In Scouting for Christmas, Tamera Mowry-Housley plays the perfect single mom while Carlo Marks is a handsome, endearing, and sensitive baker. Audrey Wise Alvarez's performance as cupid is sweet, too, but the movie is still underwhelming and only earns 2 out of 5 stars here at RomCom Review.
What Is Scouting for Christmas About?
The romcom trope in play in this movie is the love triangle.
Here's the plot, per Hallmark's website:
Angela has been a busy realtor since her amicable divorce a couple of years ago to Dakota, a paleontologist whose adventures kept him anywhere but home. Now, she is a devoted if often harried, single mom to a smart and loving 10-year-old girl, Brooklyn. Angela’s busy schedule makes it hard for her to find time for much of anything…or anyone…else. As it is, she can barely get Brooklyn to her scout meetings on time, much to the disapproval of the other mothers. When Brooklyn gets the idea to have William, the owner of her favorite bakery, cater her scout troop’s posh annual holiday event, she asks Angela to work with him on pitching the idea to the moms in charge. Despite sensing that her daughter might be trying to play cupid, she agrees to help and finds herself enjoying time with him, but is reluctant to open her heart and life to someone new. When Dakota returns, missing her, Angela must decide what is best for her daughter and best for her heart.
Hallmark Focuses on the Wrong Thing in Scouting for Christmas
Hallmark places too much emphasis on inclusion and too little time on story development. It's clear from Scouting for Christmas that the goal is to appeal to single moms rather than tell a creative story.
Angela is divorced, raising a stepchild she officially adopted, and trying to balance work and her responsibilities at home. She is independent and never asks for help because she doesn't want to rely on anyone but herself. She hates being pitied by the stay-at-home moms in her daughter's scout troop who have more time and less stress than she does, but she wants to be a model to Brooklyn that a woman can be independent and successful--the usual feminist talking point. Hallmark crafts a story that is so focused on a demographic that it is embarrassingly unoriginal.
There is nothing new here to see, and Hallmark seriously needs to explore different career options for their characters. WE DO NOT NEED ANY MORE BAKERS!
No Chemistry in Scouting for Christmas
Mowry-Housley and Marks are both wonderful actors who give their all to generate onscreen sizzle, but the viewer just isn't feeling it. They are mismatched because Jacki Lind, the casting director, apparently uses a rubric for casting that does not include chemistry. Over the past few years, Hallmark has become obsessed with biracial couplings. It's not that there's anything wrong with it, other than the fact that it often results in zero onscreen sparks, but the objective should be to make the best matches, not fulfill a DEI requirement.
Final Thoughts on Scouting for Christmas
Another faux pas is the volume of sweets Angela consumes. Most women who are trying to attract a new man wouldn't think of stuffing that many cookies down the hatch like Angela does. We'd wait until he wasn't watching!
Dakota tries to win Angela back, but when he fails, he immediately encourages William to pursue her. This would not remotely happen in real life.
The movie is far-fetched, humdrum, and unimaginative. Mass producing Christmas movies each year is taking a toll on the brand. Hallmark should consider scaling back the quantity to preserve quality.
If you struggle to keep up with the steady stream of new movie premieres and want to prioritize the best ones first, Scouting for Christmas can be shuffled to the bottom of your list.
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