Christmas Next Door (2017 TV Movie) User Reviews (42)

Cute Holiday Film!

[Anonnamus · 7/10 · 10 January 2019]

This was a pretty good Christmas movie, even in spite of a few minor details that bugged me. The chemistry between the leads was believable, and the script was actually decent. Fiona, the actress who played April, was adorable and charming. I had a harder time with Jesse Metcalfe, as I thought he was still a child before I looked him up and discovered he is only a few days younger than me. He played his bachelor role perfectly.

As for the negatives, I just wish they would have dubbed in a better violinist, and that the actress would have at least attempted to make it look like she was actually playing it. Also, what are these houses made of that he can be sitting in his study two houses away and hear her playing the violin loud enough that he's distracted? Or that when he turns his music up, it's loud enough to disrupt a music lesson with her student? Yet she couldn't hear a conversation between him and his ex-girlfriend in a super quiet evening from feet away? Okay.

All in all, I recommend watching it. It contains everything you expect from a Hallmark movie.

When Someone Doesn't Love Christmas

[Christmas-Reviewer · 7/10 · 31 December 2017]

I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 ( C H R I S T M A S ) MOVIES AND SPECIALS.

PLEASE BEWARE OF SOME REVIEWERS THAT ONLY HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I REVIEW MOVIES & SPECIALS AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN! I HAVE DISCOVERED MANY GEMS IN MY QUEST TO SEE AS MANY " C H R I S T M A S " MOVIES AS I CAN.

In this film Eric Randall (Jesse Metcalfe), a famous author who writes about how to stay a bachelor is forced to look after his niece and nephew over the holidays and, with the help of his Christmas-loving neighbor, April Stewart (Fiona Gubelmann), he learns to find love and the Christmas spirit. We also see that doesn't really like Chirstmas but in general he is not a jerk. He is just a guy who doesn't want to fall in love again

When he meets his neighbor she is his polar opposite . She loves and trying to get her neighbor to get into the spirit of the holidays.

This film is not great. It is however very entertaining.

Here, hold this

[edhead2 · 8/10 · 29 March 2020]

When Eric goes to see April at the restaurant at the end, does anyone else find it weird that she just hands the violin off to someone dining, and just leaves without it?

It was Okay

[roxymm-80410 · 6/10 · 1 December 2020]

Like all Christmas movies they are no different then one's at Valentines day. Except for the obvious exception in holidays. I'm not a fan of holiday movies but I've been watching quite a few during this pandemic. This wasn't too bad but definitely not my favorite. I couldn't focus on it very long. I did notice the House looked very familiar that Eric lives in. It's the same house as the movie Chloe with Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore.

Christmas Next Door

[studioAT · 7/10 · 7 January 2021]

Well I liked this, I thought it was warm, with some nice laughs along the way.

Nice to see some non standard Hallmark actors pop up in the lead too.

Great chemistry

[Jackbv123 · 7/10 · 23 October 2021]

Fiona Gubelmann and Jesse Jesse Metcalfe have great chemistry. Their flirting is sparkling.

Otherwise, this is pretty much a run-of-the-mill Hallmark Christmas movie. There's nothing wrong with that, just no great highs or lows. The conflict is one of the old standards - misinterpretation of something witnessed. The movie uses most of the usual Christmas activities. Both of the leads inspire the other to big things.

Like so often is the case, kids add to enjoyment.

Enjoyable Festive Fun!

[mcinneshelen · 8/10 · 20 November 2018]

You can pick away at any Hallmark movie's details. There's always something that doesn't fit or how about that half of them are shot in the summer and have melting foam everywhere! The whole point of watching these movies is to suspend reality for a couple of hours. If you can't do that, you shouldn't be watching them.

I actually thought this moving was refreshing. It was modern and I enjoyed the dialogue. The kids were well cast. They weren't annoying and whiny which is often the case.

I know Jessie Metcalf's hair was ridiculous and so was April's (can't remember her real name), so many ugly extensions! But her acting was great and was beyond TV movie quality and all and all I think the cast was believeable.

I also liked that they shot this movie in the fall (guessing) at least. I could see that the tree branch's were bare and in certain scenes you could see their breath because it was chilly out. I hate when they shoot these wintertime movies in the summer!

This is the first time I've ever written a review and it was because I thought this movie was a cute, original, thoughtful Christmas movie.

Okay overall

[luvstheblues · 5/10 · 28 December 2017]

At the beginning Eric was annoyed at April because her violin students distracted him from his writing. He turns up his music which in turn annoys her. When the street is shown, the houses are not connected, and later Eric says to somebody that April lives 2 houses down from him. Somebody dropped the ball there! As a reviewer early said, watching the violin playing was cringeworthy. I think my dog could have done a better job than the actress. The story was typical light romance from Hallmark and I enjoyed it.

Mutualism at its finest

[MickyG333 · 8/10 · 7 January 2023]

8.0 stars.

April is our lead female (Gubelmann) who is immediately recognized as that "girl next door". Interesting how that fits with the title 'Christmas Next Door', maybe that was the intent. She is the perfect woman, with an infectious smile, a personality that surpasses most gentle souls, and the sweetheart and focus of every serious man's search for love. Not only does Gubelmann embody that perfect feminine quality in her performance, we are seeing a piece of the real person behind the actress herself, splashing effortlessly on screen. In this story, April is a talented violinist who has difficulties overcoming her fears and securing a position in the symphony orchestra.

Eric (Metcalfe) is the cynic to her free spirit, they are opposites in every conceivable way. His character, while surly and obstinate, is actually a fragile man trying to come out of the shadows where he has been for the past several years due to a Christmas heartbreak. To our surprise, he is a fun-loving and personable uncle, and an upstanding person, he just needed a little nudge.

There is a mutualistic relationship between them, she is his inspiration to becoming a better man, and author, and he is her motivation to spread her wings and take more risks. She helps him see there are no boundaries to his potential as more than just a author of bachelor handbooks and man-cave mentalities. She might be that wonderful muse that he needs to push him beyond the writing monotony, and he could very well be the right man to capture her innocent heart.

This film caught me by surprise, and the end came way too quickly. I'm proud to give this 8.0 stars!

Frustrating Watch

[mlee-99434 · 3/10 · 20 December 2017]

As a musician, it was really cringeworthy to watch the scenes featuring violin playing. They made no effort to even pretend to she was a violinist. I would hope that the story is at least a little believable. Further, I found the dialogue to be poorly written, awkward, and uninteresting.

Not bad

[dianamarinelli · 9/10 · 27 April 2021]

Just your typical hallmark movie with predictable plot lines including the lead character misreading signials but enjoyable film.

The Fakest Violin Playing of All TIme

[jingarce · 3/10 · 21 December 2017]

This would have been an OK enough Hallmark type of movie and I do like Jesse Metcalfe but Fiona is such a sloppy and LAZY actress. Did she honestly think -- and did the director and everybody else -- that she could just get away with "playing" the violin that way? She seemed to not even have bothered to get even one lesson about playing the violin, much less even just holding the bow. And for a story that also centers on her being an accomplished violinist who messes up her auditions because of nerves and who, at the end, is accepted to work in an orchestra for she is supposed to be that good if her nerves just did not get in her way -- she just absolutely ruined the effect and the storyline. Watching her "play" the violin is an absolute nightmare and she positively just thrashed all her scenes with the violin and just totally destroyed all believability -- the gall of the actress and the director and producers if they thought that the audience will accept or not notice this. It really and truly angers me that they think so little of the viewers that they feel they can get away with this!

Almost got it.

[wkozak221 · 8/10 · 2 November 2020]

This is a good, fun film. Every character is fun to watch. I love how Eric has to automatically have to take care of the kids. He is funny. It amazes how he has trouble relating to them even they are his niece and nephew. I love how they subtley manipulate him. It is funny and touching. 2 minuses? My picks. 1. Hate his hairstyle. Is he expecting a hurricane with his plastered hair 2. He remains grumpy till almost the end of the movie. Great popcorn movie.

Fun enough

[nicknack11 · 5/10 · 17 November 2020]

Musicians don't hand their prized instruments to random strangers and then walk off without them. I could deal with every other flaw in this movie, even the supposedly accomplished violin playing. I'm not a musician but I know enough of them to know that this wasn't just a flaw, it made the entire movie completely unbelievable and unrelatable. Instruments are like limbs to musicians, especially those that play for a living. No one leaves limbs behind with people they've never met. It's just something I can't get over 😂😂

Just a good Hallmark movie

[debisim · 10/10 · 12 July 2019]

This is a good Christmas movie! I thoroughly enjoyed it. This is a Hallmark movie people, so it's not perfect, who is. The actors did a fine job, don't pick them apart for every little thing unless you're perfect yourself. Just watch and enjoy! The way things are in this world today we all need a little enjoyment in a wholesome movie.

Even for Hallmark, this is a real dud

[jax713 · 1/10 · 28 December 2018]

I've watched a considerable number of Hallmark Christmas movies this year, whenever I feel I can tolerate their constant ad breaks for diseases and drug warnings. Quite a few have been enjoyable but Christmas Next Door is the worst so far. So bad I'd rate it zero stars if I could. Here we have a famous author who writes about bachelorhood but is very dumb about women coupled with a violin tutor who giggles and laughs after every dull sentence. Oddly, Miss Violinist can afford to live in the same neighborhood as the famous author, who drives a snazzy sportscar to boot. The author has to sleep on the couch when his niece & nephew come to stay because apparently his fancy house has only one bedroom.

All together the boring dialog, nonsensical scene setups, the total lack of any real plot device to separate it from the generic Christmas theme, and the ridiculous character portrayals made me think I was watching what would have been just the outline for any other film. Skip this one - it's very low budget and you'll miss nothing.

Best Hallmark Christmas Movie Ever!

[pamiejane · 10/10 · 7 January 2019]

This Christmas caper sparkles with fun, warmth, and wit. Fiona Gubelmann's spunky personality shines through and the relationship between Gubelmann and Jesse Metcalfe is brilliantly rendered. The kids are hilarious, too! Do not miss this one!

Never Underestimate the Power of the Side Part!

[fishfryluv2 · 5/10 · 3 January 2018]

My wife and I settled in for some festive TV watching a couple of weeks ago, and we landed on Christmas Next Door from the Hallmark Channel. However, we also had things to do, so we only watched parts of this movie over the course of two hours. By the time the movie was over, I estimate that I had watched about 18 minutes of this actual movie, and my wife probably watched about 12 minutes. There was some overlap in our watching, but there were also some parts one of us watched while the other person was doing something in another room. Together, we pretty much got the gist of the story.

It seems that the guy in the story, who early on had his black hair completely slicked back, did not have the Christmas spirit, and did not like decorating for Christmas. There was some annoying man who lived on Slicked-Back's block who wanted to decorate the front of his house for him, but Slicked-Back was having none of it. After not watching for a little while, my wife and I tuned in to find a blonde woman, who also lived on that block, talking to her sister about how Slicked-Back doesn't like to decorate. This part was troubling to me, and I honestly feared for Slicked-Back's life at that point. It seemed that the whole neighborhood was obsessed with him. I was afraid that the neighbors were going to drug him, kidnap him, and perform medical experiments on him where they tried to make him part reindeer. I imagine that they probably would have attached the antlers to his head, kept his face in tact, given him a reindeer torso, kept his human arms and legs, and then attached hooves. Sleep with one eye open, Slicked-Back!

I guess my fear wasn't so great that I had to keep watching because we stopped paying attention to the movie for a while. When we started watching again, Slicked-Back was still alive, BUT he was hanging out with the blonde woman enjoying Christmas carols AND his hair went from being slicked back to an even side part. This encapsulated the main character's transition from being a bad boy who was too cool for xmas to the side-parted teddy bear who wanted nothing more than to buy the prized goose for Bob Cratchit's family. My wife noticed this too, and we both instantly knew that Side-Part had found the true meaning of Christmas. I was so moved that immediately hugged my daughter, but she was busy tearing napkins to shreds and therefore did not seem to care about my hug.

Quirky and Cute

[hnhoran · 8/10 · 26 July 2018]

This was the perfect Hallmark movie! Some can get too cheesy but this one was just right. This one really captured the feeling of Christmas. Plus, it had the right humor that made it super fun to watch.

Christmas joke

[heidibetrug · 1/10 · 17 November 2018]

A reviewer wrote: "In an era of crass commercialism, it's great to see a film which has nothing to do with the economics of Christmas. " Seriously? It's all about DECORATING for Christmas - what's more commercial than that? The entire cast is annoying, the loud, intrusive neighbor April and her sister are shrill, (frankly I had trouble telling them apart) giggle non-stop and can't say a line without bouncing on their heels and tossing their straggly hair. April "plays" the violin as I would - and I've never even held a violin, The entire neighborhood (which appears to be full of overbearing adults but no kids) is focused on one neighbor who doen't decorate his house (did anyone consider that a neighbor whose name they don't even know might possibly be - oh I don't know - Jewish?). April's house is so overly decorated it looks like there was a home invasion by Santa and the elves, Eric, the anti-Christmas Scrooge, is a cliched bachelor who sits around watching sports and playing poker with his "bros", loves "jazz vinyl", is awkward around his bratty niece and nephew, and writes books about how to remain a bachelor. Really? And this guy owns a home in suburbia? His mother, who's supposed to be watching the kids, feigns illness to get her son to bond with the niece and nephew by passing them off to him, ignoring her son's legitimate need to work. Thanks Mom. All in all - this movie is a typical Hallmark joke; good for laughs but be careful of syrup overload. But as with all Hallmark offerings, Christmas spirit and schmaltz prevail. The only thing missing is a character who owns a bakery that specializes in making Christmas cookies and is the chairman of the town 's Christmas festival. Maybe April should try that because the violin is clearly not her forte.

Jesse Metcalfe. And Christmas in Hallmark style. And something more

[Kirpianuscus · 11 November 2019]

It is more than sentimental, forced, chessy , nice Hallmark Christmas film. For the science and courage to use the flavor of old fashion romantic film. The uncle and his two nephews. The Christmas of a bachelor with few traits of Scrooge. A mother preparing a sort of trap or kick to maturisation. And the next door girl. For a part of public, the axis is Jesse Metcalfe. And, sure, he does a good job but the film has the virtue to propose some crumbs of old fashion romance. And that does it more than a nice Christmas film.

Cute, Romantic & Sweet

[jacenta-26702 · 10/10 · 3 November 2018]

I really enjoyed this Christmas movie. The Hallmark Channel is the best !!!

Not One of the Best

[jbryanmartin · 3/10 · 14 November 2019]

I love the Hallmark Christmas movies. Ive not seen every one, but not far from it. Yes, I know they share many similarities and usually follow "the formula." But I generally enjoy them. This was an exception. The storyline just did not go anywhere. It felt like treading water for two hours. And, as others have mentioned, the music aspect really bugged me. As a lifelong musician, I was appalled at how poorly the violin solos were played. They certainly would not be indicative of someone who would have a chance in auditioning for a symphony orchestra . And it's not just the fact that her hand motions don't go at all with what is being played. The musicianship is just terrible. The producers would have been well served to spring for a little more money and get a decent violinist. So while I absolutely love Christmas movies, I will not recommend this one.

I'm Watching this Movie NEXT CHRISTMAS too- It's aDOORable

[gehewe · 10/10 · 7 February 2019]

What a fun movie. I was hooked in the first seen when confirmed bachelor Jesse Metcalf (loved him in God's Not Dead 2) shows up in his red sports car and dialogues with his Christmas spirited neighbor- fantastic Fiona Gubelmann (with sun glasses slid down his nose). I just loved her role as the girl next door. I have never seen her before, but hope to again. The supporting cast was just perfect. Her sister was played by Brittany Bristow who was in Christmas at the Palace (2018). The 2 kids playing the niece and nephew were just a delight. This movie had the little fun details that make it one to treasure. For instance the kids tell the uncle that they get this big Christmas tree every year and then much later the dad looks at it and says "wow I've never seen such a big tree", exposing the kids plot. The plastic snowmen appearing in the yard. The mother faking a sickness so the kids have to be with their uncle (this lady was great). The small part of Nick was played by an actor I last saw on Sue Thomas FBI (he was quality). The title fits the movie perfectly. I thought they could have ended it a little better. So we'll give it a Superb minus rather than just Superb. I'm watching this one next Christmas.

Being neighbourly at Christmas

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 1 December 2020]

Hallmark's Christmas output is very variable and 2018 was a mixed year for them. Some though are above average level and there are some surprisingly very enjoyable ones amongst the average and less films that there is a good deal of in their output. Along with my love of Christmas and that it was one of the films in my Christmas Hallmark/Lifetime film completest quest, my main reasons for seeing 'Christmas Next Door' were because of liking the concept (despite it not being anything original) and having liked the cast in other things.

'Christmas Next Door' really isn't one of their best and in the lesser end of that year. While Hallmark have done far worse overall, of their 2017 output 'Christmas Next Year' was one of their most frustrating and biggest wastes of potential. Musicians, as is very much evident here, will despair watching the film. So will hairdressers. And those that love Christmas may likely not find very much to like about 'Christmas Next Door' either.

The best thing about 'Christmas Next Door' is the acting. Jesse Metcalfe has a lot of likeability and always engages here. Fiona Gubelmann is not as subtle, but she is also charming without being too sugary sweet. She and Metcalfe have a genuine chemistry that never looks ill at ease. The rest of the cast do well, despite having very cliched roles. Brittany Bristow manages to not be annoying, considering the type of role (with a character trait that is often overplayed) she has that is not easy.

Production values are also quite attractive, again like a vast majority of Hallmark Christmas films this is particularly true for the scenery. Some of the music is pleasing on the ears.

It is though better heard than seen, so that you try and not be too distracted by some of the worst instrumental playing on film. Count me in as another musician badly distracted by how fake the playing was, but there was a lot more bad things other than that. Other parts of the film sounded over-scored, a common problem for Hallmark. Do agree that hairdressers would have a field day criticising how bad and cheap looking the hairdos are. The direction is workmanlike at best.

Not much special to the script, story or pacing. The script is really quite painful, especially in the very stilted and cheesy first third and too much of it is over-sentimental. The story is not just excessively predictable from a done to death formula (the setting is different, the structure is not) being executed in over-familiar fashion, it is also paper thin and very dull from being over-stretched. Also found most of it quite bland from the general lack of charm and heart, there are moments but not enough, and with a lot of suspension of disbelief needed like trying and failing to accept an ending as pat as this one.

Concluding, quite lacklustre. 4/10