If we had a nickel for every Hallmark holiday movie starring Ginna Claire Mason opposite a Broadway actor who’s played Fiyero in Wicked where her character lies about what she’s doing in New York City, we’d have two nickels — which isn’t a lot — but it’s interesting it happened twice.
‘A Carol For Two’ starts off with all the right notes, introducing Violette (Mason) and Alex (Jordan Litz) through their own musical scenes. The story is set for Violette as she sings at her small-town hometown farewell party before she jets off to New York. She’s booked a tour of a musical and is about to begin rehearsals. Meanwhile, it’s just another day — or night — at work for Alex where he sings and waits tables at Fiore’s. The main characters may be cliche, but it doesn’t feel overdone when we hear their stunning voices. We instantly feel the holiday spirit and want to hear more.
Violette’s tour gets canceled and leaves her stranded in New York without a plan or a job. Fortunately, Hazel, the friend of her late Aunt Carol, can help her out. Violette gets a job as a singing waitress at the one and only Fiore’s! Alex isn’t a fan, citing nepotism, entitlement, and a lack of experience.
Despite the animosity, there’s never really an enemies-to-lovers vibe. But that’s more than okay because that prevents it from feeling too stereotypical. The stereotypes are far from absent, though.
Too much attention and time is spent on Alex’s cousin, Brad, who struggles to connect with Violette and thus enlists Alex to be his Cyrano. We understand Brad’s role and that his presence is meant to help us root for Violette and Alex, but Brad ultimately ends up being overly annoying. It’s like Hallmark took the annoying little brother character and cranked it to 150%.
When we get into a Hallmark movie, we pretty much know what we signed up for. We know there’s a happy ending and can usually predict how we’ll get there. However, the pacing in ‘A Carol for Two’ was a bit slow. We know we’re supposed to root for Violette and Alex, but we weren’t really feeling that yet halfway through the movie. The coworkers have definitely bonded, but anything they’ve developed at that point is greatly overshadowed by Brad’s poor attempts at a romantic relationship.
Luckily Hallmark at least gave us relatable main characters we were rooting for as individuals the whole time. Cheesy holiday movies or not, stories need someone to root for.
Violette was a bit entitled, but we ultimately still cared about her and her happiness. She deserved someone better than Brad. She deserved to follow her dreams after putting them on hold for her sick dad.
As for Alex? We basically spent the film agreeing with him any time something happened. Throughout the movie, he showed how kind, caring, and thoughtful he is — even if he wasn’t getting credit for it and had some pretentious moments.
Perhaps the best parts of the film are when Violette and Alex get to sing. Their voices shine brightest in the second half of the movie once they truly connect. We cannot stop thinking about Alex breaking out into “Silent Night” while they’re caroling.
Everyone in their group stops to listen and stare, and we don’t blame them one bit. The way the scene is framed and shot, it feels like we’re all meant to fall in love with Alex right then and there like Violette probably did. (Though we already had before that point, because we knew the full story.)
In true Hallmark Christmas movie fashion, ‘A Carol for Two’ manages to wrap everything up with a beautiful bow and an original festive tune. (Can we get a soundtrack from them, please?) We even get character growth from Brad, so in the end, this musical Countdown to Christmas movie is worth the watch.
