the timing is messed up because this year, the first night of Chanukah coincides with Christmas Day, yet the film depicts it as taking place before. If the movie actually takes place last year, when the first night of Chanukah was December 7, then that would make more sense.

Did anyone else notice any of these problems? What other things did you notice? Let me know in the comments section below.