Karen Kingsbury's The Christmas Ring

[00:00:04] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast Hi, I'm Brandon I love Karen Kingsbury I'm Dan and I despise Karen Kingsbury I'm Alonzo and Karen Kingsbury has some explaining to do and this is Deck The Hallmark Deck The Hallmark It's this podcast I know

[00:00:33] I'm stuck We hope you like this jolly podcast Friday to you Happy May May, it's gonna be May It is May We are one month closer

[00:01:01] Yeah, I mean, yeah, we were not really I need you to shut your pie On April 30th Today we're one day closer than yesterday I need you to shut your pie That's how calendars work, Daniel I don't know what your problem is What was yesterday? April 30th What's today? May 1st Okay, those are different Months Okay That's right We're not one month closer That's not how that works I just I'm sorry So if you have a physical calendar If you have a If you don't mind

[00:01:30] If you don't mind If you don't mind If you don't mind If you have a peel away calendar If you don't mind Oh, it's not April anymore Uh-oh What are we gonna do? We're gonna tear it away That is that one gone One less month This is the three Three out of five Right down the middle nonsense My goodness It's one day, Bran Is your one day Closest of days work And that's also a social contract If you can believe it But for me to believe 30 days have passed Because one has Is dumb That is not at all What I said But that's either

[00:02:00] You're not one month closer There's one less lonely girl though Shout out Justin Bieber Hi everybody Also, Karen Kingsbury I don't know you And I don't despise you I wanna make that Perfectly clear Sure It's a bit Yeah It was a bit Yeah, it was a bit Made a lot of She's been responsible for life Debbie McComer are both lovely As far as I know You know what I mean? I don't know any different So there you go Alonzo, how are you? Good You know, it's Summer is coming

[00:02:28] And that means a lot of Big dumb movies But you know Yeah, man This is the path I've chosen for myself In this life What are you gonna do? What do you prefer? This is a great question It didn't have to be for now But since I'm asking What do you prefer? A big dumb summer blockbuster Or a so clearly Please give me an Oscar movie Like all else being equal If you have to watch one Sure I mean probably The big dumb summer movie Yeah And those frankly Are often easier to review

[00:02:58] Because they're pretty Up front about What their intent is That's right You know You gotta go see A new Transformer movie Or The Smashing Machine What are we going with? Oh Okay That is brutal Sophie's choice This is when I start looking Into other careers Listen Someone had to do it Back when I don't know If you guys Probably have Blocked this movie From your memory But Zack Snyder Made a movie Called Sucker Punch Oh boy It sucks so much Yeah Dave and I hated

[00:03:27] That movie so much That we literally Spent an entire episode Of Linoleum Knife Talking about Other things we could do With our lives Hey we've done that We've been there before Yeah We've contemplated Other careers entirely Because that movie Was so terrible Dude that was like That was peak reduction Sauce of Slow it down Spin it around Speed it up What if for two hours We slow it down We spin it around And we speed it up That was what it was He was like It worked in 300

[00:03:57] Let's go mofos Sucker Punch It was terrible The movie was terrible This one's for the ladies Sucker Punch Yep Yep This movie that we're Doing today is Karen Kingsbury's The Christmas Ring Not to be confused With The Christmas Ring From Hallmark Yeah It's a Christmas ring Contractor This is Karen Kingsbury And she's come to play Yes This movie went to This movie went to Theaters

[00:04:26] Through the Fathom events It's a beloved novel Okay Beloved You had to pay a little extra If you wanted to see This movie in the theaters But you could do it You could do it Even if you had The Regal Unlimited Or the AMC It's still You still gotta pay a little You still gotta pay a little Gotta pay for the Fathoms Yep Been there It was like To watch this Not for this Had to pay Prime Video Six dollars So there you go Six dollars Not $199 As we are accustomed to seeing For the Prime Rentals Yeah Six

[00:04:55] American dollars And look Karen Kingsbury Is a One woman Entrepreneurial force And she's gonna sell you That book She's gonna sell you That Fathom ticket She's gonna sell you That rental Because this is a Karen Kingsbury production As we find out From the very first credit Exactly You know Take that Stephen King Let's see you do This kind of action Yeah So let's get to it Shall we It came to the movie theaters On November 6th 2026 For a long and Luxurious run

[00:05:25] Lustrous Is that what you meant? Luxurious Okay My bad I'm sorry I don't know I'm stupid It's fine It was a luxurious run It was very like You go in there And you're like This is the height of luxury Yeah I mean There's a lustrous hair In this movie I think You know Yeah We're in the big theaters They're not putting these In the small one Reclining seats Massaging chairs Luxurious You get it Anyway Whatever I don't need it from you Went a little Something like this So we find out About a veteran

[00:05:54] Named Bill Bailey Who on D-Day Parachuted in And stumbled upon A ring On the ground He held on to that ring Cherished it forever America America That's right That's right Won't you come home Bill Bailey And this ring Has been passed down Generation to generation Until it gets to Vanessa His Who is His great She's our clots Bark bark That's right For some reason She took it with her On a skiing trip Ah Ah Bah Yeah Yeah she did

[00:06:24] Sometimes you do And No one The people on the slopes Might need to know About my ring So she loses it While on this skiing trip With her daughter She's going from Antique store To antique store Trying to find it She enters into Howard Miller's place Miller's place Christmas Eve At Miller's Point That's exactly right A lot of A lot of connections here And This place For some reason Is holding a Christmas in July sale At this antique store

[00:06:53] And as she's looking For the ring A fella named Ben Starts talking to her Asking her about What she's looking for Ben is Howard's son And Ben keeps asking her About her marital status And she opens up About how She's lost her husband Who was also In the military Just like The guy at the beginning Of the movie Ben says He's also a widow Maybe they should Both move on together So Maybe that's what's Going to happen In this movie They start hanging out Flirting and what not Fast forward a bit It's the holiday season

[00:07:23] It's the holiday season The holiday season Some hootie doo And dickery doc Thank you Hey don't forget Hang up your sock Hang up your sock That's right When When is he coming Down the chimney down Exactly Yeah Exactly Exactly Exactly 12 o'clock Everywhere Yeah I don't know If that makes sense He'll be coming Down the chimney down Coming down the chimney down Yeah Not coming down the chimney up No No Anyway Down the chimney down

[00:07:52] Got it I got it I got it Whenever you're ready Fast forward a bit It's the holiday season Holiday season Vanessa's daughter Is coming home And she wants to tell her About Ben But keeps getting interrupted We then See the hands Of somebody opening A box Filled with antiques Including her ring He sets it off To the side Turns out those hands Belong to Howard He thinks that this ring Could be worth a lot of money

[00:08:21] Could be the big fish That they've been trying To reel in Ben and Vanessa Keep hanging out And Vanessa Keeps not telling Her daughter Howard calls his son With good news He found the diamond The diamond in the rough That they've been looking for And it's worth A ladder $25,000 A buyer Already lined up Woo He's excited about this She finally tells her daughter That she might be

[00:08:50] Interested in moving on Maybe dating It doesn't go well So what better time To go on your first date Than right after that She goes on her first date With Ben And while out on this date He realizes That the ring That she's been looking for Is the ring That his dad found So he has to rush To the shop Stops the date early Has to rush back To the shop To make sure That his dad Doesn't sell it He goes to tell him And his dad is like It's not her ring Okay I'm selling it

[00:09:20] End of story We're going to Italian But Howard Finally takes a look At the engraving That his son was talking about Inside the ring Just like he asked And he knows now That it belongs to her And so he gives it to Ben Ben then shows up At this big event thing That she's throwing Surprises her with the ring And that's good enough For her Because they end up kissing And that my friends was Karen Kingsbury's

[00:09:49] The Christmas Ring We did it We did it Let's take a break We're going to break this Movie down here on Deck the Hallmark To Deck the Hallmark Today on a Friday Festive Friday If you will And it's always good When you actually get A Christmas movie We don't take that For granted

[00:10:19] Because sometimes Even on Festive Friday We get Dukes This week It is a Christmas movie It's Karen Kingsbury's The Christmas Ring It's a theatrical release It was at one point In time Attached to Christopher Palaha If you can believe it No longer though Obviously He's not in this movie But let's Break this movie down We're going to start With a hot take I'm going to start With you Alonzo Alonzo what do you think About the Christmas Ring Karen Kingsbury's Version of it I'm not giving you A hot take

[00:10:49] Why would I give you A hot take Stop asking me I'm not giving you A hot take And that is the third Act of this movie Thank you It's insane The conversations That aren't Happening in this movie 100% That Kelsey Grammer Won't look at the ring That Ben Hollingsworth Won't tell Jana Kramer What's up

[00:11:18] It's like y'all This would be You could shave off Half an hour And if any movie Needed to shave off Half an hour If any movie Needed to do it Yeah It was this one An hour 40 And again Like There is You know Fans of the romance Will understand That the misunderstanding At this point In the plot Is important But you gotta You gotta buttress That more Instead of just like Nope I can talk about it No Yeah Like yeah

[00:11:48] I've locked my mouth And I can't open it back up You know It's So that's ridiculous So stupid Oh my god And then Beyond that This is A kind of Sub Hallmark You know Lady with a long Curled Twinkly eyed Guy Sitcom star Of your Movie You know It It It It goes through The paces Hallmark has made Karen Kingsbury movies And now Karen Kingsbury

[00:12:18] Is making Sort of Hallmark movies You know With that kind of Just cheap enough Brad Cravoy Touch to it That it doesn't Quite pop In the way That the better Hallmark ones do Visually or narratively Or anything So You know I suppose If you are a rabid Karen Kingsbury fan And you're down For the shape Of this sort of thing This delivers But I I was Not into it Um So I Liked it Okay

[00:12:47] Um I I do think It's a couple of things One is obviously It's too long That's not a secret It's an hour 40 Could have easily been An hour 21 We could have been Fine with that Um And a lot of What you could Cut out Is the The whole thing With this I'm not looking at I'm not looking at It okay I'll look at Oh it turns out He was right There you go Cause it adds Nothing It adds nothing To the thing If If If If If If If If If If

[00:13:11] If dad goes I'm not no we're selling it and then goes in there and goes you know what let me just do my due diligence let me just look at it and then he realizes it and then that's the movie because like this I like the the the one thing that I was happy about with this movie is that he didn't it wasn't like a it wasn't him that was purposely like oh I've got this ring When he finds out and doesn't tell her Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

[00:13:39] And it wasn't like him who found the ring and like just didn't put it together himself Like so that I appreciated um the military aspect of this movie is unnecessary and just feels like it was tapped onto it to make us feel good about America

[00:13:56] America and whatnot but the truth but like the idea of her losing ring ring ending up in this antique store and being able to return it to her it was fun it was fun I appreciated that part of it but yeah so it's it's an okay for me uh it is a hallmark movie uh just a little bit longer and it could have been a normal hallmark movie length and I would have liked it a good bit better

[00:14:23] Tana yeah the way that I would describe this movie is a jpr movie with a blank check budget uh get out of here I got it written down I didn't come up with it on top of my head man

[00:14:35] um this movie sucks out loud uh it's I don't know when the last time I've actively rooted for two people to not end up together like I did in this movie um Kelsey Grammer is doing a southern accent the they don't ever establish like a consistent yearning or longing for this ring it's big in the first 20 minutes and it's big in the last 20 minutes uh the last 20 minutes uh the last 20 minutes of which Alonzo has already told you

[00:15:04] makes no sense at all and those are the 20 minutes that exist after all of our brains have clocked the end of the hallmark movie I say this knowing full well that my the integrity of my job is on the line I take watching these movies more seriously than I think people think I do I told this to brand I bought this movie on prime rented it did not purchase it for for good thank god

[00:15:28] this I looked at an hour 10 in this movie I was gobsmacked that we had 30 minutes left I turned the television off I put the movie on my laptop so I could speed up the playtime that is what I did during this movie uh it's a brutal watch and if you read this book I can only imagine you were not happy with how it was portrayed because if I was reading this on the page

[00:15:54] if I was reading the old prospector saying that he just is not I'm selling the ring and we're not talking about it and like all of like we we sometimes give a hallmark a hard time for not having grown-ups talk like grown-ups those movies all look like they are they are perfect in this regard by comparison to what happens in this movie where no one says anything that could solve the thing that cracked the thing wide open like no one

[00:16:22] like even even the jeweler that's working to help her when he calls and says he has it narrowed down at that point he he knows she's in Georgia he could say it's at texter it's at this jewelry jeweler it's this antique store this what an antique store this address and she would put it together immediately there's so many other ways to go about this the nasdene contractor david all pay christmas ring

[00:16:49] is a miles better movie than this movie this was so tough man this was i can't believe this was in theaters i can't believe it i it was real bad give you value you partner with fathom and they'll make it happen that's true we should do the same why the heck not yeah i mean what did it make in the box office i'm gonna i don't know if they do fathom box office yeah i don't know if they report that or not but throw it on box office mojo see what happens because there was there was another you know

[00:17:16] this kind of christmas movie that got a fathom event last year that i heaven only knows who went to see that one what was that it was the ccb movie oh yeah that's right the christmas that's interesting yeah yeah um all right let's get to all the feels that's where we talk about what this movie made over a million dollars at the box office made 1.2 million dollars domestic box office opening weekend

[00:17:43] 676 000 i i can believe that it's the holiday season and it's like oh yeah let's get out there and see this christmas i mean it must be people who love the novel i think that's what it is but also that doesn't cover the budget of this i mean the budget of this movie was probably three million dollars i don't like right yeah but i mean it's not like you know obviously you know here we are renting it on prime and eventually i'm sure somebody some channel will pick it up and it will then

[00:18:11] go to you know tubi or whatever like the the the fathom release was just the beginning of this yeah 1.2 is a good start so what are the publicity that we're giving it i think it's it's it's right on its way it's burned down the wickets uh alonzo when he feels i mean you know benjamin hollingsworth and janna kramer are pros and they are pros at this kind of correct you know and so yeah i'm with daniel in that i didn't really care about these characters

[00:18:40] getting together but the two of them know how to you know smolder in that very lukewarm way that these kind of movies demand um you know he's just you just want to pinch his cheek he's just he's just he's a little button-eyed benjamin hollingsworth um so yeah i i sort of enjoyed them fulfilling their

[00:19:03] obligations of what this plot was demanding of them uh that's kind of it laura asked if that was the ai response laura no that was from box office mojo that's like an actual website that does this the tracks this stuff yeah um it's not the the music in this movie was real real music and like real music real christmas music by you know some classics but one was introduced to me and it was so

[00:19:30] wonderfully weird and i was surprised i'd never heard it before i want to give a shout out to sweet gingerbread man by sammy davis jr oh yeah truly odd christmas song it's like what if the candy man but christmas feels like i made out of gingerbread crumbs picking lip licking gingerbread what is sammy davis jr talking about i don't know good god i'm mad i never heard it i was like this is fun

[00:19:57] and then i'm like start listening to the lyrics and i'm like what in the world then i googled the song it's sammy davis jr another legendary jewish artist in the christmas movie space fantastic fantastic fantastic track truly weird i loved it dano um yeah i mean i tried man i don't i mean i i do agree that benjamin hollingsworth is like game for this and that's all well and good but can you

[00:20:20] imagine palaha in this movie god no because it was always going to be uh kramer uh it's always it was always going to be kelsey grammar it was always going to be uh janna kramer those two were always attached to it and then also palaha but then palaha dipped out i think that i think that palaha does an amazing job at making especially this the what i would call this movie is spiritual mumbo jumbo

[00:20:45] like it isn't like theologically attached to any brand of christianity aside from the one that just wants you to do and all every time somebody says god and chris palaha is a maestro of making that sound authentic like in movies like he is that is i hope he takes that for a compliment and not as a dig he is really good in those some of those movies he's done of making it feel very earnest um but i i'm so i

[00:21:15] feel like he dodged a bullet so probably yeah but there were times where i thought i imagined him doing these scenes i was like yeah i mean this is this is his wheelhouse he would have he wouldn't have succeeded any better i don't think with the material but he would have you know he would have come and put his zhuzh on it you know yeah uh all right let's take a break we'll come back we

[00:21:35] will uh break this movie down a bit more here on the hallmark welcome back everybody it is good to be here today talking about karen kingsbury's the christmas ring it's time for the way what is we talk about what in this movie made us go what i'll start with you a lot so yeah i'm giving piggy backing off something that daniel just said uh so one of my favorite cartoonists is a woman named

[00:22:03] linda berry and she does these really great strips about like the sort of anxieties of childhood and adolescence and there's this one where uh her lead character is taking a home economics class and it's like the 1960s they have to make these breakfast squares out of like tang powder and you know graham crackers it just it sounds terrible and it comes out badly and her classmate is like put it in the shape of a cross they won't give less than a bead anything that's in the shape of a cross that's

[00:22:30] right yep this movie is in the shape of a cross yes it is they you know between janna kramer's little little chain and like the the every five minutes it's like okay we have not mentioned prayer jesus or the troops and it's we you know time is money people um they keep throwing that out there and i i'm reminded of the one of the roger ebert an expression of his that i love is that there are

[00:22:57] people who will watch a movie where nothing good happens so long as they're assured that nothing bad that's right yeah and so i think that for if you are the kind of person that wants to see a movie where even if it's you know completely boring and you don't care about the plot or the characters but they mention jesus a few times and that keeps you engaged and they mention the troops so you feel like you're fulfilling some kind of patriotic duty by being there this is your movie um it was interesting

[00:23:24] that it was it was a constant mention every you know it was so unnecessary minutes but never a super prolonged conversation like about like it never like there was never like this like hey i like there's a question of jesus let's talk about what it's more than it for you there's you're right it's not it's but it's pretty omnipresent much like our lord and savior i i think that i it's always

[00:23:51] there to alonzo's point it's not like one thing where one character is a christian i think they're all are just like well lord willing god says and if i pray hard enough and if i blah blah blah and it's and to your i love those two both of those quotes but i love the fact that the bible the source material for these folks is just filled with like r and x-ray stuff but like in the movies

[00:24:15] we couldn't possibly we wouldn't we wouldn't like have you read the song of solomon yeah yeah yeah yeah and that wasn't to one of his 900 concubines that was to his one the og that's good yeah yeah this is to my real one there is one less lonely concubine um

[00:24:40] all right so we have we have like the the one uh couple of color in the movie that has dialogue because there's always one um and the wife uh uh breaks her knee and she's got the scooter thing uh and they show the people who are decorating her house on her behalf and she is on the scooter thing in front of the house and in front of the house are three very tall steps yes to get to the front door and i'm like well the decorating is all well and good but how are you

[00:25:09] going to get her back inside that is i don't see any ramps that is the the christmas christians idea of accessibility is we will decorate your house for you it's going to look amazing that's right well you are stuck in the driveway all winter long no ramp we could build one but that's not festive there's nothing festive about a ramp i'm honestly i'm with them on this the decorations priorities

[00:25:32] listen it's good for the heart yeah uh i've already forgotten why i wrote down dumb croissant scene dude i am i have two but i watched this movie four days ago three days yeah it's uh i don't you know if you if you see it remind me and tell me what that's about uh the daughter the daughter uh you know i get it it's it's difficult when you your beloved parent has passed and he's a troop

[00:25:59] especially and like dealing with the concept that your mom is moving on but it's like you're in college you're in college and you're dating a troop like at some point maybe you can wrap your brain around the idea that mom is not just going to like light candles in front of a picture of your dad for the rest of her life that you know she is you know was clearly probably what i mean she was having a kid

[00:26:24] at like 18 19 they're not that far apart in age janna kramer is clearly playing a woman who is you know uh got a lot of life ahead of her and so yeah let her her her dates her daughter though dating a a military a troop is what was wild wild like her dad her dad it does feel like five years ago passed away that's right i the more i'm thinking about this movie the more i want to know how much

[00:26:51] of this is accurate to the book because it feels like we're just plucking stuff out of air that people in certain places will respond to it doesn't feel cohesive at all like there's not a lot i don't have a lot of sympathy like if it's a nine-year-old kid who's like mom you're gonna date again then i have all the sympathy in the world this college here's the thing the troop the kids always want mom to move on that's what i've learned from these movies they're all the kids are always please give me a new daddy

[00:27:19] so it takes a little while for you to kind of get frustrated when yeah but but but daughter has to date a troop because then that's when we have to have the i can't come home for christmas surprise i'm home for christmas yeah because every movie has that if you if you learned about america through watching hallmark christmas movies you would think that the best time to strike is christmas you really would everybody gets to go home there's nobody out there everybody's home man they've all been re re undeployed

[00:27:46] whatever the word is there uh this is something just for for those of you out there who like me uh are deep and have to turn the uh closed captions on the whole time the movie opens with a frank sinatra song uh that is identified in the captions as bing crosby oh my god what uh-huh i was appalled and uh i didn't did not care for it did not set me on the right road with this movie i was already

[00:28:13] doubting everything that's a problem come on karen you're better and then finally kelsey grammar southern accent yeah we gotta talk about that what y'all what what in the world what is it why is it yeah why is it here's the thing when hollingsworth doesn't have one no one does so the thing is a choice we know we know listen we don't have to talk glow about kelsey grammar we've watched other kelsey grammar movies but we do know that he's a capable actor like sure comedic

[00:28:42] timing on fraser unbelievable right like why like whose idea was this i know that you're in georgia but if everyone's not on board with being in georgia then you gotta turn down the georgia a little bit like what does his brother even have an accent i don't think anyone else i think he's the only one yeah it's like if he got cast in a in a movie that was set in baltimore and everybody else had just

[00:29:08] sort of like their usual whatever and he went hard on the like you know hon yeah yeah yeah the the the the the motor industry industry you know whatever it is like it just it's a it's a choice this would have been a better accent for him to have as old prospector in toy story 2 in toy story 2 he that's right he is oil prospector an old prospector with less of a southern accent than this and i i

[00:29:36] don't i for the life of me it's just not adding up what are you doing he just got bored he's like i'm gonna do it whatever let's do a southern one uh anything else that's pretty much covered me there um guys this this line made me laugh so hard uh he uh when they first meet in the store you know they're doing a little flirty flirty fun time and he says something uh italian right and she says are you

[00:30:05] italian and he says not yet but it's our but it's our dream to visit italy brother going to italy doesn't make it does not make you italian not even a little bit are you italian dude that's not crazy that's crazy how that works not yet based upon my recent travels i'm both dominican and british

[00:30:31] so cool not yet uh her daughter comes home and is pumped about shepherd's pie get out of here get out of here with your love of shepherd's people love it i know that people love it and the people are wrong you can't wait what people are i can't you can't wait what is a bunch of stuff mush to combine together you all are sickos you little freaks out oh if it were a kfc bowl you'd be

[00:30:57] no i want all my food separate like oh like a nice boy shepherd's pie like a nice eight-year-old day like a nice eight-year-old boy my mom my mom i love my mom my mom used to make shepherd's pie and it was the worst day of every week when it would happen every she made it every week no but whenever it was the worst every it was the worst day of every week that i'm not i don't get excited about

[00:31:20] shepherd's pie but i am telling you that you can't wait watch me oh a classic dish being celebrated hey a guy and it's a comfort food dish me that's crazy also technically shepherd's pie has to have lamb in it if you're making it with beef it's a cottage pie all right well we learned something new today write that down beef is cottage pie that's right um so i

[00:31:48] guess i've never had shepherd's pie that's right i've only got buzzbee berkeley okay i do i can you guys i want to talk through really quickly the timeline of this movie please this movie for this movie for some reason reason i don't know starts in july we know that because kelsey grammar is wearing shorts and on the outside of the store it says christmas in july sale yes okay

[00:32:11] great so they meet that day and on the in the christmas in july sale then then i guess at some point we fast forward daughter comes home and then they go on their first date at that time yeah but i we never really see them not together and then we find out it is december and he and it is just at

[00:32:39] this point in time that she asks what happened to your wife like how did she pass that they have been at at the very least getting to know each other hanging out since july and it takes until december for her to ask him how did your wife pass it's pretty weird that is in a small town in a small

[00:33:03] town with somebody that you kind of like and are also a widow yeah and they know how your spouse died right that is a crazy long time to pass i mean like we have become accustomed over the years to movies where like people will be sitting in a car pulling up to the restaurant having a conversation and then the conversation picks up like while they're at the dinner table it's like okay there was some there was a space in between there where you could have kept talking but correct yeah but yeah

[00:33:31] that's a biggie there's no reason for this movie to start in july it it it does not play into this movie at all aside from her daughter is going to be going to college but if you just start it with hey my daughter's been in college and she's coming over the holiday season and they're getting to know each other over the holiday season that because they go on their first date during the holiday season right i think the idea is they've had all this time to get to know each other they're not calling it dates

[00:33:58] yet they're still their friends and whatever and so like starting it at christmas in july is actually clever because that way it lets your movie start with christmas imagery while at the same time giving you time to get to christmas but you're right there's no point in giving them five months to get to know each other if they haven't gotten to know each other over five months it was a weird thing to do when you're not going to do the thing for the reason why you're doing it but yeah whatever

[00:34:21] and then the last one um i got this when uh the daughter isn't sure where her boyfriend fiance whatever is and then he calls her and she's like yeah he's he's okay and he says go outside it's snow it's snowing and she walks outside and he's there yeah and he says it's not snowing very funny to me it's a very funny thing to say to somebody that's like hey i'm here that's what you

[00:34:51] get for taking the weather advice from somebody who's supposed to be on another part of thousands of miles away yes of course and then she walks out looks at him it's not snowing it was very funny i got a good kick out of it dana uh she took the ring skiing guys and was wearing gloves presumably right it's usually cold took the ring ski but like

[00:35:14] that means time that means like she wears the ring which also seems crazy reckless to me like with a family heirloom antique like that your great-grandfather found at war i mean if you take that ring skiing it must have worked well for you scuba diving and at the amusement park like the idea that it's at this point it's just like a fear factor challenge of how to lose an heirloom

[00:35:42] skiing guys have you ever i i know this because when i lived in st louis missouri the first big snow my ring was always a little bit loose on my hand and i would throw snowballs for my dogs and my ring flung off one time and i didn't find it until all the snow melted like a ring in snow if it if it's if

[00:36:05] it gets under the surface it's gone forever like what are you doing like i'm sorry that ring means nothing to you i i don't know what else to tell you it means nothing also she she had the take her gloves off that's right yeah and then yeah maybe maybe it came off while she was taking the glove off and it like came with it and then it fell down and she still understands keeping hold

[00:36:33] of a ring more than kelsey grammar understands travel because this guy believes that he's going to sell a ring for 25 000 and he and his son are going to in his words do it all in italy do it all guys i have news for you like this movie does take place in the year of our lord 2026 you're not gonna do it all

[00:36:57] for 25 000 you're gonna do some you're gonna do some certainly not enough to call yourself italian you're gonna at the end of the trip you're gonna cut some corners you're not gonna have all the wine or the pizza or the sightseeing you are not wealthy you're not rich you can go to italy it will be somewhat on a budget uh this is a classic example of a christmas movie

[00:37:26] wanting everyone to believe that we made this movie for middle america that still thinks 25 000 a lot of money look i'm not saying 25 000 is not a lot of money it is a lot of money but what you're trying to do for the money that you think you're getting is not connecting at all here for me uh we do reach critical mass in this movie of number of main characters who've lost their significant others

[00:37:49] i look one is a given it's default if you have one main character if they both have lost their significant others that's that strains our our credibility but once you get to three that's all of them like literally kelsey gramer benjamin hollinsworth and jana kramer have oh and the two friends and the two friends we are that's why i wrote it down i knew that there was more than three

[00:38:15] yeah there's a handful of folks it's more common in this town for folks under the age of 70 to have lost their significant other than for them to still have their significant other it just guys what is maybe don't get married in that town like that's a crazy number of people to die like didn't you guys have a guest on early on who said i've met a lot of widows and they're all over 80 yeah yeah yeah like

[00:38:41] i'm trying to think of i'm 42 i'm trying to think of one person i know it within plus or minus seven years of me that had married someone and lost them yeah here's the thing like when you meet somebody that that's happened to it's the saddest thing you hear all week correct because of how like it's it's awful like that's how it's because it's rare this is more like if you meet someone that

[00:39:09] their significant other is still alive alive it's a joyful celebration i guess this guy's still got his wife let's go y'all just move here or what yeah you haven't died yet that's crazy um we a weird weird move there on the part of this movie and we're supposed to go about it i do love how every christmas movie believes the best background for army zoom is zoom is white concrete like they've just

[00:39:33] decided we have to play it safe here what if we go with white concrete and it is what i imagine very much not would that would not be the background overseas is white concrete but that is the background that is the all play for any time that we have this scenario not a tent you know and i think it's probably because i've seen like real movies about this like if you watch a catherine bigelow movie and there's not any white concrete to be found and then you watch any of these movies and you see it once it's like oh they didn't have any money but then when all everyone just has

[00:40:02] decided white concrete white concrete white concrete let's go with it that works for me it's not like you can go to the local surplus store and get some you know camo netting or something that's right no no you would not be able to find anything on such short notice no um yeah uh and then uh yeah that's all that's all i got we're good all right uh let's get to what the hallmark is where we wonder what could have been maybe happy because to clear any question we still have what are we still wondering

[00:40:25] about i'll start with you alonzo yeah i you know it it appears this is one of those relationships between two people who live in a different city and they both seem to have things that are tying them to that city like he works he has his works with his dad at the at the antique store they own and she is like super involved in doing widow things in this town where all the widows live uh and

[00:40:53] and they never have a conversation about where are we gonna live where how who's gonna uproot for the other one and so are they not in the same town no he's in columbus and she's i think is it tennessee like they they make it a point to say that like whenever he comes like it's a it's a schlep you know cool yeah i missed that do we get explained before i give my what the hallmark because that's a

[00:41:18] good one and i but the guy that's working for her that's calling all the places do we get an explanation of his deal no he's he's just chasing the reward money yeah okay you know and he's bad because he eats all the time and you don't do that but doesn't he know her like no no no she he has a flyer that she's putting out so he's just operating in his own sphere his own movie yes yes man we could have got rid of him could have got rid of him yeah yeah yep boy we would have

[00:41:48] missed all that eating yeah that's true i'll tell you i did feel like kelsey gramer and the woman that was originally going to be buying the ring had a little something going on there there was a little there was a little something do those two is that love are we going to get the christmas ring too yeah does she have a typewriter collection does she have a that's a great question to stop it why do you i just throw it out there into the universe might be as bad as the ring too throw it out into the universe dan anything else yeah i would say that kelsey gramer goes from i'm not

[00:42:18] looking at the ring and i'm selling we're going to italy gd he goes from that to please take the ring very quickly and i want to know if he ever gets to become italian if he ever gets to go to italy and you know if somehow that works out for him because she was offering reward money and i don't know maybe that maybe they figure that out does kelsey ever go or is he is he stuck on a beach with

[00:42:43] billy ray cyrus singing oh god help us yeah dude and look at least in the last scene the moon hits his eye like a bigger pizza pie a bigger pizza pie that's right not yet is the funniest response to are you italian that's uh that's the funniest thing that you could say i'm having surgery though do i have that green card visa application in my backpack you bet you not yes i'm getting there um all right we did everybody congratulations we'll be back next week with alonzo with another one and we'll be back

[00:43:13] next week as well yeah we will sooner than that good it's really good merry christmas everybody deck the hallmarks of bramble jam podcast produced by brandon gray and yeah that greenville south carolina for more information on the show you can go to deck the hallmark.com follow us on the socials at deck the hallmark excuse you uh leave us a five-star rating and review on apple podcast help others find the show and join the best corner of the internet at bramblejamplus.com with ad-free podcasting an amazing facebook community at a movie movie watch along

[00:43:42] chat the whole thing brand oh man you're about to hear some ads that help keep the lights on here in the old studio thanks for listening or don't listen it's really up to you at this point it's at the end of the show i mean you're listening to me hi but here they come i promise they're coming yep here they are happy day you