She's Making a List
Writer: Joey DePaolo
Director: Stacey N. Harding
Cast: Lacey Chabert, Andrew Walker, Cadence Compton, Steve Bacic, Louriza Tronco, BJ Harrison, Alessandro Miro
Lacey Chabert (Hallmark's reigning queen of Christmas) plays Isabel, a high-ranking inspector for Santa's Naught or Nice Group. What's N&N? Why, it's the corporation that Santa outsources his naughty and nice lists because it got to be too big of a job for the elves to handle. Isabel, who is a human being, has the job of spying on children, feeding info to the NNHQ, and passing judgment on whether or not the kid gets a lump of coal or not.
... I swear, it's a lot more lighthearted than it sounds.
Anyway — Isabel's current case involves a young girl named Charlie (Compton) who's really straddling the line between naughty and nice. The case is further complicated when Isabel literally bumps into Charlie's dad (Hallmark's Christmas king Andrew Walker). That's a big no no. Also, going on a date with a case's dad is a no no. But, well, you know where this is going! It wouldn't be a Hallmark movie if the lead characters adhered to norms, even the norms of a reality wherein Santa Claus is real.
Home for the Holidays: We spend a lot of time at Naughty or Nice HQ, which is apparently in Delaware (Mrs. Claus is a proponent of WFH). And if all of this sounds complicated — it is. There are a lot of rules and regulations (kinda the point of the movie), but our girl Isabel cuts through all the ritual and rigamarole by talking directly to the audience. It's a nice, if very necessary, conceit that immediately makes She's Making a List stand out from the regular Hallmark fare.
'Twas the Night Before This Movie: How does Isabel embark down this unique career path? Don't worry, it's explained via flashback. And who founded the Naughty or Nice Group? We hear that story, too, delivered via CEO Rudolph (not that Rudolph). Unlike pretty much every other Hallmark holiday movie, this one needs extended info dumps because, wow, this movie has a concept.
They Brought Presence: Okay, the Santa in this movie is hot, right? I mean, if you're a gay man who's into bear-ish, bearded men (so, me), Santa's already on the hot list. But this Santa, who wears modern clothes and has a trim haircut yet maintains that twinkle in his eye? Dax Belanger needs to be Santa in a movie every year.
Ho Ho Ho: I'm giving this award (it's an award this time, sure) to Alessandro Miro (The Santa Class), who plays the hyper charismatic, very Italian "reader" Giuseppe. He steals every scene he's in and, while he's a quasi-antagonist, you still love him.
Exactly as Advertised: I mean, Isabel is literally making a list. She's making the list. The most important list of the holiday season. It's her list.
This is a weird one, and I tend to root for the weirder Hallmark movies. And by putting two A-listers like Chabert and Walker in the lead roles, Hallmark clearly wants to expand the definition of a Hallmark holiday movie. This movie has way, way more in common with The Santa Clause and Elf than it does the typical cable romance, evidenced by the plot and also the budget. There's actual thoughtful production and set design going on here, as the movie establishes what the Christmas lore looks like in this reality.
Just ... don't think too hard about that Christmas lore. Leave that to the crew members, because all the exposition scaffolding propping this movie up can fall apart with the slightest touch. Like, it is wild that there's an entire company dedicated to giving "problem children" coal — actual coal — for Christmas. Andrew Walker gives a monologue towards the end of the movie that really sells how messed up that is, and it's a great bit of acting from Walker.
The problem is, the rest of the movie is so much fun! It's easy to forget that it takes place in a world where I guess everyone knows Santa Claus is a real living, breathing being? How else is nearly every parent on Earth explaining the lumps of coal that pop up under the tree some years? And yeah, I'm saying "nearly every parent" because kids seem to be on the naughty list by default.
I keep trying to put my finger on what doesn't work about She's Making a List, and I keep coming back to Sugarplummed, last year's high-concept Hallmark movie. For one thing, I didn't clock an undercurrent of cruelty in Sugarplummed, unlike this movie (the CEO of Naughty or Nice Group would fit right in on Selling Sunset, and that's not a compliment).
Another thing: I think She's Making a List is actually hurt by having this much star power. Lacey Chabert and Andrew Walker are so synonymous with the very formula that She's Making a List is eschewing that it's hard to see them on screen and accept that anything other than a traditional romcom is happening. That's not to say the performances are bad. Far from it! But I wonder how this movie would've fared with actors that don't come with so much holiday baggage.
Still, the premise is very original and totally bonkers, and the budget is there (for the most part). It's definitely worth checking out, just to experience what is quite possibly the oddest Hallmark movie of 2025.
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