Comparison of Easter Romance Movies

Easter-themed romance films are relatively rare compared to Christmas romance movies. I know of only 1 theatrically-released and 4 made-for-tv romance movies centered around Easter.

Since there's so few, I've watched them all and found a pattern of consumerism and poor labor politics. If they have a good plot about the meaning of Easter, then tend to have a poor romance, and if they have a good romance, then there's little Easter content. I'm not sure an Easter romance movie can work based on this paltry selection.

Quick Summary

1. The Blessing Bracelet - 1.5 hour long advertisement for bracelets sold at Hallmark.

   
   

2. Just in Time - A couple who should have gone to therapy ages ago spend time apart on Easter which helps their marriage and faith in God.

   
   

3. Easter Parade - Revue musical that starts and ends with the NYC Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival.

   
   

4. An Easter Bloom - The male love interest is doing a bad televangelist impression and there's horrible greenscreen effects, but the story centers faith, Easter, and forgiveness, so it's a mixed bag.

   
   

5. Easter Under Wraps - If Marco Rubio wrote an Easter movie to impress the ghost of Roger Ailes.

   
   

   

   
   

Comparative Essays

Consumerist Focus

Many popular holidays face criticism for becoming overly commercialized, shifting the focus from their religious meaning to shopping - and Easter-themed movies are no exception. Easter Parade and Easter Under Wraps make no mention of religion, presenting a completely secularized version of the holiday. The Blessing Bracelet does discuss religion, but is still heavily commercialized as the movie is a long advertisement for bracelets sold at Hallmark stores. A movie that revels in the spectacle of wealth like Easter Parade or one that uses religion to sell a product like The Blessing Bracelet are more money-oriented than I would like out of a themed holiday movie about the resurrection of Jesus, but at least they're not Easter Under Wraps.

Easter Parade starts and ends with a musical number about shopping for Easter clothes and never mentions religion. The film is still an enjoyable watch with the consumerist elements because it stars Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, and Ann Miller with music by Irving Berlin. As a revue musical, it's skits stuck together with the barest of threads. In fact, the plot of a ballroom dancer trying to train a cabaret singer to get back at his former partner who left him to star in Ziegfeld's Follies is already more plot than usual. Irving Berlin gives us 2 Easter songs. One is an Easter shopping song, "Happy Easter," that includes a drum-and-tap dancing solo from Astaire as a way to convince a child to give up a stuffed animal bunny so he can purchase it instead. The other song, "Easter Parade" is about the NYC Easter Parade and Bonnet Festival. That song was written 15 years prior by Berlin for the revue As Thousands Cheer and it's enduring popularity is what inspired the musical. I'll be honest, I didn't know that was a real festival nor had I heard that song until this movie. However, everyone from Bing Crosby to Liberace has covered "Easter Parade." The other 27 songs in the musical barely connect. If you went into the movie expecting something more modern with a story about Easter, the film would be a shock. If you're used to something like Ziegfeld Follies and Royal Wedding, this movie will seem familiar. The element about Easter clothing bookending the movie made me roll my eyes, but I do love Fred Astaire and Judy Garland so I still enjoyed this film for what it was.

The Blessing Bracelet is inspired by the true story of Made As Intended bracelets sold by Hallmark, and the bracelets feature prominently in the movie. The bracelet is made up of four evenly-spaced pearls. The wearer is supposed to touch each pearl and acknowledge one thing they're grateful for until they complete a circle. The main character's life starts to improve once she starts wearing her bracelet, through the combined power of positivity and religion using a product sold by Hallmark.

The first Hallmark Easter movie was Easter Under Wraps. Hallmark has had a dedicated Spring seasonal programming block with spring-themed movies since 2016 so it's interesting it took until 2019 for an Easter movie. Bill Abbot was CEO of Hallmark Channel from 2009 to 2020. He has talked a lot about making sure his made-for-tv movies promote "family values" and Christianity, yet the sole Easter movie made under his tenure has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. Easter Under Wraps has no mention of prayer, church, or Jesus. Absolutely nothing. There's an Easter festival that has an egg hunt and a bunny song, but no religion. Everything about the movie is solely focused on increasing chocolate sales. A CEO who says he wants to promote Christianity but then makes a movie that's a secular ode to chocolate sales sounds like something out of a novel by Charles Dickens.

Poor Labor Politics

Notes on Casting

Reviews

An Easter Bloom (2024)

• IMDB rating: 6.2 out of 10 stars

  • My rating: 2 stars

  
  

• Synopsis: Amanda, a flower farmer, strives to save her family's farm after her father's death by entering a prestigious Easter floral competition while also working part-time at a cafe. Along the way, she meets Derrick, a local pastor who helps her rediscover hope and faith.

  
  

• Meet-Cute: I hated this meet-cute. The actor for the pastor is Canadian but is doing a Southern televangelist impersonation. When he meets the main character while ordering coffee at the cafe she works at, my stranger-danger alarm went off. The main love interest is deeply unsettling, the forced flirting is creepy. I'm not the only one with this feeling, the third ranked review on Letterbox mentions that "I'd look around to make sure I'm not alone." The screenwriter is a man, Michael Grimm, so I can't help but wonder if he's got a poor grasp on what's appropriate and the male director didn't clock it? Their later interactions are just as painful, in the end he doesn't seem to understand what is a raised garden bed.

  
  

• Religion: This movie really excels at the mentions of faith. We get talk of Christianity and Easter from the start, we get talk of people being involved in the church and the community it's formed. We also get information on the main character's slow loss of faith and the pastor trying to make his style fit what he thinks people want.

  
  

  The main character saw Christianity as something she practiced with her Dad and when he died, she lost it. This is really well reflected with the frost on the flowers, and when she starts to re-discover her faith, there is hope for their bloom. Also, the part of her father teaching her about praying as a kid and her re-learning prayer as an adult was well done.

  
  

• My Review: I wish I could this a better review as I thought the religious aspect was well-done. However, the romance element left a lot to be desired. There was some egregious green screen and weird sets so it wouldn't have been a perfect film with a different romance, but it would have been higher than 2 stars!

Just in Time (2024)

The Blessing Bracelet (2023)

Easter Under Wraps (2019)

Easter Parade (1948)

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Are there any other Easter romance movies that I missed? Which have you seen?