Tonight's Movie: A Merry Scottish Christmas (2023) - A Hallmark Blu-ray Review

A MERRY SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS (2023) is one of a couple 2023 Hallmark Channel Christmas movies just released on Blu-ray.

The other film, which I'll be reviewing soon, is A BILTMORE CHRISTMAS (2023). Both movies were filmed on location.

A MERRY SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS reunites Scott Wolf and Lacey Chabert, costars of the '90s TV series of PARTY OF FIVE (1994-2000). When PARTY OF FIVE first began airing, Chabert was a child actress, around 12 years old, and Wolf was in his 20s. In addition to playing brother and sister once more in A MERRY SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS, the two actors also served as executive producers on the film.

Wolf and Chabert play Brad and Lindsay, siblings who have become distant over the years. They're invited to Scotland for Christmas by their mother, Jo (Fiona Bell); also along on the trip is Brad's wife Sarah (Kellie Blaise). The rather sullen Brad has a brittle relationship with his wife as well as his sister.

Shortly after arriving at Glencrave Castle, which they suppose to be their hotel, Brad and Lindsay come to learn that their mother has been hiding the fact she was born into a noble Scottish family -- and Brad and Lindsay are consequently the niece and nephew of the recently deceased duke who lived in the castle.

Brade and Lindsay each have important decisions to make about the future of the family estate, as well as their personal lives. Lindsay is also distracted by the handsome estate manager, Mac (James Robinson), though she can't quite see how a relationship would work out if she goes back to her career as a physician in Los Angeles.

I was of two minds about this movie. From the standpoint of realism, the movie is, well, bonkers, with seemingly no understanding of how the hereditary title system works. For instance, as the late duke's next male relative it's accurate Brad inherits the dukedom, but that does not also make his younger sister a duchess!

If I set that aside, along with Wolf's character being an unappealing grump for 2/3 of the movie, it's quite a fun watch. Chabert is always charming; her unique, confident screen persona reminds me strangely at times of another child actress turned adult performer, Deanna Durbin. She's always a joy, which also speaks to why she's one of Hallmark's longest-running "Christmas movie queens."

The location shooting at Barberstown Castle in Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland, is beautiful, and for good measure one of Chabert's most frequent Hallmark leading men has a delightfully unexpected, substantial cameo. When she asked him if they'd met before I laughed out loud. Great fun.

In the end, I enjoyed watching the movie despite its flaws; it was a nice time.

A MERRY SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS runs 84 minutes. It was directed by Dustin Rikert from a script written by Audrey Shulman and Andrea Canning. The cinematographer was Ciaran Tanham.

The widescreen print, as usual for Hallmark discs, looks great. There are no extras, but there is an option for English-language subtitles.

Thanks to Allied Vaughn and Hallmark for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. A MERRY SCOTTISH CHRISTMAS may be purchased from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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