Stream It or Skip It: ‘Mistletoe in Montana’ on Lifetime Is Light on Mistletoe but Has Plenty of Melissa Joan Hart

Lifetime’s Mistletoe in Montana is this year’s eagerly awaited Melissa Joan Hart Christmas movie. Hart is one of Lifetime’s brightest stars of the holiday season, but how does Mistletoe in Montana fare in a season of surprisingly great holiday TV movies? Can this movie rustle up some holiday cheer? Or will Melissa have some explaining to do?

MISTLETOE IN MONTANA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Melissa Joan Hart plays Merry, the head honcho of her family-owned ranch. She works alongside her widower father (Jamey Sheridan), because dead moms are a must have in holiday romance movies for some reason, and the hottest staff of young ranch hands since Hey Dude.

This holiday season, the ranch is playing host to the Aguilar family—yes, one family. There’s hunky, English software engineer Mark (Duane Henry), his children (Mallian Butler and Hero Hunter), and their nanny (Harley Bronwyn).

As literally the only people staying at the ranch (which I think is the ranch’s business model…?), the Aguilars get the full holiday treatment from the staff, including square dancing, sack racing, horseback riding, lasso lessons—all Christmas-themed, of course—and an appearance in the annual Christmas parade. The holiday magic is in the air — and Merry and Mark start to really feel its effects!

Can Mark break down the walls built by the fiercely independent Merry? Will Merry stop thinking twenty steps ahead and live in the moment with this rich, single dad? And will all the ranch hands find their special someone, too? They’re all hot and they all need love!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Big City Slickers vibe in this one as the Aguilars of Los Angeles learn a thing or thirty about cowboy life.

Performance Worth Watching: Merry’s righthand ranch hand Jasper (Sam Marra) is great. He’s instantly likable, perfectly awkward, and has a great scene partner in Debbie, the Aguilar’s nanny. Honestly, I wish this entire movie had been about Jasper and Debbie. Their chemistry was way more compelling than what was going on in the foreground with Merry and Mark.

Memorable Dialogue: Cowgirl Melissa Joan Hart says, “The only thing that needs rescuing out here are wolves when they get too close to my cattle!”

A Holiday Tradition: There are so many traditions from the annual Christmas festival and parade in town to the ranch’s never-ending list of Christmas activities.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: Not at all! Did I blink and miss the mistletoe in Mistletoe In Montana? I must have, because it’d be wild to name a movie Mistletoe in Montana and not have a single sprig in sight. Since alliteration was clearly the goal, the movie could have easily been called Merry in Montana.

Our Take: I truly feel like a grinch every single time one of these movies doesn’t do it for me, but my pledge (which no one asked me to make) to you (readers who did not ask for one) is to be honest about holiday TV movies. Mistletoe in Montana just didn’t cut it for me, primarily because everything else in the movie was way more compelling than the main romance.

Like I mentioned above, I would have rather watched the smitten Jasper and Debbie try to sneak dates behind Merry and Mark’s backs for 90 minutes. I even found the subplot between Merry’s dad and Mark’s daughter Becca to be surprisingly heartwarming. She’s a social media obsessed teen and he’s old enough to be her grandpa, but they bond over photography. He teaches her that nature is the only filter she needs! It’s adorable!

Unfortunately, the majority of the film is spent with Hart and Henry as Merry and Mark. Don’t get me wrong: both of them are good at what they do. Duane Henry needs to put “make a holiday TV movie” on his annual to-do list, because he’s just a darn delight. And obviously Melissa Joan Hart is Melissa Joan Hart, the icon who helped invent this entire genre with 2007’s Holiday in Handcuffs. Their chemistry was just a little lacking throughout, and while casting Henry as a super rich techie was a smooth move, I just don’t think Hart makes a convincing cowgirl. America’s #1 podcaster? Sure, that I buy. The end result is a movie that is perfectly pleasant as far as Lifetime TV movies go, but it never finds that special spark that so many movies—including other Lifetime Christmas movies—have this year.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Sadly, Mistletoe in Montana is no Reba McEntire’s Christmas in Tune.

Mistletoe in Montana premieres on Lifetime on Friday, December 17 at 8 p.m. ET