This is a bramble Jam podcast.

Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a Hallmark review podcast.

I'm Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan.

I'm Wendy.

I'm a former Hallmark hater.

Today we are discussing a Grand Ole Opry Christmas, which originally aired on Saturday, November twenty ninth and is currently available to stream on Hallmark Plus.

And you should stream it.

Spoiler spoiler alert.

I'm really tempted to be like, that's the episode, folks, go watch it again.

Oh my gosh, that's so funny.

You say that because I was like, oh, wouldn't it be funny for like five star?

No notes?

Thanks for listening.

Bye, Hey.

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I posted a really funny Instagram post Yayday Stories last night.

Made myself laugh.

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A synopsis of a Grand Old Opry Christmas.

Gentry Wade, who gave up music after her father's death and decades ago, must confront her past when Nashville's Grand Old Opry invites her to honor her late country star dad at their Christmas celebration.

Claire Nita Prum directed the film.

She has twenty one total directing credits, and Hallmark viewers may know her work from Mystery Island, House Rules, Villa Amorey, and Savoring Paris.

The script was written by Hilty Bowen and Tracy Andrene.

Hilty has five writing credits, including The Beach Read Murders and Living with My Mother's Killer.

Those are so opposite of this movie.

Tracy has thirty nine writing credits and also wrote Christmas at the Catnip Cafe and A Keller Christmas Vacation.

For this year's countdown to Christmas season, Tracy Andrene out there working having a big year.

Christopher Palaha stars as Mac.

He has ninety five acting credits and three upcoming projects, including the film Mimics, which he also directed, as well as American Hostage, a scripted podcast adaptation for MGM.

Plus I'm Excited for That.

Nikki Delo plays Gentry Wade.

We recently saw her in Home Turf in October, and she will also appear in the next two installments of the True Justice Mystery franchise.

Sharon Lawrence plays Rita.

This is her one hundred and twenty first acting credit, and she has three additional projects currently in the works.

Hallmark viewers last saw her in the Christmas House Movies.

Since then, she has appeared in the series Dynasty, Joe Pickett and Walker.

Rob Mays plays Jet Wade.

This is his sixty third acting credit and appears to be his first appearance on Hallmark.

He also appeared in a movie called a Christmas Murder Mystery and The Beach Read Murders.

Eliza Hayes Maher plays Young Rita.

Eliza has eighteen acting credits and has appeared in all three of the Haul Out the movies.

She was also in Hidden Gems and Taking the Reins on Hallmark.

James Denton plays Von Winters.

James is a regular on Hallmark, having appeared in seventy five episodes of The Good Witch, as well as movies like A Kiss Before Christmas and Christmas on Cherry Lane.

This film includes numerous cameos from Bill Anderson, Brad Paisley Daly and Vincent Drew Baldridge, Jamie Johnson, Maggie Baugh, Meghan Moroney, Mickey Geiton, Pam Tallis, Rhet Aikins, Writers in the Sky, Susie Bogas, Tiger, Lily Gold and t Graham Brown.

We're going to take a quick break and come right back with our first impressions.

Hey, Wendy, what was your first impression of a grand ole Opry Christmas?

Oh?

We got a top tier Countdown to Christmas contender on our hands.

The bracket participants should be quickening their boots if we even do it.

Okay, go ahead, listen to our listener mail bag episode this week.

My first impression is make room on that five stars, no nodes bench, Ted Cooper for sure.

What did you like about this movie?

Look, the heart of this movie is not the romance.

The romance was the cherry on top.

Yeah.

For me, it's the dad and daughter story.

And I cried the entire time.

No, me too.

The scenes between Gentry and her dad, especially when they're like writing the song together and then we see Mac like filming it, which God, I love that.

These scenes gutted me in the best way, mostly because she had been plagued with these questions from people from fans since his death, what happened to your dad?

Why did he stop writing?

And she didn't know the answer, and like, what an incredible story to tell.

I just I just thought it was so unique and good, like he chose me.

Yes, Oh my god.

Yeah, that final scene with him where she's basically saying goodbye and she's she's kind of giving him permission and reaffirming his choice, Yeah, to leave the duo, leave music, and go be with his family.

And it's so touching, and there's part of me that will always be like, no, I want him to know who you are.

I want him to see like.

It was worth it because look who she became.

But it's it's so touching and she hugs him.

Oh my, I was weeping.

Oh yeah, when she's yes.

They just have they just connect, They just they get each other and she gets what she needed in that moment.

Yeah, I agree.

I want to say I talked about this in our pop Culture Club episode on Patreon where we talked a little bit about Hallmark this week, But I said, there, in spite of this movie having all of the perfect ingredients, for a recipe for success.

Chris Ninki Tracy Claire.

I wasn't looking forward to this movie.

I'm a nineties country fan, and I wasn't excited about it, and I can't fully put my finger on why.

And when my husband sat down to watch this movie, he made a face like, right.

We were both very wrong.

And I knew before watching, based on the first impressions we were seeing on Instagram that I would be wrong because enough people were raving about this movie.

Oh that's interesting, because I thought maybe they were just you know, I'm a Palaha fan, you know this, But I thought maybe we were just getting a heavy influx of big fans of Nikki and Chris and they're like, of course, we love it.

Sure, that could have been a piece of it.

But for me, I watched this a full day after it came out, and there wasn't a single negative review in the bunch, and so I went in feeling like, all right, we may be in for a good time.

And halfway through the movie, I paused and turned to my husband and said, isn't it better than he anticipated?

And he was practically in tears.

Also, he goes, especially he really loved the father daughter moment.

Yeah, you know them writing songs together.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't say this lightly.

I was fully invested from start to finish.

You know me, Like Hallmark movies lull me to sleep sometimes sometimes like I just tap out and like I'll scroll on my phone and then realize the movie's over, like it happens time and time again, like I was in it.

I was really in it.

I love a time travel twist.

I think I've said it before.

I built More Christmas is one of my favorites.

Obviously, we have Chris in that movie, Who's he's so good and charming?

How does this hold up to a bit More Christmas for you?

It's equal, It's equal, it's different, right, you know the time travel part of it here.

I love the the genre, which I don't say that lightly either, because you know me, like I hate science fiction and type stuff.

Right, it's not like one point one jiggawats science fiction.

You're right, you're even though that's not really science fiction either.

So I'm always now drawn to like any kind of Hallmark movie that has a time travel element to it.

But this one here, what I liked about it is that we get both gentry and mac traveling back together.

Yeah, and there's something really satisfying with them being like partners in crime, are and mutually confused, mutually enchanted, mutually terrified at altering the timeline, like that they're having this shared experience together and not operating alone.

Yeah.

When he time travels, I was really for her.

Yeah, and she's gonna have her buddy there, right, because that, to me would be the most frustrating part is having to figure out the logistics of how am I gonna do this?

And I can't talk to anybody about it?

And he really Look, I'm gonna talk about Chris, but his character just comes up behind her and underneath her and just supports her throughout this movie.

He supports her dreams.

He pawns his watch so that they have money to spend in the past.

I just I really was charmed by that by him or his character.

Well both.

Look.

How good are Chris and Nikki in this movie.

Oh, They're fantastic total stars And I do think I love I love Chris.

I'm really excited for his MGM project.

I'm excited he's filming a Hallmark movie.

I thought it was really interesting how the Mary Thanksgiving weekend promos had and they're like Chriss on location and they would cut back and forth to him.

But I just I'm a big fan.

I loved this pairing and I loved the storyline that they were lifelong friends who have just missed their chance.

Ye're not ex's, They've always been there for each other and they're just realizing or she's just realizing he's always probably known who she is to him.

But this is Nicky's story, this is Gentry's story, And I think Chris does a great job as an actor supporting Nicki and as a character supporting Gentry.

Yeah, there's no push and pull fight for the spotlight.

Yeah, their characters have this really comfortable, lived in friendship.

It made it completely believable to me.

Yeah.

I just love them, you know.

And I don't know what I expected going in.

I was like, like you said, I wasn't like that excited for it.

I was just like, Okay, no, they blew me away.

Yeah, blew me away.

Here's something that did surprise me.

I really loved the setting at the Opry.

I have not been to Nashville, but I now really want to go to the Opry, and I felt very drawn to the location as a character in the movie.

Yeah, and I really was touched by the early scene where Sharon Lawrence as adult Rita is describing the significance of the wood flooring on stage from the original Ryman Auditorium something about that.

I saw a clip of that before the movie aired.

Normally, when I see a clip of a Hallmark movie, I'm not that interested.

I'm going to be honest, I don't find Hallmark promo clips to be all that compelling, especially when they're like sneak peek.

I'm like, that did nothing for the movie.

I thought that was so touching.

And then at the very end when she gets to step into it and dedicate the song and the introduce Brad Paisley coming out to sing her song, I was really moved by the history of that place and how important it is to that country music community.

So a couple of things here.

I remember talking about it on an episode we were talking about this movie.

I don't know, we must have been a Headliness episode, and I was like, I've been to the opera, I've toured the opry I have not I've toured the Rieman.

Oh and so now understanding like, oh, these two work together, right, Okay, now I get it now the circle thing in the round, like the middle thing in the round.

I remember there.

Dave girl who's the leasing our food fighters, did a really cool documentary.

I think it was on HBO.

I can't remember the name of it.

I will find it and I will put it in our show notes.

But he did this whole thing in Nashville, and they talked about being in the round and like how the musicians like sit in this round circle and like I can't remember specifically if he was talking about this, like I don't remember.

I don't don't remember.

But when it got brought up in this movie, I was like, oh, this is ticking some boxes of things like I remember from the past, and like you was super drawn to the history of it and wanted to know more.

I thought it was very compelling.

Also, in speaking of country music, I'm a country music girl.

Yes, I'm going to confess that I didn't know all the artists on site, but I did love all of the singing that we got and all I liked all of the cameos, and I think it's very natural.

I'm going to talk about it, and did you see about you know, the location a little bit more.

But I love country.

I wasn't expecting to like a movie about country music.

I don't know why, but I did love all of the singing.

I'm gonna throw something way back and you probably don't know.

You and I we love like nineties country music.

Huh.

This movie nails the throwback vibes almost perfectly.

First of all, our director can't be more than like forty years old.

Yeah, like I think she was probably be born after nineties country music, did you?

I loved the when they walk into that party, the three of them, and Nikki's in that like sequin dress with I burst out laughing because they look good, but they look ridiculous.

Can we save it?

Can we save it?

Okay?

My point is, do you remember the nineteen ninety five country music movie called Pure Country and it has George Strait in it?

I do it.

This movie reminded me of that, Like if you were talking like.

They captured the vibe.

They captured the vibe perfectly.

Look go back and watch that movie.

I think I've only seen it once.

I don't know if it holds up.

I don't couldn't even tell you what it loves to buy right, it's that song you can lead a heart to love, but you can't make it fall is in that movie.

I don't know.

I think so.

I don't know, but it had There were things about this movie.

The big hair, the mention of Shania Twain is in the room with us, like that kind of stuff.

The whole nineties country energy was spot on and I loved it.

I loved it, loved it.

Here are some other things.

I liked.

Rob Mays as Jet Wade I thought was excellent casting.

I was like, who's this guy?

Like, he played this nineties country dad so perfectly.

Yeah.

Question, Yeah, he's not singing it's Brad.

I don't know.

Actually I know that's Brad Paisley's song.

Yeah.

Well, I couldn't find it, but I asked my house on.

I'm like, that's Brad singing as Ben Wade.

I she zammed it and it did come up as Brad Paisley.

Yeah, okay, that's what I thought.

Yeah, I didn't realize he Brad Paisley has two songs in this movie.

Yeah.

I didn't realize that because he'd been Hallmark's been promoting, like, you know, the Hallmark Christmas Song of the Season.

Basically, but there were two songs in this movie, yeah, which then I had to go on to Spotify and I was like, where can I listen to these?

I don't know if I found them.

You said you've never been to Nashville before.

No, they had beautiful, gorgeous shots at the city, the Batman Building, like you know that, right, Okay?

I thought it was good.

The backstage stuff at the operation, like, none of it felt fake to me.

Question, you've been to bars in Nashville or that opening scene where they're in Gentry's bar and those guys are in full country gear.

Did that feel genuine to you?

Like really they're like that country Yeah, in the hats and every That's good to know.

Yeah, that's good to us.

The city has so much tourism, but it also has so many locals too, so like, I mean, yes, there's people who are like kind of cosplaying a little bit like where they're they're but I've seen some real cowboys.

Yeah, not cowboys, but you know, you know what I mean, we're all in Yeah.

Yeah, did Gingry's dad know?

I don't know.

I part of me is like feel like he did know that that was her, you know, especially at the end when he's like asking basically for confirmation, like was your dad a good dad?

Right?

What?

Uncle Vaughn knows?

Yeah, well yeah, So I'm like, look and then the aunt aunt Rita, I was like, did she know?

I don't know.

I can't and honestly, and you look, it doesn't even matter.

No, it doesn't even matter to me.

I just was curious what you thought my biggest worry going into this movie, and you talked about it a little bit where the cameos.

I was very worried it was going to be like a parade of who do we have here and like a you know, like a full remember me talking about it like it was gonna be like a superstar extravaganza, and we got it a little bit in the Aaron Khill like tour scene.

Yeah.

I liked it.

It was a little bit like behind this corner we have this and oh my god, Henry have this and this is not a I was surprisingly not annoyed by it.

I thought it was gonna be like every second because the list was long of it was Harry, are you ready to move on to wishes?

I got none.

I have two Nikki's silver dress in that party scene was not it.

I looked at who the costume designer was because I was like, I don't know.

They feel like they did the research.

Me too, me too.

But I also felt like that was a nineties interpretation of what like a country diva would wear.

It leaned to costume me for me a little bit.

Yeah, I did feel like they came in in costumes.

I did laugh out loud when they walked into that party of three of them.

I just thought they were off the charts.

I thought that I can't even remember, Sorry, Chris, I can't remember what Chris was wearing at all.

Rita, young Rita.

I thought her look nailed nineties.

Yeah, it was Nicki's that dress, which is so I was like, I don't, I don't what is happening here.

If they didn't have that like flower thing on the front of it, I think it could have maybe passed.

But I don't know.

Your other wish somebody that needs to check on the security guard.

I felt bad for the man.

These people are disappearing right in front of his eyes.

It's no big deal.

It's no big deal.

Yeah, And even like even when Chris comes back, like he's just sitting there on the stage, like, nobody was like, where did this dude come from?

By the way, do you know that security guard's name is big Fella?

I did not.

That's how he's credited on IMDb.

Big Fella Ela.

Yep, that's all I have for my wishes.

You have like zero literally zero?

Great, let's talk.

Did you see that?

Yeah?

I only have a couple.

Okay, one I referenced Chris wears a red and black shirt.

Then he comes on screen and I was like, look at that shirt and my husband goes, that's Garth Brooks and I was like, e pieces and I had to google it man oh man, and I did Instagram story who wore it better?

And Chris responded, ah, you got it now.

I don't know if it was intentional or not, but feels like it had to have been.

Feels like it had to have been.

Sure.

Who can see that shirt nineties country and not think that Garth Brooks album cover?

I ello weld.

When I saw your Instagram, I was like, oh, I didn't put the two together.

Thank you for doing that.

I thought it was great.

Thought it was great.

One of my digit see that is when Gentry and Mack are baking cookies.

With their cousin with the cousin Rita.

She's the cousin, right, she's her dad's cousins so she was her aunt, right, Yeah, that's right.

They make the cookie that I make every single year, which is a peanut butter blossom.

Oh uh huh.

We just made them in our house.

You don't put the hershey kiss on the cookie before it goes in the oven, even notice it would be a melted puddle.

They they had it was rock cookie dough.

They pressed their thumbs in it to make the dnt and then they put the hirshey kiss on and then they put it in the oven.

And that is not how you make them.

No, it is not you bake the cookie.

You put the kiss on as soon as they come out of the oven.

And that's how they get that shiny look too.

Yeah, And that's when their best is when they're just out of the oven and their chocolate's melty on top of it, especially the only time I like them, once the chocolate has hardened back into a kiss, not into it.

Huh.

I have more, Yeah, Max.

Grandma is named Hilty the writer, or she's not the writer, she's the yeah, one of the writers.

One of the writers is also named Hilty.

I like, when you put your own name in it.

My next did you see that?

And final one is also about the name Gentry.

Kind of love this name, love this character name.

And I was like, well, it has to have some sort of like country reasoning, some sort of connection.

So I looked it up.

I don't know, this is all I found.

There was a female artist in the US in the late sixties who rose to fame and her name was Bobby Gentry.

She was a songwriter, And I thought maybe.

And then in the late nineties, early two thousand, there was a country duo group named Montgomery Gentry.

Sure, but this would have been like later.

I don't know, it doesn't matter, but yeah, maybe they took inspirations on that.

Yeah.

Yeah, do you have any other did you see that?

Yeah?

I have a couple.

They're not digite that, They're just fun facts.

I really enjoyed the tributes that Nicki and Chris did to each other on their Instagram, throwing it back to their first project together, North Shore, many many many years ago.

Yeah.

Also, I thought this was very interesting.

I read an interview with Nicki talking about filming at the Opry and the opry was still functioning daily as they were filming, So she says her call time would be nine pm for hair and makeup.

We wouldn't be able to start shooting until after the tours backstage were done and the show was over.

Sometimes that would be eleven and sometimes that would be midnight.

Then we would shoot all the way until the next day at eleven am, go home, get a few hours of sleep, and go back.

So when I tell you that, it was the hardest schedule that any of us has ever worked, and everybody did it with such an incredible attitude and joy in their hearts.

As hard as it was, there was not one single complaint on that set.

That's nice.

Did you notice our friend Denise.

In the movie.

No, there were a lot of a ton I wonder where she was.

Denise message us, we can go back and catch you.

Yeah, there is an extended cut on Hallmark Plus.

I tried to watch it, and Hallmark Plus was being buky.

Hallmark Plus was not working for me last night, I either, and I didn't want to watch it for this review because I didn't want to have scenes that not everybody had seen.

Yeah, but I may go back and look because I heard there were some good additional scenes there.

Well, I think we've given it away.

What did you rate Lovely.

Christmas and gave it a five star?

Worried me there for a second five stars?

Good stuff.

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