Tonight's Movie: A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe (2022)

It's not Epiphany yet, so I'm still watching Christmas movies!

An engaging cast and snappy script overcome a silly premise in A CHRISTMAS COOKIE CATASTROPHE (2022), which aired this Christmas season on the Hallmark Channel.

Rachel Boston plays Annie, an executive from New York who takes over running her late grandmother's cookie bakery in a small town.

The people on the company's board aren't sure about the changes Annie makes to try to save the floundering company, and one day the company's prize cookie recipe disappears from its lobby display case, while simultaneously it's wiped out of the company's computers.

For various reasons Annie doesn't want word to get out the recipe is missing, and instead of going to the police or reporting it to the board she approaches another baker in town, Sam (Victor Webster of FIVE STAR CHRISTMAS), for help. She offers to buy Sam a much-needed new oven if he'll help her reconstruct the company's famous recipe, and he reluctantly agrees...

I'll leave the plot description there. Suffice it to say that the story is pretty goofy -- surely Annie could have turned to some trustworthy company employee who had made the recipe a million times? -- but the script by Robin Gadsby has lots of good repartee and the film is simply fun.

It helps that the two leads are appealing. Boston's Annie has an edge to her but gradually the layers are pulled back to reveal a more sensitive and hurting person underneath; for instance, she doesn't drive because she lost her parents in an accident when she was a teenager.

A scene where she jumps in to help Sam's daughter (Avery Peters) cope with stage fright at a ballet recital is lovely.

Webster is one of my favorite Hallmark leads, and he's also quite good as the widowed baker who's been living life focused on his daughter and business, without room for much else. Despite their initial impressions of one another, Sam and Annie turn out to be good for each other.

Stephanie Sy is also appealing as Annie's assistant.

All in all, this film, directed by Jeff Beesley, was a fun and worthwhile watch. And besides, who doesn't love Christmas cookies?

A CHRISTMAS COOKIE CATASTROPHE was filmed by Brad Crawford in Winnipeg and Carman, Manitoba, Canada. Exteriors were also featured from Utica, Illinois.

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