A Keller Christmas Vacation (2025)
More European Christmas markets!
Is Jonathan Bennett becoming Hallmark’s Adam Sandler? Provided with opportunities to tour the world with friends while also filming a movie.
In this case, they set out to make a Griswold vacation movie that would fit with the Hallmark style, then set it on a riverboat cruise through central Europe. And what we got was a decent depiction of the standard movie activities, with some heavy Germanic influence.
However, despite the inclusion of some standard holiday movie fare, this was only ok for me. With the requisite family dynamics taking up a lot of the airtime, it felt rushed to tell storylines for all three kids and their parents in a quick 90 minutes.
The standout for this movie is Jonathan Bennett for sure - rapidly rising in the Hallstar universe, you can see that he is more than game to do it all with enthusiasm and making sure that LGBTQ+ storylines get their time on screen.
Christmas this year is going to be a little different for the Keller family, as parents, Anne and Ben, buy their three adult children – oldest son, Cal, middle son, Dylan and daughter, Emory – a river cruise down the Danube River from Germany, through Salzburg, to Vienna touring beautiful European Christmas Markets and towns along the way. The one problem? The very different siblings, who are each going through their own personal life challenges, have naturally gone in separate directions over the years and the idea of spending 10 days cooped up on a river cruise together makes each Keller child cringe for their own reasons. But they say “yes” because that’s what families do, never expecting it to turn out to be a glorious once-in-a-lifetime experience full of missed connections, new friendships, stunning vistas, relationship upheaval, budding romances, shipboard games, family bonding, and a secret that brings them all together in time for Christmas. Starring Jonathan Bennett, Brandon Routh and Eden Sher
You’ll like this if…
You love the idea of a European Christmas market.
