Christmas with the Campbells is a satire of Hallmark Christmas movies that’s 75% exactly a Hallmark Christmas movie. 25% of it is random lunatic asides and out-of-left-field sex jokes. It’s played stone-faced so it might take a few to realize they are taking the piss.

The film stars Brittany Snow, a photographer who gets dumped right before Christmas. The Exe’s parents ask her to come home for Christmas anyway… where she meets a country boy who she hits it off with.

The country boy is played by Justin Long pulling off an unconvincing deep voiced countrified accent. At first, it seems like he was wildly miscast as a rural lumberjack-type. But then I remembered this is a satire. He’s playing a character who is meant to be twice his size and rugged as all the outdoors while he looks like twiggy Justin Long. Am I laughing? No. Am I appreciative of the bit? Yeah, I guess?

And that noncommittal “yeah, I guess” runs through the whole movie. Oh, the townsfolk are gossiping and the gossip gets progressively more and more deranged and mean-spirited? OK… that’s a bit. The parents are really into sex… ok… oh, we’re keeping this bit going? OK… I guess that’s funny.

Otherwise it’s a pretty generic romantic Christmas comedy. Slice off the gags at the end of scenes and cut some of the extras, and you’d have the exact movie they are satirizing.

Probably I haven’t subjected myself to nearly enough Hallmark holiday movies to get all the jokes. I was probably missing a ton of call-backs and references to “classics” of the genre (if such a thing exists). Which is on me. Maybe if you are a hardcore Hallmark fan who can laugh at the gags, you might love this flick (or hate it for taking the piss).

Score: 74