Boy, this is sly. It looks like a fun family film, a spin on the Christmas lights rivalry trope, but soon the messages are pushed to the fore: marriages break up when women start working full time; moms need dads to put the Christmas lights up and keep them safe from falling off the ladder; divorce leads to kid acting out but makes parents realise they didn't work hard enough at their marriage and need to get back together for their sake... Happiness is having enough time to make a pot roast. 'I want nothing more than to be your wife again.' Ugh.
I know GAF movies are meant to provide an alternative to those disgraceful Hallmark films, with diverse relationships and gay characters (believe it or not, mixed relationships can make for great American families and gays can come from them), but this is like King Canute trying to hold back the waves, pointless and not fun - this is the 21st century, not some perfect 1950s that never existed, and it's not all bad for that. The Hallmark moves aren't transgressive, or even especially progressive - they're just reflecting life.
I know GAF movies are meant to provide an alternative to those disgraceful Hallmark films, with diverse relationships and gay characters (believe it or not, mixed relationships can make for great American families and gays can come from them), but this is like King Canute trying to hold back the waves, pointless and not fun - this is the 21st century, not some perfect 1950s that never existed, and it's not all bad for that. The Hallmark moves aren't transgressive, or even especially progressive - they're just reflecting life.