Let me say from the get go I have no qualms with the Hallmark original holiday movie HANUKKAH ON THE ROCKS, which they premiered last week as one of the scatedy-eight components of their ongoing and nonstop slew of such that they’ve been offering since just before Halloween. I have minimal expectations for the quality and depth of these kinds of movies, especially since the management at Hallmark tends to discourage anything beyond what they know is a winning formula. This one actually exceeded those limb0-like bars.
The reviews have actually been in line with my own feelings, including this one from the LOS ANGELES TIMES’ Robert Lloyd:
Once in a while…something stands out; my interest, personal as much as professional, is piqued. And so we come to Hallmark’s rare Jewish-themed “Hanukkah on the Rocks,” a pleasant, frictionless story from screenwriter Julie Sherman Wolfe (author also of this year’s Hallmark movie “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story”) premiering Friday, and, sure, this is because I am Jewish myself (of the atheistic variety, but no less Jewish for that) and interested to see what this machine makes of my people. Along with the greeting-card homilies (“You just need to follow your heart; the rest will take care of itself”), the film is a carnival of Jewish signifiers (mah-jongg, Hebrew school, summer camp, dreidels) and Yiddishisms: schmendrick, punim, putz, bubbala, mensch, gornisht, schlep, beshert, tsuris, chutzpah, altercocker, mishigas. I mean, it’s nice to hear.
Wolfe is sort of emerging as a go-to voice in this holiday bubble. She had penned 2022’s HANUKKAH ON RYE, which kind of started the channel on this road to what they would like to believe is an “expansion” of their appeal and focus. That work of art had competing deli owners Molly and Jacob somehow finding love amidst their battle of the blintzes. I had tried to watch it but honestly couldn’t stomach either the script nor the obligatory and outdated shots of cured meats hanging like Christmas ornaments from their respective rafters. ON THE ROCKS is a somewhat more plausible plot, as DECIDER’s Maddy Casale explained:
Tory (Stacey Farber) is a driven workaholic who has always been fully committed to her job as a corporate lawyer in Chicago. But when she’s the casualty of a mass layoff, she’s left feeling both unsure and free for the first time since she began her job. Although Tory’s main, and seemingly only, social engagement is her grandma, Francis, AKA Bubby (Marina Stephenson Kerr), she resolves to keep her new unemployed status a secret from both her Bubby and parents who sacrificed so much to help her achieve her dreams. Tory only confides in her sister, Becca (Cora Matheson), who she’s finally able to spend more time with now that her demanding job isn’t weighing her down.
With all of this free time on her hands, Tory is also able to spend more time with her Bubby, who soon sends her on a mission to purchase a specific brand of Hanukkah candles. But when just one store seems to have them in stock, she ends up squabbling with a Florida-based radiologist named Jay (Daren Kagasoff) over the last box. Jay ends up victorious, and she ends up following him to Rocky’s, an Old Town neighborhood dive bar with amazing annual Hanukkah celebrations and an even better cast of characters to welcome her in.
In addition to Jay’s grandfather, a lovable longtime Rocky’s patron named Sam (Double Dare‘s own Marc Summers!!), there’s also the cook, Lottie (Lauren Cochrane), server Stacy-Lynn (Verity Marks), and aspiring novelist Anthony (Dan De Jaeger). Together, they form a warm community that welcomes Tory with open arms, especially after their bartender suddenly leaves for a romantic last-minute getaway to Cabo, leaving Tory to unexpectedly step in.
And at this point I’ll freely admit to liking this if for no other reason for the inspired casting of Summers, making his scripted acting debut after decades on game and reality shows and now podcasts. He’s not a close friend of mine per se, but he is someone who I’ve known well enough to know he was born Mark Berkowitz . Which, natch, made this throwaway line noted by Casale all the more uproarious, at least to moi:
Jay, while donning a gaudy pair of Hanukkah glasses at the Party Store: “I think these sunglasses were designed by Elton John Berkowitz.”
There’s also a thread that references Summers’ character having once had health issues, which is why Jay is encouraging him to leave the frigid climes of Chicago and join him in Florida. You won’t find a healthier nor more robust seventy-something in real life than Summers, so the fact he even pulled that aspect off at all gives me hope that he has a future in more challenging roles. That reality check is one reason why I was certain that Tory and Jay would wind up together no matter what–that, and the fact it’s a Hallmark holiday movie, and everything has a happy ending.
My issue is far more with the way Hallmark attempts to appease those who had clamored for some sort of representation beyond what they know is their substantial core audience–older, white, conservative and heavily represented in flyover states. Under previous management, and as a way to deflect attention, they chose to at least drop in a few token films featuring “representative” characters. As NICKI SWIFT’s Carson Mlarnik noted in a 2023 piece:
The Hallmark Channel has always touted its policy of family values when it comes to its programming, however its vague language came under fire in 2017 amidst wider conversations in the entertainment industry about diversity and inclusion. While the rest of the industry was catching up with #OscarsSoWhite, International Business Times noted that the Hallmark Channel had premiered a record 86 films between its various networks and “only six of those movies had non-white romantic leads.” And on top of that, none of the films included Black or Asian romantic leads. The company’s then-president and CEO Bill Abbott dodged blame for lack of diversity, telling the outlet it was “an industry-wide problem. Others have made a little more progress than we have made, granted, but at the same time … we have a great track record of doing the right thing ….”
The network came under scrutiny again in 2019 when it released its first-ever Hanukkah films “Double Holiday” and “Holiday Date,” which Deseret News summed up as movies about “a Jew [abandoning] Hanukkah and [embracing] Christmas … the Jewish characters [are] merely ornaments.” Rowan University religious studies professor Dianne Ashton even went as far as telling the outlet, “If this is an attempt at being inclusive it’s a major failure.”
Abbott, of course, was ousted after controversy regarding his handling of a queer-centric commercial in 2020. His replacement Wonya Lucas began a campaign where, per Mlarnik, she boasted in 2021 that “probably 25 percent of [their] movies” that year “had diversity in them.” Knowing the machinations of how such defensive figures are compiled, don’t feel guilty you didn’t notice, either. Lucas left the network last year, but not before the commitment to ON THE ROCKS was made.
ON THE ROCKS is notable progress when it comes to an honest telling of a purely Jewish experience, but others ordered for this year fell far short. As KVELLER’s Lior Zaltzman noted in September:
Hallmark just announced its slate of 47 (!) new holiday movies for 2024, and in it are multiple projects that are at least Hanukkah-adjacent. While the synopsis of “Holiday Crashers” does not include the word Hanukkah, it does have a picture of the film’s two heroines at a Hanukkah party that is as blue and typically Hallmark as we’ve come to expect (with a seven-armed menorah in the background, sigh).
“Leah’s Perfect Gift,” starring Jewish actress Emily Arlook of “Grown-ish” (and soon to be “Nobody Wants This”) fame as Leah, is about a Jewish girl who loves Christmas and goes to her boyfriend’s family Christmas celebration. There may not be a Hanukkah celebration in this film at all, even if the word is in the description of the film, but the Jewish girl obsessed with Christmas is already a Hallmark trope and I have to hope it will be handled delicately.
That movie aired in early November, when most Jews I know weren’t even aware at the time that Hanukkah this year will begin on Christmas Night. And while HANUKKAH ON THE ROCKS was at least scheduled a bit closer to the actual holiday, it premiered on a Friday night. Note to Hallmark executives: That’s called SHABBAT. I dare say a decent amount of your aspirational incremental audience was otherwise occupied.
Look, I’ll admit I’m in a more surly mood than usual when it comes to the holidays. I work part-time in a store that has had a massive Christmas decoration section up and running since around the time Hallmark turned its schedule completely over to the holiday, and I’ve had to endure now nearly two full months of a singing, animated minion who has been “caroling” non stop with nonsense-syllabic renditions of “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” every time some confused child pushes the foot pedal to send this $350 lawn jockey into action. It’s a darn good thing I don’t carry a firearm; at this point, that voice might have provoked me into what any objective jury would hopefully have considered justifiable homicide.
I guess when all is said and done my bottom-line view is closer to the one that Casale expressed:
I think that the mere existence of this movie is a win for representation, and the writing also shows that care, research, and personal experience went into the portrayal of this Hanukkah story. Especially coming to this movie as someone who was raised Christian, there are plenty of things that may have felt unfamiliar, but that didn’t mean that as a viewer, I cared about them any less. After all, at the heart of Hanukkah on the Rocks is a story about community, tradition, and family, things that anyone can relate to. I’m glad to see Hallmark go for something outside of their usual Christmas story, and I hope that they will continue to do so in the years ahead!
I hope so, too. A lot more of my other friends need the work.
Until next time…