Movie Review: Love, Lights, Hanukkah!

Rating:

 4.5/5

There is little to kvetch about here folks! My Jewish heart was filled with this movie! Ben Savage, who I will always remember as Cory Matthews from Boy Meets World, makes a perfect match with Mia Kirshner.

Mia plays Christina, a woman who’s adopted mother recently died, so she decides to take a DNA test and discovers she’s 50% Jewish.

Through the test, she also finds she has a close relative. The relative, Becky, and her exchange messages and she agrees to meet Becky and her brother Scott at their restaurant.

While at the restaurant, Christina meets David Singer, a restaurant critic who rated her lasagna as forgetful and predictable. Christina gives him a hard time for the review, but Becky tells her he’s a good guy.

While at the restaurant Becky invites Christina to dinner to meet their mother, Ruth. At dinner, we all find out Ruth is Christina’s mother.

Ruth was briefly married to an Italian, Giorgio but had the marriage annulled and discovered she was pregnant when she returned home. Unable to care for the infant, she gave her up for adoption.

You’ll have to watch the movie to find out what happens after that, but let’s cover my two cents 😉

I initially struggled with the DNA testing results. Christina finds out she’s 50% Jewish and her first concern is how she’ll celebrate Jewish holidays? I didn’t understand this reaction. I’m not sure what my first thought or concern would be, but focusing on the Jewish holidays was odd to me.

However, I majorly applauded her for wanting to reach out to Becky and discover that relationship. I also loved how open and welcoming Becky and Scott were to Christina. They didn’t know her that well, but they welcomed her into the family immediately.

Even Ruth welcomed Christina before she realized who she was. I think they even invited Christina to join them in celebrating Hanukkah with them prior to them realizing who she was.

Speaking of Hanukkah…Lets talk about the Hanukkah traditions! Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel I made you out of clay…Did you see all the dreidels in the movie!! OMG! They were so beautiful! From the opening scenes, to seeing Ruth’s whole collection, they were mesmerizing. I’ve never thought about having a dreidel collection, but I might need to start one. You can see some of them in the picture below.

Beyond the dreidels, I loved how they explained the miracle of Hanukkah, what each candle’s purpose was, and taught Christina the candle lighting prayer. It was hilarious hearing her trying to say “Baruch,” and David saying she needed to do it with more phlegm. I had to tell my kids the same thing this year! My husband is a lost cause. I think he’ll always say “Baruck.” LOL. It’s okay, he tries!

The kids love lighting the candles and saying the prayer. They also love eating potato latkes! I added some pictures of our latkes and menorahs below.

I got a kick out of Scott’s 8 crazy latkes. His recipes were so creative! I’m not so sure chocolate latkes would have been a good idea, but I would have tried them 😀 Plus Christina learning to cook them with her mom. Awww…so sweet!

All this talk of Hanukkah and I totally forgot to talk about Christina and David! They were adorable. Christina’s animosity over the lasagna review was short lived, but funny, because everyone talked about it. Plus, Christina’s mom was such a nudnik and kept prying and poking at the two of them to get together. It reminded me of every Jewish mom I’ve seen portrayed in movies/tv.

Overall, this was a cute and funny movie. I appreciated the Jewish traditions they kept alive plus the addition of the Christmas party and angel statue at the end to honor Christina’s adoptive mother. That statue was seriously beautfiul!

I hope you watch this so you can hear the 1-2 dozen different ways David says goodbye. Arrivederci, ciao, aloha, sayonara, adiós, au revior! Happy movie watching y’all! Hasta la vista 😂

Movie Review: Love, Lights, Hanukkah!

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