You, Me & The Christmas Trees Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

You, Me & The Christmas Trees Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 1, 2023

Hallmark's You, Me & The Christmas Trees offers comfy, cozy Christmas fare with little flair or deviation from the prescribed formula. The film offers an agreeable point of entry for the genre, bringing together a couple of lovestruck but work-obsessed individuals who don't now they need one another until fate, and a few sick Christmas trees, bring them together. The film may not spread much holiday cheer, but it does satisfy the basic requirements for the genre, checks all the boxes, and follows all the rules. One look for anyone even remotely familiar with Hallmark's Christmas movies will instantly peg it as one of the studio's own, even without any of the branding around it.

Jack (Benjamin Ayres) has a problem. A big problem. He's a fourth generation Christmas tree grower and salesman who has spent more than a decade building up trust within the community. Everyone gets their trees from him every year, but this year he's refunding a lot of money: not because he's been unscrupulous but because his trees are diseased. They are losing needles and turning brown almost instantly off the lot, and none of them are going to survive until Christmas, which is still a few weeks away. Desperate for help, he calls Olivia (Hallmark staple Danica McKellar). She's had a lifelong love affair with trees, and she is known as "The Christmas Tree Whisperer." In other words, she knows her trees and, more important to Jack, she knows how to mend them back to health.

When she arrives in town, she and Jack are involved in a minor fender-bender. They further get off on the wrong foot when he all but dismisses her skills and doubts her abilities, not knowing he's talking to the woman he's hired. But they are able to quickly set aside any rough differences and first impression failures and get to work on the problem. As Olivia takes her time to diagnose whatever is ailing the trees, she and Jack slowly begin to develop feelings for one another. Can those feelings blossom as Christmas trees are dying? A tree grower and a tree whisperer seem a match made in Heaven, but will fate agree? Will Olivia fall in love with Jack as she falls in love with the town?

Where the story goes from there will be no surprise to longtime Hallmark viewers. The film was practically made on an assembly line, but it is neither the best nor the worst example of the familiar Hallmark structure. Viewers could almost watch the movie with a stopwatch and predict certain events within a few minutes of when they actually happen. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. There's a satisfaction to receiving exactly what is expected. It's something that made McDonalds the juggernaut that it is, and it is what has helped to make Hallmark what it is today.

What is different here amounts to little more than window dressing, and it's that window dressing that makes or breaks a Hallmark film. Sadly, the window dressing shows little spunk or spirit. With You, Me & The Christmas Trees, the main issue is a general lack of chemistry between the leads. Neither actor manages to bring much charm or charisma to their roles, and while they admirably act the parts, they do not inhabit the parts. There's no real spark to the romance. It doesn't necessarily feel contrived, but neither does it feel authentic. Many Hallmark movies are very good about building a story and a framework that allows for that relationship to feel organic, but this one never quite gets off the ground. It's not the tie to formula, it's a failure to do anything beyond walk through it that keeps the film from reaching the upper echelon of the Hallmark Christmas genre. The film looks the part with the colorful Christmas clothes, sets, and general atmosphere, but neither McKellar or Ayers manage to make their characters worth cheering for.

You, Me & The Christmas Trees Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The digitally photographed You, Me & The Christmas Tree looks very good on Blu-ray, representing just about the best-case scenario for the movie at 1080p. The picture is immaculately clear and clean and offers extremely complex facial and clothing definition in every frame. Locations are gorgeous, too, with ultra-sharp Christmas trees, ornaments, and various decorations. There's nothing in the movie that audiences will not be able to soak in for all it's worth. The only less-than-stellar shots are a few establishing shots here and there that have a video-y look about them. Noise is managed very well and encode issues are next to nonexistent. Colors are rich and full with brilliant depth and pop always on display. This includes, of course, Christmas tree greens and various Christmas reds, but also numerous examples of winter attire and festive holiday decorations throughout the frame. Black levels depth is wonderful, skin tones look spot on, and whites are vivid. This one looks great!

You, Me & The Christmas Trees Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hallmark brings You, Me & The Christmas Tree to Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The full channel spectrum is not necessarily utilized to any great degree, with the surround content just about exclusively limited to very brief flings of atmosphere and very minor excursions for musical support. For the most part, the surround channels are barely in evidence, but even the very slight fill helps to give the impression of a fuller atmosphere than what an exclusively two-channel track could offer. There are one or two instances of more dynamic surround extension, such as in a crowded location during a drink mixing contest at the 25-minute mark, but it is certainly background content to the well prioritized dialogue. The track is very comfortable along the front, with good front separation, fine musical stretch, and plenty of small-town charm and ambience filtering through the front channels. Dialogue is, unsurprisingly, the primary sonic force in the movie. Though there are a few instances of boominess, it is generally clear and lifelike with fine front-center positioning.

You, Me & The Christmas Trees Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of You, Me & The Christmas Tree contains no supplemental content. The main menu screen offers a static image, with no music, and the only options include a button to "Play Movie" and to toggle the subtitles on and off. No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.

You, Me & The Christmas Trees Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You, Me & The Christmas Trees hits dead center on the Hallmark scale for structure, but it struggles to bring two believable and chemistry laden leads to the screen. There's no real spark here, and for a studio, and a genre, that banks on familiar framework, it's in how well the leads build and work in the story that will sink or swim one of these movies. Unfortunately, this one sinks far more often than it swims. Genre fans will find it to be a suitable excursion but hardly a memorable one. Hallmark's Blu-ray is featureless, but the video presentation is excellent and the audio is OK beyond a few intermittent issues. Recommended to fans only.