by Linda Kay

Starring: Jonesy

Directed by: Lucie Guest

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Yuletide love blooms right on schedule in this new Hallmark Christmas film. Marketing executive Olivia Pierce (Erin Cahill) has found the perfect condo which is sadly over her price range. Lo and behold her Aunt Esther (Frances Flanagan) has died and left her half ownership in a cat café, the sale of which will cover the condo down payment. The hitch? The other half of the café is owned by hunky veterinarian and all around philanthropist Ben Kane (Paul Campbell) who does not want to sell. Will Olivia have a change of heart before selling out the adoptable kitties?

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers) and Cat Cattle Call: After traveling from San Francisco to the small upstate New York town of Felicity, Olivia enters the Catnip Café and sits near a longhair ginger tabby cat who growls at her. Barista Frank (Ian Collins) tells her the cat, whose name is Gingerbread, is naturally grumpy.

Olivia meets Ben, who’d caught her eye earlier in the window of the veterinarian’s office, and they greet each other. Holly, the ginger and white tabby cat Ben is holding, also offers a paw for shaking.

The conflict arises when Olivia explains that she wants to sell her half of the café and Ben has no legal recourse except to delay. He explains that the café has several Christmas themed events to fulfill and he wants to complete them to honor Esther’s memory. Olivia agrees to help with the events if Ben promises to sell the café by Christmas. A gorgeous nearby kitty seems concerned with the conversation.

Ben is certain that once Olivia gets to know the small town she will change her mind. “And we have cute cats to disarm her,” he adds.

Many scenes take place in the cat café, of course, so kitties are often used as establishing shots or are shown being held be various people.

One tabby and white cat named Snowball is loved by a little boy named Joshie (William Carson) who is awaiting adoption himself.

There are also flashbacks to scenes with Olivia as a little girl (Mila Morgan) staying with her Aunt Esther and finding a ginger and white tabby kitten named Noel. Eventually Noel is adopted by Esther and turns out to be the inspiration for her opening the cat café.

Olivia helps with the various events which include a Sock Puppet Show, Merry Catmas Storytime, the Merry Mistletoe Market and a Pajama Movie Night (where the opening to a roughly animated intro to a film called Sassy Cat Saves Christmas is viewed).

There is also a brief appearance by Dr. Marilee White (Kimberley Sustad) who was the main character in both The Nine Lives of Christmas and The Nine Kittens of Christmas which serves no purpose whatsoever except to be a cute cameo.

During these holiday events Ben and Olivia seem to be growing fond of each other, so Ben is surprised when Christmas arrives and Olivia still wants to sell the café. On her way driving out of town, Olivia stops at a gas station and meets a mechanic (Tim Perez) and his pet flame point cat Guy. He explains he adopted the cat from Esther’s café and Olivia takes this as a sign.

Olivia finally realizes the legacy her aunt has left is very important to the town and returns during the big Christmas party. But Ben has already signed the paperwork to sell. However, the lawyer (Darren Dolynski) falls for the brown Devon Rex tabby cat named Tinsel and agrees to rip up the contract in the spirit of Christmas.

Not only do Olivia and Ben fall in love, but Olivia also adopts Gingerbread who growls when the couple are ready to kiss.

Behind the Scenes

The animal trainer on the film was Grace MacLeod. One member of the kitty cast is quite famous already: Jonesy plays Tinsel, the beautiful brown tabby Devon Rex who is currently co-starring on the series Wild Cards and also appeared in Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie. We’ll be covering Jonesy in more detail in a future review.

In an interview with TV Fanatic, Ian Collins, who plays Frank, explained that production found the cats through a company which trains cats especially for movies:

    “The cat that I hold often is a pretty famous cat,” Ian explained. She apparently just got off a movie with an A-list actor, and she’s also on a show called Wild Cards. Jonsey was amazing … the eyes on that cat. I could not stop taking photos of it. There was a lot of really cute cats — an orange baby cat that was really playful and fun. The cats were honestly amazing every day. I don’t know how they put up with us constantly going, ‘Aww … look at this kitty!'”

Erin Cahill told Southern Living that she also had a special bond with Jonesy and they would sometimes hang out in the bathroom together when they both needed a break. “He was one of my favorites,” she said. “I had a whole photo shoot with Jonesy.”

The actress also explained on WKRN News 2 during an interview how amazed she was when the cat actor offered their paw to her to shake during every single take of that scene.

Co-star Paul Campbell had his own observations which he shared with Southern Living:

    “I didn’t realize is there’s different cats that do different things,” he said. “They all have sort of different skill sets. And that grumpy one, he won’t want to do a damn thing. He’s like, ‘Here’s what I do. I sit here and I look grumpy.’ There were so many things scripted that that cat was supposed to do that it did not do, which was also really funny.

    “And and then there was a couple kittens that were just like, ‘get me out of here. What are we doing?’ These cats do not want to be in your arms. They just want to go play with their buddies. It is really funny to sort of try and work around them and probably what you see in the movie is us doing a pretty good job, but those were singular takes where maybe that cat was maybe just about to fall asleep.”

Final Mewsings: She could have just adopted all the cats and bought her condo and had a cat condo instead.

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