December 4, 2025 • 25 mins
Hallmark is stepping onto one of country music’s most legendary stages, and we have to ask: can a time-travel Christmas drama hit all the right notes? In A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, Nikki DeLoach stars as Gentry Wade, the daughter of a country icon who has spent decades avoiding the spotlight and the heartache tied to her father’s legacy. One invitation to the Opry’s centennial celebration sends her back into the twang and tinsel she left behind… and, thanks to a little Christmas magic, straight into 1995. Suddenly she is face to face with her younger self, her lifelong friend Mac and the father whose absence shaped everything. This week on Girls Gone Hallmark, we dive into the nostalgia, the music and the emotional high notes to see whether this Opry-set story delivers a holiday encore worth cheering for.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is a bramble Jam podcast. Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark,
(00:24):
a Hallmark review podcast. I'm Megan and I'm a longtime
Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm a former Hallmark hater. Today
we are discussing a Grand Ole Opry Christmas, which originally
aired on Saturday, November twenty ninth and is currently available
to stream on Hallmark Plus.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And you should stream it.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Spoiler spoiler alert. I'm really tempted to be like, that's
the episode, folks, go watch it again. Oh my gosh,
that's so funny. You say that because I was like, oh,
wouldn't it be funny for like five star? No notes?
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Bye, Hey.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You should follow us on the socials, especially on Instagram.
I posted a really funny Instagram post Yayday Stories last night.
Made myself laugh. My husband and I laughed about it.
I laugh too. You guys are missing out if you're
not following us at Girls Gone Hamemark and we are
Girls Gone Homemark on Facebook, on Blue Skuy, on threads,
wherever you like to spend your time on TikTok, just
just check us out Girls Gone Hallmark. That's her. A
(01:23):
synopsis of a Grand Old Opry Christmas. Gentry Wade, who
gave up music after her father's death and decades ago,
must confront her past when Nashville's Grand Old Opry invites
her to honor her late country star dad at their
Christmas celebration. Claire Nita Prum directed the film. She has
twenty one total directing credits, and Hallmark viewers may know
(01:45):
her work from Mystery Island, House Rules, Villa Amorey, and
Savoring Paris. The script was written by Hilty Bowen and
Tracy Andrene. Hilty has five writing credits, including The Beach
Read Murders and Living with My Mother's Killer. Those are
so opposite of this movie. Tracy has thirty nine writing
credits and also wrote Christmas at the Catnip Cafe and
(02:07):
A Keller Christmas Vacation. For this year's countdown to Christmas season,
Tracy Andrene out there working having a big year. Christopher
Palaha stars as Mac. He has ninety five acting credits
and three upcoming projects, including the film Mimics, which he
also directed, as well as American Hostage, a scripted podcast
adaptation for MGM. Plus I'm Excited for That. Nikki Delo
(02:31):
plays Gentry Wade. We recently saw her in Home Turf
in October, and she will also appear in the next
two installments of the True Justice Mystery franchise. Sharon Lawrence
plays Rita. This is her one hundred and twenty first
acting credit, and she has three additional projects currently in
the works. Hallmark viewers last saw her in the Christmas
(02:51):
House Movies. Since then, she has appeared in the series Dynasty,
Joe Pickett and Walker. Rob Mays plays Jet Wade. This
is his sixty third acting credit and appears to be
his first appearance on Hallmark. He also appeared in a
movie called a Christmas Murder Mystery and The Beach Read Murders.
Eliza Hayes Maher plays Young Rita. Eliza has eighteen acting
(03:14):
credits and has appeared in all three of the Haul
Out the movies. She was also in Hidden Gems and
Taking the Reins on Hallmark. James Denton plays Von Winters.
James is a regular on Hallmark, having appeared in seventy
five episodes of The Good Witch, as well as movies
like A Kiss Before Christmas and Christmas on Cherry Lane.
This film includes numerous cameos from Bill Anderson, Brad Paisley
(03:37):
Daly and Vincent Drew Baldridge, Jamie Johnson, Maggie Baugh, Meghan Moroney,
Mickey Geiton, Pam Tallis, Rhet Aikins, Writers in the Sky,
Susie Bogas, Tiger, Lily Gold and t Graham Brown. We're
going to take a quick break and come right back
with our first impressions. Hey, Wendy, what was your first
(04:06):
impression of a grand ole Opry Christmas? Oh? We got
a top tier Countdown to Christmas contender on our hands.
The bracket participants should be quickening their boots if we
even do it. Okay, go ahead, listen to our listener
mail bag episode this week. My first impression is make
room on that five stars, no nodes bench, Ted Cooper
for sure. What did you like about this movie? Look,
(04:31):
the heart of this movie is not the romance. The
romance was the cherry on top. Yeah. For me, it's
the dad and daughter story. And I cried the entire time. No,
me too. The scenes between Gentry and her dad, especially
when they're like writing the song together and then we
(04:52):
see Mac like filming it, which God, I love that.
These scenes gutted me in the best way, mostly because
she had been plagued with these questions from people from
fans since his death, what happened to your dad? Why
did he stop writing? And she didn't know the answer,
and like, what an incredible story to tell. I just
(05:14):
I just thought it was so unique and good, like
he chose me. Yes, Oh my god. Yeah, that final
scene with him where she's basically saying goodbye and she's
she's kind of giving him permission and reaffirming his choice, Yeah,
to leave the duo, leave music, and go be with
(05:35):
his family. And it's so touching, and there's part of
me that will always be like, no, I want him
to know who you are.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I want him to see like.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It was worth it because look who she became.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
But it's it's so touching and she hugs him. Oh my,
I was weeping. Oh yeah, when she's yes.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
They just have they just connect, They just they get
each other and she gets what she needed in that moment. Yeah,
I agree. I want to say I talked about this
in our pop Culture Club episode on Patreon where we
talked a little bit about Hallmark this week, But I said, there,
in spite of this movie having all of the perfect ingredients,
(06:19):
for a recipe for success. Chris Ninki Tracy Claire. I
wasn't looking forward to this movie. I'm a nineties country fan,
and I wasn't excited about it, and I can't fully
put my finger on why. And when my husband sat
down to watch this movie, he made a face like, right.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
We were both very wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And I knew before watching, based on the first impressions
we were seeing on Instagram that I would be wrong
because enough people were raving about this movie. Oh that's interesting,
because I thought maybe they were just you know, I'm
a Palaha fan, you know this, But I thought maybe
we were just getting a heavy influx of big fans
(07:00):
of Nikki and Chris and they're like, of course, we
love it. Sure, that could have been a piece of it.
But for me, I watched this a full day after
it came out, and there wasn't a single negative review
in the bunch, and so I went in feeling like,
all right, we may be in for a good time.
And halfway through the movie, I paused and turned to
my husband and said, isn't it better than he anticipated?
(07:23):
And he was practically in tears. Also, he goes, especially
he really loved the father daughter moment. Yeah, you know
them writing songs together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't say
this lightly. I was fully invested from start to finish.
You know me, Like Hallmark movies lull me to sleep
sometimes sometimes like I just tap out and like I'll
scroll on my phone and then realize the movie's over,
(07:45):
like it happens time and time again, like I was
in it. I was really in it. I love a
time travel twist. I think I've said it before. I
built More Christmas is one of my favorites. Obviously, we
have Chris in that movie, Who's he's so good and charming?
How does this hold up to a bit More Christmas
(08:05):
for you? It's equal, It's equal, it's different, right, you
know the time travel part of it here. I love
the the genre, which I don't say that lightly either,
because you know me, like I hate science fiction and
type stuff. Right, it's not like one point one jiggawats
science fiction. You're right, you're even though that's not really
(08:26):
science fiction either. So I'm always now drawn to like
any kind of Hallmark movie that has a time travel
element to it. But this one here, what I liked
about it is that we get both gentry and mac
traveling back together. Yeah, and there's something really satisfying with
them being like partners in crime, are and mutually confused,
(08:47):
mutually enchanted, mutually terrified at altering the timeline, like that
they're having this shared experience together and not operating alone.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
When he time travels, I was really for her. Yeah,
and she's gonna have her buddy there, right, because that,
to me would be the most frustrating part is having
to figure out the logistics of how am I gonna
do this? And I can't talk to anybody about it?
And he really Look, I'm gonna talk about Chris, but
(09:17):
his character just comes up behind her and underneath her
and just supports her throughout this movie. He supports her dreams.
He pawns his watch so that they have money to
spend in the past. I just I really was charmed
by that by him or his character. Well both.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Look.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
How good are Chris and Nikki in this movie. Oh,
They're fantastic total stars And I do think I love
I love Chris. I'm really excited for his MGM project.
I'm excited he's filming a Hallmark movie. I thought it
was really interesting how the Mary Thanksgiving weekend promos had
and they're like Chriss on location and they would cut
back and forth to him. But I just I'm a
(10:05):
big fan. I loved this pairing and I loved the
storyline that they were lifelong friends who have just missed
their chance. Ye're not ex's, They've always been there for
each other and they're just realizing or she's just realizing
he's always probably known who she is to him. But
(10:26):
this is Nicky's story, this is Gentry's story, And I
think Chris does a great job as an actor supporting
Nicki and as a character supporting Gentry. Yeah, there's no
push and pull fight for the spotlight. Yeah, their characters
(10:47):
have this really comfortable, lived in friendship. It made it
completely believable to me. Yeah. I just love them, you know.
And I don't know what I expected going in. I
was like, like you said, I wasn't like that excited
for it. I was just like, Okay, no, they blew
me away. Yeah, blew me away. Here's something that did
(11:09):
surprise me. I really loved the setting at the Opry.
I have not been to Nashville, but I now really
want to go to the Opry, and I felt very
drawn to the location as a character in the movie. Yeah,
and I really was touched by the early scene where
Sharon Lawrence as adult Rita is describing the significance of
(11:30):
the wood flooring on stage from the original Ryman Auditorium
something about that. I saw a clip of that before
the movie aired. Normally, when I see a clip of
a Hallmark movie, I'm not that interested. I'm going to
be honest, I don't find Hallmark promo clips to be
all that compelling, especially when they're like sneak peek.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I'm like, that did nothing for the movie. I thought
that was so touching.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
And then at the very end when she gets to
step into it and dedicate the song and the introduce
Brad Paisley coming out to sing her song, I was
really moved by the history of that place and how
important it is to that country music community. So a
couple of things here. I remember talking about it on
an episode we were talking about this movie. I don't know,
(12:14):
we must have been a Headliness episode, and I was like,
I've been to the opera, I've toured the opry I
have not I've toured the Rieman. Oh and so now
understanding like, oh, these two work together, right, Okay, now
I get it now the circle thing in the round,
like the middle thing in the round. I remember there.
Dave girl who's the leasing our food fighters, did a
(12:36):
really cool documentary. I think it was on HBO. I
can't remember the name of it. I will find it
and I will put it in our show notes. But
he did this whole thing in Nashville, and they talked
about being in the round and like how the musicians
like sit in this round circle and like I can't
remember specifically if he was talking about this, like I
(12:58):
don't remember. I don't don't remember. But when it got
brought up in this movie, I was like, oh, this
is ticking some boxes of things like I remember from
the past, and like you was super drawn to the
history of it and wanted to know more. I thought
it was very compelling. Also, in speaking of country music,
I'm a country music girl. Yes, I'm going to confess
(13:21):
that I didn't know all the artists on site, but
I did love all of the singing that we got
and all I liked all of the cameos, and I
think it's very natural. I'm going to talk about it,
and did you see about you know, the location a
little bit more. But I love country. I wasn't expecting
to like a movie about country music. I don't know why,
but I did love all of the singing. I'm gonna
(13:42):
throw something way back and you probably don't know. You
and I we love like nineties country music.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
This movie nails the throwback vibes almost perfectly. First of all,
our director can't be more than like forty years old. Yeah,
like I think she was probably be born after nineties
country music, did you? I loved the when they walk
into that party, the three of them, and Nikki's in
that like sequin dress with I burst out laughing because
(14:14):
they look good, but they look ridiculous. Can we save it?
Can we save it? Okay? My point is, do you
remember the nineteen ninety five country music movie called Pure
Country and it has George Strait in it? I do it.
This movie reminded me of that, Like if you were
talking like.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
They captured the vibe.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
They captured the vibe perfectly. Look go back and watch
that movie. I think I've only seen it once. I
don't know if it holds up. I don't couldn't even
tell you what it loves to buy right, it's that
song you can lead a heart to love, but you
can't make it fall is in that movie. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I don't know, but it had There were things about
this movie. The big hair, the mention of Shania Twain
is in the room with us, like that kind of stuff.
The whole nineties country energy was spot on and I
loved it. I loved it, loved it. Here are some
other things. I liked. Rob Mays as Jet Wade I
(15:13):
thought was excellent casting. I was like, who's this guy? Like,
he played this nineties country dad so perfectly.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Question, Yeah, he's not singing it's Brad. I don't know.
Actually I know that's Brad Paisley's song.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah. Well, I couldn't find it, but I asked my
house on.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I'm like, that's Brad singing as Ben Wade. I she
zammed it and it did come up as Brad Paisley. Yeah, okay,
that's what I thought. Yeah, I didn't realize he Brad
Paisley has two songs in this movie.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I didn't realize that because he'd been Hallmark's been promoting, like,
you know, the Hallmark Christmas Song of the Season. Basically,
but there were two songs in this movie, yeah, which
then I had to go on to Spotify and I
was like, where can I listen to these? I don't
know if I found them. You said you've never been
to Nashville before. No, they had beautiful, gorgeous shots at
(16:08):
the city, the Batman Building, like you know that, right, Okay?
I thought it was good. The backstage stuff at the operation, like,
none of it felt fake to me. Question, you've been
to bars in Nashville or that opening scene where they're
in Gentry's bar and those guys are in full country gear.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Did that feel genuine to you?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Like really they're like that country Yeah, in the hats
and every That's good to know. Yeah, that's good to us.
The city has so much tourism, but it also has
so many locals too, so like, I mean, yes, there's
people who are like kind of cosplaying a little bit
like where they're they're but I've seen some real cowboys. Yeah,
not cowboys, but you know, you know what I mean,
(16:51):
we're all in Yeah. Yeah, did Gingry's dad know? I
don't know. I part of me is like feel like
he did know that that was her, you know, especially
at the end when he's like asking basically for confirmation,
like was your dad a good dad? Right? What? Uncle
Vaughn knows? Yeah, well yeah, So I'm like, look and
(17:15):
then the aunt aunt Rita, I was like, did she know?
I don't know. I can't and honestly, and you look,
it doesn't even matter. No, it doesn't even matter to me.
I just was curious what you thought my biggest worry
going into this movie, and you talked about it a
little bit where the cameos. I was very worried it
(17:37):
was going to be like a parade of who do
we have here and like a you know, like a
full remember me talking about it like it was gonna
be like a superstar extravaganza, and we got it a
little bit in the Aaron Khill like tour scene. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I liked it.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It was a little bit like behind this corner we
have this and oh my god, Henry have this and
this is not a I was surprisingly not annoyed by it.
I thought it was gonna be like every second because
the list was long of it was Harry, are you
ready to move on to wishes?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I got none.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I have two Nikki's silver dress in that party scene
was not it. I looked at who the costume designer
was because I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
They feel like they did the research.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Me too, me too. But I also felt like that
was a nineties interpretation of what like a country diva
would wear. It leaned to costume me for me a
little bit. Yeah, I did feel like they came in
in costumes. I did laugh out loud when they walked
into that party of three of them. I just thought
they were off the charts. I thought that I can't
even remember, Sorry, Chris, I can't remember what Chris was
(18:45):
wearing at all. Rita, young Rita. I thought her look
nailed nineties. Yeah, it was Nicki's that dress, which is
so I was like, I don't, I don't what is
happening here. If they didn't have that like flower thing
on the front of it, I think it could have
maybe passed. But I don't know. Your other wish somebody
that needs to check on the security guard. I felt
(19:07):
bad for the man. These people are disappearing right in
front of his eyes. It's no big deal. It's no
big deal. Yeah, And even like even when Chris comes back,
like he's just sitting there on the stage, like, nobody
was like, where did this dude come from? By the way,
do you know that security guard's name is big Fella?
I did not.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
That's how he's credited on IMDb.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Big Fella Ela. Yep, that's all I have for my wishes.
You have like zero literally zero? Great, let's talk. Did
you see that?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I only have a couple. Okay, one I referenced Chris
wears a red and black shirt. Then he comes on
screen and I was like, look at that shirt and
my husband goes, that's Garth Brooks and I was like,
e pieces and I had to google it man oh man,
and I did Instagram story who wore it better? And
Chris responded, ah, you got it now.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I don't know if it was intentional or not, but
feels like it had to have been.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Feels like it had to have been. Sure. Who can
see that shirt nineties country and not think that Garth
Brooks album cover? I ello weld. When I saw your Instagram,
I was like, oh, I didn't put the two together.
Thank you for doing that. I thought it was great.
Thought it was great. One of my digit see that
is when Gentry and Mack are baking cookies. With their
(20:17):
cousin with the cousin Rita. She's the cousin, right, she's
her dad's cousins so she was her aunt, right, Yeah,
that's right. They make the cookie that I make every
single year, which is a peanut butter blossom. Oh uh huh.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We just made them in our house.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You don't put the hershey kiss on the cookie before
it goes in the oven, even notice it would be
a melted puddle. They they had it was rock cookie dough.
They pressed their thumbs in it to make the dnt
and then they put the hirshey kiss on and then
they put it in the oven. And that is not
how you make them. No, it is not you bake
the cookie. You put the kiss on as soon as
(20:54):
they come out of the oven. And that's how they
get that shiny look too. Yeah, And that's when their
best is when they're just out of the oven and
their chocolate's melty on top of it, especially the only
time I like them, once the chocolate has hardened back
into a kiss, not into it.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I have more, Yeah, Max. Grandma is named Hilty the writer,
or she's not the writer, she's the yeah, one of
the writers. One of the writers is also named Hilty.
I like, when you put your own name in it.
My next did you see that? And final one is
also about the name Gentry. Kind of love this name,
(21:31):
love this character name. And I was like, well, it
has to have some sort of like country reasoning, some
sort of connection. So I looked it up. I don't know,
this is all I found. There was a female artist
in the US in the late sixties who rose to
fame and her name was Bobby Gentry. She was a songwriter,
And I thought maybe. And then in the late nineties,
(21:53):
early two thousand, there was a country duo group named
Montgomery Gentry. Sure, but this would have been like later.
I don't know, it doesn't matter, but yeah, maybe they
took inspirations on that. Yeah. Yeah, do you have any
other did you see that?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah? I have a couple.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They're not digite that, They're just fun facts. I really
enjoyed the tributes that Nicki and Chris did to each
other on their Instagram, throwing it back to their first
project together, North Shore, many many many years ago. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Also, I thought this was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I read an interview with Nicki talking about filming at
the Opry and the opry was still functioning daily as
they were filming, So she says her call time would
be nine pm for hair and makeup. We wouldn't be
able to start shooting until after the tours backstage were
done and the show was over. Sometimes that would be
eleven and sometimes that would be midnight. Then we would
(22:45):
shoot all the way until the next day at eleven am,
go home, get a few hours of sleep, and go back.
So when I tell you that, it was the hardest
schedule that any of us has ever worked, and everybody
did it with such an incredible attitude and joy in
their hearts. As hard as it was, there was not
one single complaint on that set. That's nice.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Did you notice our friend Denise.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
In the movie. No, there were a lot of a
ton I wonder where she was. Denise message us, we
can go back and catch you. Yeah, there is an
extended cut on Hallmark Plus. I tried to watch it,
and Hallmark Plus was being buky. Hallmark Plus was not
working for me last night, I either, and I didn't
want to watch it for this review because I didn't
want to have scenes that not everybody had seen. Yeah,
(23:28):
but I may go back and look because I heard
there were some good additional scenes there.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, I think we've given it away. What did you
rate Lovely.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Christmas and gave it a five star? Worried me there
for a second five stars? Good stuff. Thanks for listening
to this episode of Girls Gone Hamewark, a Bramble Jam podcast.
If you love this podcast, tell a friend the best
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(24:00):
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(24:29):
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Speaker 2 (24:46):
Bye
This is a bramble Jam podcast. Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark,
(00:24):
a Hallmark review podcast. I'm Megan and I'm a longtime
Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm a former Hallmark hater. Today
we are discussing a Grand Ole Opry Christmas, which originally
aired on Saturday, November twenty ninth and is currently available
to stream on Hallmark Plus.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
And you should stream it.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Spoiler spoiler alert. I'm really tempted to be like, that's
the episode, folks, go watch it again. Oh my gosh,
that's so funny. You say that because I was like, oh,
wouldn't it be funny for like five star? No notes?
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Bye, Hey.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
You should follow us on the socials, especially on Instagram.
I posted a really funny Instagram post Yayday Stories last night.
Made myself laugh. My husband and I laughed about it.
I laugh too. You guys are missing out if you're
not following us at Girls Gone Hamemark and we are
Girls Gone Homemark on Facebook, on Blue Skuy, on threads,
wherever you like to spend your time on TikTok, just
just check us out Girls Gone Hallmark. That's her. A
(01:23):
synopsis of a Grand Old Opry Christmas. Gentry Wade, who
gave up music after her father's death and decades ago,
must confront her past when Nashville's Grand Old Opry invites
her to honor her late country star dad at their
Christmas celebration. Claire Nita Prum directed the film. She has
twenty one total directing credits, and Hallmark viewers may know
(01:45):
her work from Mystery Island, House Rules, Villa Amorey, and
Savoring Paris. The script was written by Hilty Bowen and
Tracy Andrene. Hilty has five writing credits, including The Beach
Read Murders and Living with My Mother's Killer. Those are
so opposite of this movie. Tracy has thirty nine writing
credits and also wrote Christmas at the Catnip Cafe and
(02:07):
A Keller Christmas Vacation. For this year's countdown to Christmas season,
Tracy Andrene out there working having a big year. Christopher
Palaha stars as Mac. He has ninety five acting credits
and three upcoming projects, including the film Mimics, which he
also directed, as well as American Hostage, a scripted podcast
adaptation for MGM. Plus I'm Excited for That. Nikki Delo
(02:31):
plays Gentry Wade. We recently saw her in Home Turf
in October, and she will also appear in the next
two installments of the True Justice Mystery franchise. Sharon Lawrence
plays Rita. This is her one hundred and twenty first
acting credit, and she has three additional projects currently in
the works. Hallmark viewers last saw her in the Christmas
(02:51):
House Movies. Since then, she has appeared in the series Dynasty,
Joe Pickett and Walker. Rob Mays plays Jet Wade. This
is his sixty third acting credit and appears to be
his first appearance on Hallmark. He also appeared in a
movie called a Christmas Murder Mystery and The Beach Read Murders.
Eliza Hayes Maher plays Young Rita. Eliza has eighteen acting
(03:14):
credits and has appeared in all three of the Haul
Out the movies. She was also in Hidden Gems and
Taking the Reins on Hallmark. James Denton plays Von Winters.
James is a regular on Hallmark, having appeared in seventy
five episodes of The Good Witch, as well as movies
like A Kiss Before Christmas and Christmas on Cherry Lane.
This film includes numerous cameos from Bill Anderson, Brad Paisley
(03:37):
Daly and Vincent Drew Baldridge, Jamie Johnson, Maggie Baugh, Meghan Moroney,
Mickey Geiton, Pam Tallis, Rhet Aikins, Writers in the Sky,
Susie Bogas, Tiger, Lily Gold and t Graham Brown. We're
going to take a quick break and come right back
with our first impressions. Hey, Wendy, what was your first
(04:06):
impression of a grand ole Opry Christmas? Oh? We got
a top tier Countdown to Christmas contender on our hands.
The bracket participants should be quickening their boots if we
even do it. Okay, go ahead, listen to our listener
mail bag episode this week. My first impression is make
room on that five stars, no nodes bench, Ted Cooper
for sure. What did you like about this movie? Look,
(04:31):
the heart of this movie is not the romance. The
romance was the cherry on top. Yeah. For me, it's
the dad and daughter story. And I cried the entire time. No,
me too. The scenes between Gentry and her dad, especially
when they're like writing the song together and then we
(04:52):
see Mac like filming it, which God, I love that.
These scenes gutted me in the best way, mostly because
she had been plagued with these questions from people from
fans since his death, what happened to your dad? Why
did he stop writing? And she didn't know the answer,
and like, what an incredible story to tell. I just
(05:14):
I just thought it was so unique and good, like
he chose me. Yes, Oh my god. Yeah, that final
scene with him where she's basically saying goodbye and she's
she's kind of giving him permission and reaffirming his choice, Yeah,
to leave the duo, leave music, and go be with
(05:35):
his family. And it's so touching, and there's part of
me that will always be like, no, I want him
to know who you are.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
I want him to see like.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It was worth it because look who she became.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
But it's it's so touching and she hugs him. Oh my,
I was weeping. Oh yeah, when she's yes.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
They just have they just connect, They just they get
each other and she gets what she needed in that moment. Yeah,
I agree. I want to say I talked about this
in our pop Culture Club episode on Patreon where we
talked a little bit about Hallmark this week, But I said, there,
in spite of this movie having all of the perfect ingredients,
(06:19):
for a recipe for success. Chris Ninki Tracy Claire. I
wasn't looking forward to this movie. I'm a nineties country fan,
and I wasn't excited about it, and I can't fully
put my finger on why. And when my husband sat
down to watch this movie, he made a face like, right.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
We were both very wrong.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
And I knew before watching, based on the first impressions
we were seeing on Instagram that I would be wrong
because enough people were raving about this movie. Oh that's interesting,
because I thought maybe they were just you know, I'm
a Palaha fan, you know this, But I thought maybe
we were just getting a heavy influx of big fans
(07:00):
of Nikki and Chris and they're like, of course, we
love it. Sure, that could have been a piece of it.
But for me, I watched this a full day after
it came out, and there wasn't a single negative review
in the bunch, and so I went in feeling like,
all right, we may be in for a good time.
And halfway through the movie, I paused and turned to
my husband and said, isn't it better than he anticipated?
(07:23):
And he was practically in tears. Also, he goes, especially
he really loved the father daughter moment. Yeah, you know
them writing songs together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't say
this lightly. I was fully invested from start to finish.
You know me, Like Hallmark movies lull me to sleep
sometimes sometimes like I just tap out and like I'll
scroll on my phone and then realize the movie's over,
(07:45):
like it happens time and time again, like I was
in it. I was really in it. I love a
time travel twist. I think I've said it before. I
built More Christmas is one of my favorites. Obviously, we
have Chris in that movie, Who's he's so good and charming?
How does this hold up to a bit More Christmas
(08:05):
for you? It's equal, It's equal, it's different, right, you
know the time travel part of it here. I love
the the genre, which I don't say that lightly either,
because you know me, like I hate science fiction and
type stuff. Right, it's not like one point one jiggawats
science fiction. You're right, you're even though that's not really
(08:26):
science fiction either. So I'm always now drawn to like
any kind of Hallmark movie that has a time travel
element to it. But this one here, what I liked
about it is that we get both gentry and mac
traveling back together. Yeah, and there's something really satisfying with
them being like partners in crime, are and mutually confused,
(08:47):
mutually enchanted, mutually terrified at altering the timeline, like that
they're having this shared experience together and not operating alone.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
When he time travels, I was really for her. Yeah,
and she's gonna have her buddy there, right, because that,
to me would be the most frustrating part is having
to figure out the logistics of how am I gonna
do this? And I can't talk to anybody about it?
And he really Look, I'm gonna talk about Chris, but
(09:17):
his character just comes up behind her and underneath her
and just supports her throughout this movie. He supports her dreams.
He pawns his watch so that they have money to
spend in the past. I just I really was charmed
by that by him or his character. Well both.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Look.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
How good are Chris and Nikki in this movie. Oh,
They're fantastic total stars And I do think I love
I love Chris. I'm really excited for his MGM project.
I'm excited he's filming a Hallmark movie. I thought it
was really interesting how the Mary Thanksgiving weekend promos had
and they're like Chriss on location and they would cut
back and forth to him. But I just I'm a
(10:05):
big fan. I loved this pairing and I loved the
storyline that they were lifelong friends who have just missed
their chance. Ye're not ex's, They've always been there for
each other and they're just realizing or she's just realizing
he's always probably known who she is to him. But
(10:26):
this is Nicky's story, this is Gentry's story, And I
think Chris does a great job as an actor supporting
Nicki and as a character supporting Gentry. Yeah, there's no
push and pull fight for the spotlight. Yeah, their characters
(10:47):
have this really comfortable, lived in friendship. It made it
completely believable to me. Yeah. I just love them, you know.
And I don't know what I expected going in. I
was like, like you said, I wasn't like that excited
for it. I was just like, Okay, no, they blew
me away. Yeah, blew me away. Here's something that did
(11:09):
surprise me. I really loved the setting at the Opry.
I have not been to Nashville, but I now really
want to go to the Opry, and I felt very
drawn to the location as a character in the movie. Yeah,
and I really was touched by the early scene where
Sharon Lawrence as adult Rita is describing the significance of
(11:30):
the wood flooring on stage from the original Ryman Auditorium
something about that. I saw a clip of that before
the movie aired. Normally, when I see a clip of
a Hallmark movie, I'm not that interested. I'm going to
be honest, I don't find Hallmark promo clips to be
all that compelling, especially when they're like sneak peek.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I'm like, that did nothing for the movie. I thought
that was so touching.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
And then at the very end when she gets to
step into it and dedicate the song and the introduce
Brad Paisley coming out to sing her song, I was
really moved by the history of that place and how
important it is to that country music community. So a
couple of things here. I remember talking about it on
an episode we were talking about this movie. I don't know,
(12:14):
we must have been a Headliness episode, and I was like,
I've been to the opera, I've toured the opry I
have not I've toured the Rieman. Oh and so now
understanding like, oh, these two work together, right, Okay, now
I get it now the circle thing in the round,
like the middle thing in the round. I remember there.
Dave girl who's the leasing our food fighters, did a
(12:36):
really cool documentary. I think it was on HBO. I
can't remember the name of it. I will find it
and I will put it in our show notes. But
he did this whole thing in Nashville, and they talked
about being in the round and like how the musicians
like sit in this round circle and like I can't
remember specifically if he was talking about this, like I
(12:58):
don't remember. I don't don't remember. But when it got
brought up in this movie, I was like, oh, this
is ticking some boxes of things like I remember from
the past, and like you was super drawn to the
history of it and wanted to know more. I thought
it was very compelling. Also, in speaking of country music,
I'm a country music girl. Yes, I'm going to confess
(13:21):
that I didn't know all the artists on site, but
I did love all of the singing that we got
and all I liked all of the cameos, and I
think it's very natural. I'm going to talk about it,
and did you see about you know, the location a
little bit more. But I love country. I wasn't expecting
to like a movie about country music. I don't know why,
but I did love all of the singing. I'm gonna
(13:42):
throw something way back and you probably don't know. You
and I we love like nineties country music.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
This movie nails the throwback vibes almost perfectly. First of all,
our director can't be more than like forty years old. Yeah,
like I think she was probably be born after nineties
country music, did you? I loved the when they walk
into that party, the three of them, and Nikki's in
that like sequin dress with I burst out laughing because
(14:14):
they look good, but they look ridiculous. Can we save it?
Can we save it? Okay? My point is, do you
remember the nineteen ninety five country music movie called Pure
Country and it has George Strait in it? I do it.
This movie reminded me of that, Like if you were
talking like.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
They captured the vibe.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
They captured the vibe perfectly. Look go back and watch
that movie. I think I've only seen it once. I
don't know if it holds up. I don't couldn't even
tell you what it loves to buy right, it's that
song you can lead a heart to love, but you
can't make it fall is in that movie. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I think so.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I don't know, but it had There were things about
this movie. The big hair, the mention of Shania Twain
is in the room with us, like that kind of stuff.
The whole nineties country energy was spot on and I
loved it. I loved it, loved it. Here are some
other things. I liked. Rob Mays as Jet Wade I
(15:13):
thought was excellent casting. I was like, who's this guy? Like,
he played this nineties country dad so perfectly.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Question, Yeah, he's not singing it's Brad. I don't know.
Actually I know that's Brad Paisley's song.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah. Well, I couldn't find it, but I asked my
house on.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I'm like, that's Brad singing as Ben Wade. I she
zammed it and it did come up as Brad Paisley. Yeah, okay,
that's what I thought. Yeah, I didn't realize he Brad
Paisley has two songs in this movie.
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
I didn't realize that because he'd been Hallmark's been promoting, like,
you know, the Hallmark Christmas Song of the Season. Basically,
but there were two songs in this movie, yeah, which
then I had to go on to Spotify and I
was like, where can I listen to these? I don't
know if I found them. You said you've never been
to Nashville before. No, they had beautiful, gorgeous shots at
(16:08):
the city, the Batman Building, like you know that, right, Okay?
I thought it was good. The backstage stuff at the operation, like,
none of it felt fake to me. Question, you've been
to bars in Nashville or that opening scene where they're
in Gentry's bar and those guys are in full country gear.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Did that feel genuine to you?
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Like really they're like that country Yeah, in the hats
and every That's good to know. Yeah, that's good to us.
The city has so much tourism, but it also has
so many locals too, so like, I mean, yes, there's
people who are like kind of cosplaying a little bit
like where they're they're but I've seen some real cowboys. Yeah,
not cowboys, but you know, you know what I mean,
(16:51):
we're all in Yeah. Yeah, did Gingry's dad know? I
don't know. I part of me is like feel like
he did know that that was her, you know, especially
at the end when he's like asking basically for confirmation,
like was your dad a good dad? Right? What? Uncle
Vaughn knows? Yeah, well yeah, So I'm like, look and
(17:15):
then the aunt aunt Rita, I was like, did she know?
I don't know. I can't and honestly, and you look,
it doesn't even matter. No, it doesn't even matter to me.
I just was curious what you thought my biggest worry
going into this movie, and you talked about it a
little bit where the cameos. I was very worried it
(17:37):
was going to be like a parade of who do
we have here and like a you know, like a
full remember me talking about it like it was gonna
be like a superstar extravaganza, and we got it a
little bit in the Aaron Khill like tour scene. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
I liked it.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
It was a little bit like behind this corner we
have this and oh my god, Henry have this and
this is not a I was surprisingly not annoyed by it.
I thought it was gonna be like every second because
the list was long of it was Harry, are you
ready to move on to wishes?
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I got none.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
I have two Nikki's silver dress in that party scene
was not it. I looked at who the costume designer
was because I was like, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
They feel like they did the research.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Me too, me too. But I also felt like that
was a nineties interpretation of what like a country diva
would wear. It leaned to costume me for me a
little bit. Yeah, I did feel like they came in
in costumes. I did laugh out loud when they walked
into that party of three of them. I just thought
they were off the charts. I thought that I can't
even remember, Sorry, Chris, I can't remember what Chris was
(18:45):
wearing at all. Rita, young Rita. I thought her look
nailed nineties. Yeah, it was Nicki's that dress, which is
so I was like, I don't, I don't what is
happening here. If they didn't have that like flower thing
on the front of it, I think it could have
maybe passed. But I don't know. Your other wish somebody
that needs to check on the security guard. I felt
(19:07):
bad for the man. These people are disappearing right in
front of his eyes. It's no big deal. It's no
big deal. Yeah, And even like even when Chris comes back,
like he's just sitting there on the stage, like, nobody
was like, where did this dude come from? By the way,
do you know that security guard's name is big Fella?
I did not.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
That's how he's credited on IMDb.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Big Fella Ela. Yep, that's all I have for my wishes.
You have like zero literally zero? Great, let's talk. Did
you see that?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (19:34):
I only have a couple. Okay, one I referenced Chris
wears a red and black shirt. Then he comes on
screen and I was like, look at that shirt and
my husband goes, that's Garth Brooks and I was like,
e pieces and I had to google it man oh man,
and I did Instagram story who wore it better? And
Chris responded, ah, you got it now.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
I don't know if it was intentional or not, but
feels like it had to have been.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Feels like it had to have been. Sure. Who can
see that shirt nineties country and not think that Garth
Brooks album cover? I ello weld. When I saw your Instagram,
I was like, oh, I didn't put the two together.
Thank you for doing that. I thought it was great.
Thought it was great. One of my digit see that
is when Gentry and Mack are baking cookies. With their
(20:17):
cousin with the cousin Rita. She's the cousin, right, she's
her dad's cousins so she was her aunt, right, Yeah,
that's right. They make the cookie that I make every
single year, which is a peanut butter blossom. Oh uh huh.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
We just made them in our house.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
You don't put the hershey kiss on the cookie before
it goes in the oven, even notice it would be
a melted puddle. They they had it was rock cookie dough.
They pressed their thumbs in it to make the dnt
and then they put the hirshey kiss on and then
they put it in the oven. And that is not
how you make them. No, it is not you bake
the cookie. You put the kiss on as soon as
(20:54):
they come out of the oven. And that's how they
get that shiny look too. Yeah, And that's when their
best is when they're just out of the oven and
their chocolate's melty on top of it, especially the only
time I like them, once the chocolate has hardened back
into a kiss, not into it.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I have more, Yeah, Max. Grandma is named Hilty the writer,
or she's not the writer, she's the yeah, one of
the writers. One of the writers is also named Hilty.
I like, when you put your own name in it.
My next did you see that? And final one is
also about the name Gentry. Kind of love this name,
(21:31):
love this character name. And I was like, well, it
has to have some sort of like country reasoning, some
sort of connection. So I looked it up. I don't know,
this is all I found. There was a female artist
in the US in the late sixties who rose to
fame and her name was Bobby Gentry. She was a songwriter,
And I thought maybe. And then in the late nineties,
(21:53):
early two thousand, there was a country duo group named
Montgomery Gentry. Sure, but this would have been like later.
I don't know, it doesn't matter, but yeah, maybe they
took inspirations on that. Yeah. Yeah, do you have any
other did you see that?
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah? I have a couple.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
They're not digite that, They're just fun facts. I really
enjoyed the tributes that Nicki and Chris did to each
other on their Instagram, throwing it back to their first
project together, North Shore, many many many years ago. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Also, I thought this was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
I read an interview with Nicki talking about filming at
the Opry and the opry was still functioning daily as
they were filming, So she says her call time would
be nine pm for hair and makeup. We wouldn't be
able to start shooting until after the tours backstage were
done and the show was over. Sometimes that would be
eleven and sometimes that would be midnight. Then we would
(22:45):
shoot all the way until the next day at eleven am,
go home, get a few hours of sleep, and go back.
So when I tell you that, it was the hardest
schedule that any of us has ever worked, and everybody
did it with such an incredible attitude and joy in
their hearts. As hard as it was, there was not
one single complaint on that set. That's nice.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Did you notice our friend Denise.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
In the movie. No, there were a lot of a
ton I wonder where she was. Denise message us, we
can go back and catch you. Yeah, there is an
extended cut on Hallmark Plus. I tried to watch it,
and Hallmark Plus was being buky. Hallmark Plus was not
working for me last night, I either, and I didn't
want to watch it for this review because I didn't
want to have scenes that not everybody had seen. Yeah,
(23:28):
but I may go back and look because I heard
there were some good additional scenes there.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Well, I think we've given it away. What did you
rate Lovely.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Christmas and gave it a five star? Worried me there
for a second five stars? Good stuff. Thanks for listening
to this episode of Girls Gone Hamewark, a Bramble Jam podcast.
If you love this podcast, tell a friend the best
way you can support this show. We'd love to see
you share your favorite episode, Share a recent episodisode on
(24:00):
Blue Sky, on threads, on Instagram, on Facebook. Tell a
friend about Girls Gone Hallmark because the number of times
we hear people go, oh my gosh, I love Hallmark movies.
I didn't realize there were Hallmark movie podcasts. Tell your
friends we'll see you next time. Goodbye, bye. All right, friends,
(24:29):
before we go, just a quick heads up, you're about
to hear some ads. These little gems help us keep
the show running and the Hallmark love flowing. So do
with that info what you will, Grab a snack, hit
the skip button, or maybe just maybe listen in and
discover your new favorite product.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Bye
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