A shocker: a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie that’s actually good (and not so-bad-it’s-good). A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS hails from 2023, when Hallmark found itself faced with burnout after having all-but exhausted the romcom plot lexicon, as well as stiff competition from Lifetime and Netflix (who in 2024 succeeded in luring away the network’s biggest star Lacey Chabert for the Hallmark clone HOT FROSTY). This resulted in films with increasingly wild sci fi tinged plotlines, as exemplified by the PLEASANTVILLE pastiche WHERE ARE YOU, CHRISTMAS? (2023), the parodic SUGARPLUMMED (2024) and the time travel themed BILTMORE CHRISTMAS.
It’s a movie that, in the spirit of the Hallmark programmers CHRISTMAS AT THE PLAZA and CHRISTMAS AT DOLLYWOOD (both 2019), was made to promote an actual location. Unlike all the abovementioned films, which were very much products of the Hallmark assembly line, A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS comes very close to transcending its origins.
Lucy Collins (Hallmark regular Bethany Joy Lenz) is a prettier-than-average screenwriter tasked with scripting a remake of the 1947 “classic” HIS MERRY WIFE, a romcom set at the luxurious Biltmore Hotel in North Carolina. Her finished script is criticized by the studio head (Tommy Cresswell) for being too realistic: “Leave real life to reality TV shows, this is a Christmas movie!”
He dispatches Lucy to the Biltmore two days before Christmas so she can experience its atmosphere directly. There she’s given a tour by the manager (Jonathan Frakes), who shows her an hourglass prop used in HIS MERRY WIFE which somehow sends Lucy back in time to 1947, when the film was in production. She runs into actor Jack Huston (Kristoffer Polaha), who takes an immediate fancy to her, only to be thrust back in the present with the sand in the hourglass having run out.
Lucy decides to travel back in time once again, getting a tourist (A.K. Benninghofen) to watch over the hourglass in her absence. She finds herself stuck, however, when in 1947 she accidentally breaks the hourglass. While waiting for it to be repaired Lucy romances Claude, gets pursued by suspicious security guards and cajoles the film’s screenwriter (David Alexander) into rewriting HIS MERRY WIFE’s ending and making it, ironically enough, less realistic. The only problem is Lucy’s knowledge that Claude’s death falls on Christmas Eve, 1948. Will she be able to warn him in time?
My praise of A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS, keep in mind, is based largely on its status in the Hallmark firmament. Having suffered through many a crappy Hallmark movie I couldn’t help but be impressed, perhaps even overimpressed, by one that wasn’t entirely lousy.
The script by Hallmark mainstay Marcy Holland, in contrast to most of the channel’s Christmas fare, is skillfully and engagingly plotted (even if it is a bit overly reminiscent of 1980’s SOMEWHERE IN TIME). The romantic element comes about as a byproduct of that plot rather than (as is standard for these movies) the other way around, and director John Putch refrains from excess whimsey or cutesiness; in fact, he pulls off some innovative filmmaking in a well utilized split screen sequence showing its protagonists in the same room during different time periods. The 1940s period detail is about as extensive as can be expected given the Hallmark non-budget, and was filmed in its actual stated location, the Biltmore Hotel in Asheville, NC (in place of Hallmark’s usual Vancouver, BC scenery).
In the lead role Bethany Joy Lenz has a more grounded air than the perpetually grinning Hallmark heroines, and looks great in her 1940s outfits, while Kristoffer Polaha as her old time movie star love interest has an easygoing charm that encompasses the film overall.
Vital Statistics
A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS
Hallmark Media
Director: John Putch
Producers: Andrew Gernhard, Colin Theys
Screenplay: Marcy Holland
Cinematography: Andrew Rawson
Editing: Kat Spiess
Cast: Bethany Joy Lenz, Kristoffer Polaha, Robert Picardo, Mary McDonough, A.K. Benninghofen, Annabelle Borke, Colton Little, Jonathan Frakes, David Alexander, Jennifer Cortese, Jason Saucier, Tommy Crosswell, Alphie Hyorth, Ray Ficca, Caity Brewer, Rachel Boston, Wes Brown, Hather Shore, Philena Gilmer