User reviews

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 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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Here we get an antithetical romance between Jesse Metcalfe--who we first saw and came to like in the Dallas sequel-- and Fiona Gubelmann.

Jesse plays a successful author of lifestyle books for single men, and he lives his lifestyles, adding authenticity to his work. He's also not a big "holiday guy".

He gets saddled with his niece and nephew leading up to Christmas, and is a real fish out of water in handling kids. His neighbor (Fiona) helps out even though she and Jesse don't get along that well.

A funny bit through the movie is someone continually placing Christmas decorations in his yard, and his frustration when he gets rid of them and they reappear.

It's well worth a watch, and we've seen it more than once.

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.

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.

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

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