Hallmark

Jen Lilley finds love in ‘Mingle All the Way’ on Hallmark Channel

By Melissa | December 1, 2018

Mingle All the Way treads familiar ground: workaholic woman with no time for romance seeks platonic date for the holidays so people will stop focusing on her singleness but ends up falling in love. We’ve seen this plot before, but this iteration digs a little deeper into the societal expectation that a woman can’t possibly be deemed “successful” if she isn’t in a relationship.

Our workaholic singleton is Molly Hoffman (Jen Lilley), creator of a new social media app – Mingle All the Way – that pairs busy singles with “strictly platonic” partners for all the social commitments of the holiday season. Because, obviously, being single during the holidays is such a huge character flaw, we must partner up or suffer pity, meddling, critique, even loss of career momentum.

That was sarcasm, but it’s also what a lot of people actually think.

I know Hallmark thrives by showing us how love and relationships add meaning and value to our lives, and they aren’t wrong, but recently I’ve noticed a teeny shift toward a depiction of love as one factor of a fulfilling life, not the be-all, end-all. (See also A Shoe Addict’s Christmas and Christmas Joy where the romance is secondary.)

So here we have Molly, identifying a need and creating an app to meet that need. It’s a brilliant idea and I really dig that she’s shown as smart, capable, insightful, and focused. Mingle All the Way has tremendous potential but limited funding, so Molly and her business partner, Tyler (Casey Manderson), are seeking funding. They have a potential investor interested – Helen Lange played by Rebecca Staab – who would like to see the app in action. Molly agrees to sign up and find a match to accompany her on what sounds like an endless round of holiday socializing.

To keep things as legit as possible, and serve the story, Tyler sets up her Mingle All the Way profile and she immediately gets a 94% match with a fellow named Jeff (Brant Daugherty).

But here’s the thing about Jeff: he and Molly already met, twice, and neither time went well. The first time they fought over a Christmas angel (it represents a lost family heirloom for both of them) and the second time Molly bumped into Jeff, causing him to drop handmade Christmas stockings on the ground. Not an auspicious start.

Jeff is also ambitious, single, and needs to mingle to win a promotion at his advertising agency. We find out that he’s lost his way a bit following a breakup and has a dudebro work rival named Brent who we instantly know is going to factor in later. Jeff loves his sister, brother-in-law, and niece, he loves Christmas, and he’s creative although at work he’s on the business side of advertising which he doesn’t enjoy.

Molly’s family situation is less warm and fuzzy. She desperately wants her mother’s approval, but her mother Veronica (Lindsay Wagner) doesn’t understand apps in a hilariously 2010-era bit of characterization. We know that Molly’s mother is the main problem here because she’s done away with Christmas traditions by having the mostly white, rather sterile house professionally decorated and going to Aspen with Molly’s father for Christmas. She relentlessly undermines Molly’s startup and campaigns for her to come back to work at the family accountant firm where Molly’s father, sister, and future brother-in-law all work. Yep, Molly’s little sister, Michelle, is getting engaged and that turns up the heat on Molly’s own relationship status. Mingle All the Way to the rescue!

After Jeff lets his sister create his profile on the app and he matches with Molly, the agree to meet for coffee before the first holiday party to see if the match will work out. Since neither of them is actually monitoring their own account, they know each other’s names but haven’t seen their match’s photo. Surprise! They’ve met and they don’t like each other!

After an initial “let’s call it quits” reaction, the pair decide to take their partnership to one party as a trial. Molly really needs this match to work for her investor, and Jeff is already a little bit interested in her plus he wants that promotion.

Did I mention that Molly is keeping her identity as the creator of Mingle All the Way a secret? And that her family thinks Jeff is her real boyfriend? That won’t cause problems later.

Next comes a series of holiday parties and outings that could be generic but actually serve to reveal more about Jeff and Molly to both the audience and to each other. Lilley and Daugherty have solid, PG chemistry as Molly and Jeff. They’re obviously attracted to each other but there’s an element of sweetness between them that’s also very appealing. Lilley’s Molly is skittish about entering into a real relationship, but Daughtery’s Jeff is so non-threatening that she is able to set aside her defenses and develop real feelings for him.

Before we get to the conflict and conclusion, let’s take a minute to recognize Lisa (Sandy Sidhu), Molly’s college bestie and a successful tech genius herself. She also uses Mingle All the Way because as brilliant and successful as she is, she recognizes that having a man by her side at social events will help her professionally. I mean, she actually says this, outright. And Molly’s all, yeah, thus the app. Remember, this is a Hallmark holiday movie straight up addressing this antiquated social norm. Not only that, any attempts to set Molly and Lisa up as professional rivals are repeatedly nixed. They are both vocally, visibly supportive of each other in public and private. At one point Jeff broaches the idea of rivalry, and Molly immediately shuts him down. It’s subtle messaging, but it’s there and is a continuation of updates in Hallmark’s “values” that I’ve been noticing over the past couple of years.

Back to Molly and Jeff and their happily ever after. Of course, there are a few additional stumbles. When dudebro Brent reveals Molly’s identity as Mingle All the Way’s creator, thereby exposing Jeff and Molly’s relationship as “fake” to the ad agency’s boss, Jeff is upset that Molly was using him. She correctly points out that they were using each other, which he rebuts by saying that he was always honest with her. He’s not wrong.

It’s really not a huge obstacle, all things considered, and one heartfelt speech from Molly is all it takes for reconciliation and a sweet-hot kiss under the mistletoe. Also, Brent’s reward for exposing Jeff and Molly’s relationship is a dressing down from the boss for throwing a colleague under the bus, so that was satisfying.

Because this is a Hallmark movie, we do get a happy ending but, again, with just the slightest shift in what “happy ending” means. Jeff wins the promotion – heading up the ad agency’s Los Angeles office – but turns it down in favor of a more creative role in the company and staying near his family and staying near Molly. Molly gets her much-needed investment and develops a better relationship with her mother and gets the guy. Even Tyler and Lisa end up together!

So far Mingle All the Way is near the top of the list of new holiday movies this season. Good chemistry, likable characters, a fresher twist on a familiar plotline, even a bit of self-awareness about the importance of love and relationships.

Additional highlights:

Mingle All the Way was co-produced by Jen Lilley. I hope Hallmark partners up with her for additional movies because she clearly knows what she’s doing.
Did anyone else think waltzing to “Silent Night” at Jeff’s client dinner was a little…weird? It’s a beautiful, poignant song, but is it romantic?
Molly is exhausted by holiday obligations. Relatable.
Jen Lilley’s makeup was gorgeous!
The amount of snow falling during the heart to heart between Jeff and his boss on Christmas Day was excessive. I kept wishing they’d just go inside.
Although set in the fictional city of Cedar Falls, Mingle All the Way was filmed in Vancouver, Canada.
Yep, that was Jen Lilley singing in the background! (see song list below)

Songs:

“Say All You Want for Christmas” by Nick Jonas and Shania Twain

“Tinsel Time” by Jen Lilley

“Jingle Bells Reprise” by Jen Lilley

Mingle All the Way premieres Saturday, December 1 at 8/7c on Hallmark Channel.

Get the full line-up of this year’s new holiday movies in our 2018 Holiday Movie Guide. And don’t forget to download your Holiday Movie Bingo cards!