Stream It or Skip It: ‘Field Day’ on Hallmark, Another Surprise Candidate for Hallmark Movie of the Year

‘Twas the last Hallmark movie before Christmas, ’twas titled Field Day — Okay, I am not going to keep up that bit. The point is: Field Day closes out Hallmark’s autumnal movie selection by focusing on the dirtiest, messiest, loudest day of a young’uns school year. Rachel Boston, Shannon Chan-Kent, and Carmel Amit play three very different moms with three very different approaches to putting together a school event. But should you just hold out until the holiday season, or is the last non-jolly Hallmark movie worth a watch?

FIELD DAY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Rachel Boston (A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe) plays Jen, a widowed mother who moved back to her hometown to be near her parents. When her daughter forgets her lunch on the first day of school, Jen ends up in the middle of a high-stakes PTO meeting and roped into organizing the most dreaded event of the year: field day. Oh — and Jen endured all of that while wearing pajama pants. She wasn’t supposed to leave the car!

Two other moms get stuck with field day duty: intimidating lawyer Marissa (Virgin River’s Carmel Amit), a hard-working and social media mom Kelly (Good Trouble’s Shannon Chan-Kent). Not only does Jen have to navigate these two’s personal history with each other, she has to put up with a prickly PTO president who holds a grudge, and — ugh — there’s an incredibly handsome coach (Family Law’s Benjamin Ayres) who might be into her. Again, Jen was not even supposed to get out of her car!

But quite unexpectedly, Jen, Marissa, and Kelly end up forming quite the unlikely power trio. Maybe putting on a field day won’t be such a bad gig after all. But if there’s one thing that’s tougher than containing the chaos of hundreds of kids jumping over and crawling under tires for hours, it’s trying to overcome all of the mental blocks that adults put in place to keep themselves from being hurt again. Wow, didn’t expect Field Day to get that deep, did you? Field Day goes there!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The presence of three leads and consistent laugh-out-loud jokes reminds me of last holiday season’s Three Wise Men and a Baby. And the mean girl PTO leader played by Jocelyn Gauthier gives off wicked Tori Spelling in Mistle-Tones energy.

Performance Worth Watching: Carmel Amit steals so many scenes as Marissa. It is incredibly rare for a Hallmark movie to feature a hardened — yet cool — career woman in the lead, and that makes Marissa so much fun to watch. She absolutely hates field day, can’t stand Kelly, and just wants to get the whole thing over with — but her negative energy never slows the movie down, nor does it even feel negative. Maybe that’s because she gets legitimately witty lines (“A cake is a circular loaf”) and, like the other two leads, has a nice character arc that is well-played.

Memorable Dialogue: Lord, I can’t just paste the entire script here, can I? Love the confidently offhand way Amit’s Marissa says, “What do you mean Wallace isn’t answering? Just try his backup backup cell.”

Also, a scene where our heroes enter a baking contest at the last minute, much to the PTO diva’s protests. And a random fall festival worker says, exasperatedly, “This isn’t a TV show and I’m not being paid for any of this. Take the spot.”

And a scene later, Jen tasks her daughter with scoping out the competition. When she comes back, she tells her mom, “Uh… laughing and… dancing?” Marissa, incredulously: “Like in a baking montage?”

Our Take: If it isn’t already clear, Field Day is an absolute winner. It is a fantastic example of Hallmark completely abandoning the formula and doing something wholly original that still evokes all of the best Hallmark feels. The drama is light, the stakes are low, the vibe is cozy — it’s still Hallmark, but the movie is not just Hallmark good. It’s good good.

That is unquestionably because of the perfect pairing of script and performers. This is easily one of the top five funniest Hallmark movies I’ve ever seen, between all of the hard jokes (see: Memorable Dialogue) and all of the incredibly natural banter between Jen, Marissa, and Kelly. These three have instant chemistry with each other, and Amit and Chan-Kent do a great job of layering in implied backstory between Marissa and Kelly. It’s really well done, and it makes the setting feel lived-in and it helps make Marissa and Kelly feel more like co-leads (even though Jen’s the one who gets the romance, a storyline reserved for Hallmark leads).

What I really loved about Field Day, though, is how it feels like a love letter to the modern suburban mom — moms that are, dear lord, my age. They’re moms who grew up with the Backstreet Boys, Nickelodeon, and ironic humor. It feels fresh to have, y’know, a mom who’s obsessed with going viral on her terms, or a mom who can absolutely clock when she’s living through a rom-com moment, or a mom who is absolutely cool enough to never have to wait in line. And putting all three of them together? It makes for an immensely watchable movie, one that you kinda wish would be the pilot for a new dramedy. All I want for Christmas, Hallmark, is more of these characters.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Field Day is a legitimately funny movie that closes out Hallmark’s non-holiday season with a whole lotta heart.