Film Review: THE HOLIDAY SITTER (2022): Boy-Meets-Boy Hallmark Holiday Opus is Plenty Glib and Perky

The Holiday Sitter Review

The Holiday Sitter (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Ali Liebert, written by Greg Baldwin, Tracy Andreen, and Jonathan Bennett, and starring Jonathan Bennett, George Krissa, Chelsea Hobbs, Everett Andres, Mila Morgan, Matthew James Dowden, Gabrielle Rose, Matty Finochio, Amy Goodmurphy, Robert Wisden, Todd Matthews, Bella Leonardo, and Nathan Parrott.

The Hallmark Channel streams the third gay holiday rom-com in as many years.

The Lifetime Channel started the trend in 2020 with The Christmas Setup, followed by Single All the Way in the 2021 Netflix holiday season lineup. This latest rom-com charmer is The Holiday Sitter.

The Premise

Generally speaking, this installment of a gay holiday romance sticks to the accepted standard. High spirited exasperation drives the plot throughout, particularly with respect to the pair of eligible bachelors not quite in synch with the holiday spirit.

The Couple Destined for Romance

Bachelor Number One is Sam Dalton (Jonathan Bennett), a powerhouse financial adviser with gamophobia (fear of commitment), more than ready for some R&R in Hawaii. Sam goes on dates, and at the mention of the “F” word (“family,” that is) the date is over shortly after it starts.

Bachelor Number Two is the Walkers’ next-door neighbor and good friend Jason DeVito (George Krissa), whom the Walkers hire as a contractor. Re-planted from L.A. to the cozy native suburb where the story takes place, he saves for legal fees when he adopts a kid of his own.

The Setups

Things go into a tailspin when the Walkers’ surrogate mom goes into labor two weeks early. Kathleen Walker scrambles to find a sitter at the last minute for their two kids remaining at home. She more or less blackmails her older brother Sam, who agrees to put off his tropical tryst.

It’s best not to dwell too much on why Jason couldn’t watch the kids; they like him, he likes them.  But Sam has to get into the picture somehow, so the pretext lies in deciding it’s a bridge too far to ask for a favor on top of the contracting work, or something like that. Anyway, Kathleen calls in a favor she did for Sam while in high school, so off to the ‘burbs he goes.

On arriving, Sam mistakenly goes to Jason’s house, the dog barks, his trips over a garden gnome and Jason catches him from behind. These slapstick embraces are peppered throughout the film, meant (I think) to emphasize the notion that fate has brought them together.

Meanwhile, woefully lacking in domestic skills as any successful workaholic would be, Sam hires Jason as a sort of au pair. (Sam’s last stab at babysitting for Kathleen resulted in a kitchen fire, which had consequently grown into local legend.)

The Payoffs

As the ‘uncle consultant’ — their term, not mine — Jason is always two steps ahead of frantic, fish-out-of-water Sam, cool and confident without a lot of fanfare or expectations. The kids, blasé to the point of boredom, offer a few hints of their own. This results in good-natured, slightly mocking haggles in which the kids capitalize on Uncle Sam’s weaknesses. Nonetheless, Jason comes to the rescue gentle prompts, hints, and reminders. Sam takes growing satisfaction in bolstering the confidence of 13-year-old Miles performing in a play and dating a girl, and dispels 10-year-old Dania fears about being displaced by their new sibling.

Structure & Crisis

The Holiday Sitter’s structure is essentially that of a sitcom. Bennett, as the ‘comic,’ wisely keeps the camp repartee for himself, which he mugs with perfect timing. Though just as glib in his own right, Krissa’s laid-back pragmatic sensibilities lift his performance above that of the ‘straight man’ (no pun intended). These two manage consistent chemistry on the screen, and the nature of the crisis is bred into the bone of the rom-com genre. It’s no different with Sam and Jason; each realizes he’s met ‘the one,’ and it’s a question of answering the door when opportunity knocks. And so it does in The Holiday Sitter.

The gang of affable neighbors, and a genial gaggle of Jason’s family members by the score all serve to prop up the festive hi-jinx and drop hints that maybe one of them should get around to popping the question. But clouds darken over the couple by way of misreadings and cross-purposes. This is curiously late in terms of story structure, over the last 10 minutes. Epiphanies and realization precede and follow confrontations. The storm clouds dissipate as quickly as they darkened, and just as quickly it’s all over but ordering the invitations.

Wrap-Up

An enjoyable addition to the rom-com holiday universe. The actors en masse do a bang-up job, delivering lines and jibes with easy professionalism. The Holiday Sitter doesn’t delve into any great depths thematically, but it’s clever and moves at a merry clip, well within the accepted bounds of propriety. Those that have taken issue with this charming piece of fluff should be respectfully ignored.

Rating: 7+/10

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