Welcome to Screen Gems, our weekend dive into queer and queer-adjacent titles of the past that deserve a watch or a re-watch.
The Heart Stringy: The Christmas House
2020 saw peddlers of Christmas romance–Hulu, Lifetime, Paramount+, etc.–racing to get into the queer inclusion game. That included the Hallmark Channel, the network arguably responsible for making the holiday fairytale genre into a cottage industry. For their bid at an LGBTQ Christmas film, Hallmark provided The Christmas House, starring openly gay actor and Hallmark movie alum, Jonathan Bennett.
The movie centers on longtime married couple Bill (Treat Williams) and Phylis (Sharon Lawrence) as they prep to welcome their sons Mike (Robert Buckley) and Brandon (Bennett) home for the holidays. Brandon and his husband Jake (Brad Harder) dream of finally adopting a child, while Mike finds himself attracted to high school friend Andi (Ana Ayora). Will all their dreams come true by Christmas?
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These mass-produced holiday movies aren’t exactly designed to challenge viewers or to innovate the art of cinema. For lovers of the genre, that’s a comfort: these holiday movies are modern fairy tales, a mix of sweetness and hope with a dash of holiday magic. They don’t reflect life in the world so much as offer an illusion of another, happier one where dreams come true, and everyone has a happy ending. Still, we award credit when due: seeing a same-sex couple, even in a supporting role, does mark a new level of inclusion for Hallmark movies, and hey, we like believing our dreams will come true in the end too.
So, grab some cocoa, a blanket, and someone beautiful. Lite the tree and the fireplace. Take a couple hours to enjoy the sweet and simple world of The Christmas House, and sigh at seeing a handsome, happy gay couple as part of the holiday magic.
Given that Hallmark will also release The Christmas House 2 this December 18, now seems a perfect time to get caught up.
Streams on Hallmark, YouTube & VUDU.
Joshooeerr
Hallmark… whitewashing every aspect of your sexuality, sensibility and culture to make it indistinguishable from the faux-Christmas we manufacture for the rest of America. You won’t know yourself!
Winsocki
Thank you Scrooge…… Hallmark is one of my favorite channels. It is laughable and predictable…. so like gay bitterness and cynicism you project. I find you love or hate Hallmark. Everyone is entiltled to their own opinion. At least Hallmark is attempting to add diversity POC and Gay folks. All gays are not clones either.
Thad
If you’re old-school like me, have no idea how to “stream,” but have regular cable, Hallmark Channel is playing the original “The Christmas House” at midnight ET Thursday, Dec 9 (11 pm CT). I’ll be watching (again).
RTG
Is this a recycled post from 2020? When the movie was originally released?
Cam
Ok, SO glad that stations like Hallmark have finally,, after backlash become inclusive, and I like Johnathan Bennant. But this movie was a tough one to watch.
It didn’t make a lot of sense, the weird plot about the family always having this house decorated which was supposedly a town tradition, but there was some disconnect in whether they’d been doing it recently. The gay couple were a side story, the main thing was whether or not the straight son was going to marry the hometown girl, etc…
So glad they did it, watched it to help it get ratings, but WOW, Hallmark has some stinker plots. I’ll watch part 2 and hopefully it will be better.
Charlie in Charge
I have every hope that the sequel will be an improvement and if you like goofy Christmas movies you should give it a chance but:
The Christmas House was the worst of last year’s gay holiday rom-coms. The story centered on three sets of couples:
A former magician and his high school sweetheart (the A plot)
The magician’s parents who are thinking about divorcing (the B plot)
The magician’s gay brother and husband who are hoping to adopt a child (the C plot).
The most important part of the gay couple’s story happened OFF camera. This would be fine if Hallmark hadn’t made such a big deal about this being their gay Christmas movie. A funny gay holiday rom-com that actually centered on the gay couple was last year’s The Christmas Setup with Fran Drescher.
Cam
Dashing in December was also another one with the gay story front and center.
Tombear
Did Million Moms bitch about it yet?