Spoilers below for Hallmark's Sugarplummed!
I spent another weekend in front of my television watching Hallmark’s new additions to the 2024 Christmas Movie schedule. While I didn’t love Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, no matter how great the cameo from Donna Kelce was, I had high hopes going into December's first full weekend lineup, because one of my most anticipated Countdown to Christmas movies was debuting. Unfortunately, Sugarplummed did not impress me as much as I hoped the meta flick would.
Sugarplummed centers on Emily (Maggie Lawson), a mom determined to give her family a perfect Christmas reminiscent of those celebrated in the cheesy made-for-TV films she loves watching. Unfortunately, her family isn’t too on board with the idea, and everyone's too preoccupied with their own lives. That’s where Janel Parrish's fictional heroine Sugarplum comes in, applying to real life that she knows about perfect Christmases from holiday TV movie history, so that Emily can create one of her own.
While the meta-take to Hallmark Christmas movies is a unique spin that hasn’t been done on the cable network before, I have a few reasons for thinking it didn’t actually work all that well.
I Didn’t Like How The Movie Seemed To Be Poking Fun At The Majority Of Hallmark Movies
For starters, I tune in to Hallmark movies year after year because I like the cozy Christmas formula the network has perfected. While I admit I was initially intrigued by the premise and excited to see what a meta movie looked like for Hallmark, I can honestly say Sugarplummed was not what I was expecting. Instead of being a fun flick, I was left feeling confused as to why they chose to make a film that makes fun of the core ideals of what makes these movies great.
A major part of the story revolves around Sugarplum’s book of holiday movie rules, which she lives by in her fictional world. These are things like how to decorate the perfect house and how to ensure soulmates find each other even in the worst circumstances, all of which are key elements of a majority of Hallmark movies. Had it honored its predecessors like worthy parodies do, I might have felt differently.
Instead of really leaning into how these things are possible in the real world, the film spends a good portion of the time making fun of how silly the rules are. Emily constantly points out how the things Sugarplum expects to happen don’t ever happen in the real world. It goes as far as Sugarplum being surprised that Emily is a career woman with a career-driven husband since everyone in her world would have left a big-time job for a small-town hunk.
Of course, these are things I myself have said while watching these movies, but not overthinking the plots is what makes them so fun to watch. In pointing out all the things that are wrong with the movies, Sugarplummed took me out of the world it was trying to depict. Sure, it might be realistic, but I don’t watch Hallmark movies for realism.
Emily’s Character Arc Felt Confusing At Times
At the start of the film, Emily is determined to give her kids a movie-level Christmas. When Sugarplum arrives, she’s skeptical about how the fictional character plans to help her, pointing out the flaws in her plan along the way. And yet, she still goes along with the absurd plan anyway.
Here’s the thing I don’t understand: if Emily is so against the holiday movie rulebook, why would she be so keen on implementing the rules in the first place? From a story standpoint, it would have made more sense for Emily to be strictly anti-Christmas movie and for Sugarplum to prove to her that movie magic does exist in the real world.
Instead, the opposite happens, with Sugarplum learning that all the perfect moments in her movie world are actually fake. Sure, it’s a realistic message, but I don’t know anyone who tunes in to Hallmark movies for realism.
Sugarplummed Was Severely Lacking In The Romance Department
Given Sugarplummed’s meta premise, it seems odd that the film would choose not to feature an epic romance story in the mix. Anyone who has tuned in for even five minutes of a Hallmark movie knows it's all about the romance, and yet, Sugarplummed didn’t showcase a romantic plot at all.
With Emily being happily married, the fresh romance could have come from one of the other characters, maybe even Sugarplum herself. But that didn’t happen. Instead, the film briefly touches on familial love with Emily’s complicated relationship with her teenage daughter. While touching, it wasn’t swoon-worthy in any sense of the word.
Now, I’m not saying all Hallmark movies need to feature a romantic love story for them to be great, but Sugarplummed would have benefited from the added tension one would have created.
While I had my structural issues with Sugarplummed, I do think Lawson and Parrish deserve a round of applause for their performances. As does the writer and team who came up with the hilarious rules in Sugarplum’s rule book — like 142: Flannel is a natural aphrodisiac.
Unfortunately, Sugarplummed just didn’t do enough to dethrone my favorite Hallmark movie of 2024: The 5-Year Christmas Party. Still, it’s a fun movie to watch, especially if you like poking fun at these movies.
You can check Sugarplummed out for yourself with a Peacock subscription.
