Stream It Or Skip It?

Hallmark is hoping to get tails wagging this holiday season with one of their latest seasonal romantic-comedy movie, Happy Howlidays. The film stars returning Hallmark actress Jessica Lowndes as well as the winner of Hallmark+ series Finding Mr. Christmas, Ezra Moreland, as a first-time pet owner and a longtime dog lover, respectively, who form an unlikely connection with the help of their pets. Even though things start off on the wrong foot for the humans, their pups are heads over heels (or paws?) for each other, facilitating lots of face-time and sparking a surprising connection that just might lead to lasting love.

The Gist: Mia Park (Jessica Lowndes) moved away from her parents (Christoper Shyer and Lynda Boyd) and old life in Miami to get a fresh start in Seattle but is still struggling to find her footing even after half a year in her new home. Her old college friend, Isabel (Sarah Formosa), hired her onto the Seattle Tourism Board, yet ironically, Mia refuses to engage much with the local community or work culture. She’s even disinterested in getting in the Christmas spirit (gasp). Everything changes, however, when Mia stumbles upon a dog stuck in a fence under pouring rain while she’s on her walk home from work. After freeing the dog, he follows her home, where she reluctantly lets him stay the night. She then wakes up to the dog tearing up her pillows and wetting her floors, solidifying Mia’s stance that she’s not a pet person.

Completely out of her depth, Mia takes the dog to Puptown, a local shelter run by Max Covington (Ezra Moreland) and his younger sister, Penny (Cassandra Sawtell). Max prefers the company of dogs over people, and it shows in his abrasive attitude towards Mia. He won’t accept the dog into his shelter, so Mia resigns herself to keep the pooch around a little longer. However, even though the two humans immediately butt heads, for their respective dogs, it’s love at first sight. Mia ends up naming her new furry friend Russell and takes him to the dog park, where she runs into Max and his dog, Jules. The encounter inspires Mia to write a story about Jules and Russell’s cute little canine love story, which somehow goes viral overnight. “Jussell” suddenly turns into a Seattle-wide phenomenon that Mia continues to cover for work, thereby putting her back in the orbit of Max.

As they get to know one another, Mia and Max find that their initial impressions of each other may have been off base. With the help of their doggos, the two grow closer and a new romance begins to bloom. But will the surprise appearance of Max’s ex (Ella Cannon) — and her dog, Biscuit, who is Jules’s ex dog boyfriend (talk about drama) — lead to heartbreak for Mia and Russell? And will a visit from Mia’s parents convince her to move back to Miami and return to the old life she was so desperate to escape?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The general vibe and story of Happy Howlidays is sort of like if you mixed the classic 1955 animated musical rom-com Lady and the Tramp with the 2023 rom-com Puppy Love then made the whole thing Hallmarky and Christmas-themed.

Performance Worth Watching: I’m being dead serious when I say that it was the dog Jordy, who plays Russell. He’s a very charming and well-behaved animal actor who both takes direction better AND makes me believe in love more than the human actors in this did. That good boy truly carried Happy Howlidays on his furry lil’ back!

Memorable Dialogue: “Okay, that’s it! There’s only room for one hot mess here and I was here first!” Way to show that poor dog who’s boss, Mia!

A Holiday Tradition: There’s the “True Love Christmas Tree” that’s hidden in a different spot in Seattle every year to symbolize how love can be hard to find, or how sometimes it can find you when you’re not even looking.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: It’s a movie about dogs and Christmas so yes, Happy Howlidays makes perfect sense, pun and all!

Our Take: Early in Happy Howlidays, when Isabel praises Mia’s successful “Pawsome Christmas” write-up, she says “It’s everything people love: Christmas, dogs, romance.” It feels like this sentence doubles as the movie’s whole elevator pitch and core philosophy, but sadly, the combo of Christmas, dogs, and romance isn’t ultimately a winning one in this case.

Hallmark is certainly thinking outside the box with a live-action romance between dogs as the film’s focal point and the thing that makes the human relationship between Mia and Max possible. Unfortunately, outside the box isn’t always a great thing, as this premise is just a little too goofy without the fully committed, strong performances it would need to pull the whole thing off. If we’re supposed to believe that the entire city of Seattle is going wild for a dog duo to the point they’ve earned the couple name and hashtag “Jussel,” then all actors should be matching that energy and embracing complete campiness with wide-open arms.

The acting in general is a bit wooden and lacking in charm, rendering the human romantic storyline unaffecting and forgettable. And yeah, even having a chiseled guy take his shirt off (only to put on a too-tight T-shirt) isn’t enough to distract me from that! Like congrats to Ezra Moreland for winning Finding Mr. Christmas but in this role, he’s somewhat stiff, unnatural, and perhaps not yet worthy of the “Mr. Christmas” title. But hey, practice makes perfect, perhaps next year he’ll have grown into the role, or maybe this movie just wasn’t the right fit.

Both Moreland and Jessica Lowndes definitely had their work cut out for them since neither of their characters comes across as someone you’d want to hang out with, let alone spend an entire hour-and-a-half-long movie around. But a late cameo from Mean Girls and Hallmark star Jonathan Bennett proves that it’s possible to understand the assignment and bring the right amount of camp and silliness to this movie… It’s just that the only actors who seemed to follow through on this were Bennett and the dogs. Maybe he can get a spin-off movie with Russell? Now that I’d love to see.

Our Call: Unfortunately, even Russell’s efforts and adorableness weren’t enough to save Happy Howlidays from unconvincing acting, a bland human romance, and the overall unsuccessful execution of a very silly story. SKIP IT.