Stream It Or Skip It: ‘A Biltmore Christmas’ on Hallmark, in Which a Screenwriter Time Travels to Finish a Film and Find Love

Christmas magic makes the impossible possible, and that idea is on full display in Hallmark’s new fantasy rom-com, A Biltmore Christmas. Bethany Joy Lenz and Kristoffer Polaha star as romantic leads separated by time and space who are brought together by Biltmore and a very special hourglass. Keep reading to find out whether or not you need to make haste to add this movie to your seasonal streaming queue.

A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Lucy Hardgrove (Bethany Joy Lenz) is a screenwriter from Ohio who is now living in Santa Monica and struggling to find steady film work. Lucy is struggling with her current assignment of writing a remake for the hit 1940s Christmas movie, His Merry Wife!, mostly due to her insistence on giving it a “realistic” ending. However, her boss Michael Balaban (Tommy Cresswel) wants Lucy to stay true to the original film by giving hers a happy ending and therefore sends her to the historic Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, where the film was first filmed and written in order to help her get inspiration.

Hunkering down to finish writing the film at Biltmore by her January 1st deadline, Lucy explores the estate only to find herself in a library with an old hourglass. But when the glass topples over on its own, Lucy’s act of setting it upright transports her back in time to 1947, right in the middle of the filming of His Merry Wife! As she spends more and more time in the past trying to get to the bottom of the mystery behind His Merry Wife!‘s history and changed ending, Lucy ends up growing closer to one of the stars, Jack Huston (Kristoffer Polaha), who died one year after filming the movie, on Christmas Eve. Can this woman who refuses to believe in happily ever after find her own despite time and history working against her?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: A Biltmore Christmas is the Christmas-y old Hollywood charm of It’s A Wonderful Life meets the time travel high jinks of Back to the Future meets the magic and falling for someone from a different reality of Enchanted.

Performance Worth Watching: Bethany Joy Lenz is so wonderful, believable, and naturally charming as Lucy, while Kristoffer Polaha does a great job convincingly conveying the kind of old-timey earnestness, charisma, and general vibe of the Golden Age of Hollywood. They truly make quite the pair!

A.K. Benninghofen is also a delight to watch as Lucy’s new friend and His Merry Wife! superfan, Margaret, who is more supportive and excited than almost any sane person would be about a person she just met being a film-writing time traveler. I hope we all can find a friend like Margaret someday.

Memorable Dialogue: “What if somebody suspects you?” “Well, I’ve seen His Girl Friday like a dozen times. I think if I just throw a ‘buster’ here and a ‘fella’ there, I’ll blend right in.” Don’t you just love Lucy’s perspective on convincingly fitting into the 1940s?

A Holiday Tradition: When Lucy is spending the holidays with her family at home in Ohio, she and her sister Becca (Caity Brewer) have a tradition of caroling together in their neighborhood on Christmas Eve. They’d sing until their voices got hoarse and then drink hot chocolate together. Aw.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Although I think it never actually ends up being Christmas Day in the movie since most of the action takes place in the days leading up to the holiday and especially on Christmas Eve, A Biltmore Christmas still ends up feeling like a fitting title in the end.

Our Take: A Biltmore Christmas is a lot of fun! The movie felt like it flew by as we witnessed the many mishaps and entertaining moments that were a product of Lucy’s time traveling. Between the story, characters, and backdrop of the actual gorgeous Biltmore Estate, itself, this was a very unique kind of Hallmark movie that felt both nostalgic and current, and definitely seemed to be imbued with plenty of Christmas magic.

The comedic moments hit throughout the film, but the romance between Lucy and Jack especially shines, as their different home times and backgrounds also kept me guessing and feeling invested over what the outcome of their relationship would be (and if you want to find out for yourself, you’re just going to have to watch the movie).

The holiday season is often one where we feel the pull of the past while also making space for the new, and A Biltmore Christmas really seemed to understand all of this as it paid homage to old Hollywood and the famed Biltmore Estate while also delivering a clever and endearing finished product that feels very much of our present moment. There’s no shortage of holiday magic, self-aware cheesiness, and much merriness in A Biltmore Christmas, which makes it a pretty darn successful season movie in our book.

Our Call: STREAM IT! Any time (past, present, or future) is a good time for A Biltmore Christmas!