Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story (2024)
What a delight!
Seriously, no snark. However, full disclosure - I am a Swiftie, so I absolutely watched this through my TNT-coloured glasses.
I know, I know… this probably wouldn’t have happened but for the Swift/Kelce phenomenon of it all, and I am sure that viewership was aided by that, BUT it also leads you to wonder why this Chiefs*-Hallmark partnership hadn’t happened before now?!? I mean, Hallmark HQ is in Kansas City!
And the love story in the title? Sure, there’s the Tyler Hynes / Hunter King romantic plot at the centre of this, but this is also a love letter to the Chiefs Kingdom. Hynes is Derrick Taylor, the new Marketing Director for the team. King is Alana Higman, third generation superfan, taking over her family’s Chiefs-gear store. With grandparents who met when seated next to each other in the old stadium, the fandom runs deep for the Higman crew, and this year they are in the hunt to be named “Superfans of the Year” by the team. With flashbacks to legendary Chiefs games, plenty of time for fan superstitions, and lots of team-centered activities. But really this is a movie about a family’s love for their team and Kansas City, and how much it has informed their entire lives.
You have Donna Kelce slinging BBQ and later shown in her IRL Eagles-Chiefs hybrid jersey, a Chiefs-themed gingerbread house competition, ice skating, caroling fueled by boozy eggnog (I’m in!), and some touching moments. Hallmark even threw in a blink-and-you-miss-it nod to the stars and Director, with previous titles from their filmography up in lights on a theatre marquee.
Was this a quintessential Christmas movie? Not exactly, but it had lots of what makes these movies enjoyable to watch, with good acting by a stacked cast, well paced, good storyline, and minimal need to park your sense of reality at the door. The partnership evidently allowed for a larger than normal budget too, and it showed. I mean… not many movies get to film in an NFL- stadium, amirite?
Overall an excellent movie and evidently it did well enough to merit a Buffalo Bills version for 2025. Remains to be seen if this kind of production will be something to repeat annually, or if we’re going to get another Three Wiser Men situation, but I look forward to finding out.
*I am refraining from commenting on the name of this team and the issues with that - acknowledging my willful ignorance in that regard.
You’ll like this if…
You will. Unless you hate the Chiefs. In which case, I can’t help you.
