Ever had a conversation with friends about the things that bring you comfort when you need it? Movies or television shows that you can get lost in and forget about life? Movies that just make you feel better?
Well, I have a lot. I was talking with some friends this past weekend about what Hallmark Movies I turn on when I need to escape and why I watch them.
“I have an emotional support water bottle,” one friend said, “You have emotional support Hallmark movies.”
Well, I assure you, I have one of those too.
My emotional support water bottle is on the ready, a protein bar in case I get hungry, and Sweet Carolina playing on my television. It is one of my emotional support movies. It’s a movie that I can get lost in.
These days, the good thing is that when I am in need of watching my emotional support movies, Hallmark+ is where I can go and watch them anytime I want. It is the best money that I spend each month (and no, I am not sponsored, I just love it).
What movies do I love to watch? Well, my emotional support Hallmark movies, and I watch them when I need my emotional support movies.
Sweet Carolina
What It Is About: A marketing executive reconnects with her high school boyfriend after becoming the unexpected guardian of her niece and nephew.
WHY IT OFFERS ME EMOTIONAL SUPPORT: Sometimes you find a movie that you absolutely love, and Sweet Carolina is one that I absolutely love. It is one of those movies that breaks you apart and puts you back together. In the movie, Josie’s sister passes away, and in the will, she puts Josie in charge of taking care of her kids. Watching the movie, I cried and I cheered. I laughed and I smiled. It is a movie that slowly burns a relationship, but that’s part of the greatness. Sweet Carolina is all about family first and how life can change. But it is also about being scared and finding your way.
In the movie, Josie has come back to Carolina in order to bury her sister and brother-in-law. She finds out that she’s left as the kids’ guardian, and her family is also shocked. Her Dad – at every turn shows he doesn’t believe in her, and Josie is fighting hard to prove him wrong.
Everyone is in a state of grief, but they are trying. Sometimes they get it wrong. Sometimes they get it right. Josie feels overwhelmed at a certain point and thinks that her parents should take over guardianship of the kids.
The person who is getting Josie (Lacey Chabert) through is her old friend, Cooper (Tyler Hynes). He’s there for her and reminding her that she can do anything. He’s also there for the kids.
Josie ends up staying. She realizes what matters to her, and it is honoring her sister’s wishes. She loves her niece and nephew and is going to raise them. Family first and always.
The Wedding Cottage
What It Is About: A woman must convince an uninspired artist to renovate a rundown cottage for a couple’s dream wedding.
WHY IT OFFERS ME EMOTIONAL SUPPORT: There is something about an Erin Krakow movie that is so calming. It feels as though every role that she takes is intentional, and her performance in The Wedding Cottage is great. So is Brendan Penny’s. I watch The Wedding Cottage when I feel like giving up on my dreams or when I feel like love is not ever going to happen for me. The Wedding Cottage shows the beauty in history and the beauty in remembering what you are good at.
The Wedding Cottage is calming and beautiful. Krakow plays Vanessa, who does her best to convince Evan (Penny) to renovate his cottage. She is a wedding guide creator and wants to restore the cottage to be used for a wedding that she is giving away. The couple is Staff Sergeant Scott (Drew Henderson) and his fiancée Amy (Matreya Scarrwener), and the cottage holds special meaning – his parents and his grandparents were married there.
The thing I,s the cottage needs a lot of repairs. Evan doesn’t want to hear about it – he’s got a looming deadline and needs space. Vanessa convinces him that it won’t interrupt his work.
There are a lot of issues that arise with the cottage, and Evan does have to weigh in. Vanessa and he find a way to get along, and they start falling for each other. There ends up being a misunderstanding that they have to work through. They do, and the two of them end up realizing that they need each other. They love each other.
And it is beautiful to see. Calming to see.
A Biltmore Christmas
What It Is About: A magical hourglass sends modern-day screenwriter Lucy Hardgrove to the set of the 1947 holiday movie classic `His Merry Wife!’ However, before she can return to the present, Lucy must make things right or threaten to alter the future forever.
WHY IT OFFERS ME EMOTIONAL SUPPORT: Bethany Joy Lenz, Kristoffer Polaha & Jonathan Frakes star in this movie. It’s just absolutely beautiful. The movie transports you to a different place and time. It makes you think about the past and how everything leads you to where you are supposed to be.
Lucy finds herself traveling back in time to 1947 to set things right. It’s all because of an hourglass. The thing with this movie is that the setting, the costumes, and the cinematography make you stop and just take it all in, because it’s just absolutely beautiful.
The chemistry between Bethany Joy Lenz and Kristoffer Polaha has so much chemistry. Lucy (Lenz) knows she’s got to go back to her time and leave 1947, but what I didn’t expect was Jack (Polaha) finding his way to the present to be with Lucy.
A Biltmore Christmas just allows you to escape, and sometimes you just need that.
It was always you
What It Is About: A woman’s engagement plans get thrown into disarray when her fiancé’s free-spirited brother returns home.
WHY IT OFFERS ME EMOTIONAL SUPPORT: If you haven’t watched It Was Always You, please exit this article and go watch it. It Was Always You will make you stop and think of love and following your heart. It will make you take a moment to realize that you don’t have to settle.
Growing up is hard. Becoming an adult isn’t as fun as you think it will be. You become focused, and you don’t see the world around you. Sometimes you just need a person who reminds you that who you are is good enough.
And then there is the chemistry between Tyler Hynes and Erin Krakow is off the charts. These two just make you stop and think and believe in love and the possibility of finding it.
It takes a second, but it emotionally supports me by reminding me of the power of love and that we’re all deserving of it.
Plus, it makes me feel validated in my distrust of dentists.
Haul out the Holly
What It Is About: Emily comes home to visit her parents, only to discover they’re leaving for a trip of their own. While staying at their house for the holidays, Emily meets members of the community who want her to join in the neighbourhood’s Christmas festivities.
WHY IT OFFERS ME EMOTIONAL SUPPORT: I love to laugh (I know, shocker), and Haul Out The Holly makes me laugh. Yes, I love Christmas movies, but this one in particular melts my grinchy cold heart. The people in the neighborhood taking Christmas to the extreme were everything.
Lacey Chabert, Melissa Peterman, and Wes Brown make me just chuckle. Lord, I sound like my Grandma there, but it’s true. The movie makes me belly laugh, and I love that for me.
Emily doesn’t hate Christmas, but the having to decorate feels like a lot. Especially when the whole neighborhood is on her case to get things decorated. Wes Brown is the HOA lead with a love for writing tickets. He finally breaks down Emily to get her to decorate, but I was waiting for Emily to set his ticket pad on fire.
But watching the movie, you just can’t help but find the peace that Christmas can give. You’ll see that traditions matter.
If you haven’t watched the movie, you should. It just brings a person joy.
Time for Him To Come Home for Christmas
What It Is About: Four days before Christmas, Elizabeth Athens receives a voicemail from a number she doesn’t recognize. In the message, a man she doesn’t know makes one final plea for the love of his life to give him a second chance.
WHY IT OFFERS ME EMOTIONAL SUPPORT: Conversations happen, and they can be taken a lot of different ways. A lot of the time, conversations can happen, and we overhear them, and sometimes they are right, and sometimes we’re not hearing enough of what is happening, and what we interpret from what we heard is wrong. And it can change everything.
Because what we hear that is wrong, we can misinterpret, and it can change our entire lives. Trust me when I tell you a life filled with regret is not a life that you want.
Elizabeth (Holland Roden) and Josh (Tyler Hynes) have known that they can count on each other for anything. Some would say that they are each other’s lobsters (if you don’t watch Friends, you may not get that reference). They rescue each other in the big and the small things in life. They complete each other, but after an accident and the passing of their friend Andrew, the two grow apart.
But life brings them back together. The two run into each other, and he helps her solve the mystery of a voicemail that has come to her phone.
This movie will make you cry your eyes out, but in the best way. You’ll reflect on all of the things that you could have learned from, the things you have learned from, and the things you need to let go of. You’ll open your heart again.
Time For Him To Come Home For Christmas reminds me that I don’t know all sides of the story, but I do know my own heart, and it is okay to follow that.
What are your go-to comfort movies? What movies bring you joy? Tell us all the things.
