Part One: When Christmas Arrives at Exactly the Right Moment

There is something especially comforting about a Christmas romance that begins with a life that is not going according to plan. Before the decorations are hung, before the snow-covered scenery settles in, and before romance has even entered the picture, there is usually a character who needs to stop, breathe, and reconsider what truly matters. The Christmas Retreat understands that feeling beautifully.

Released in 2022, the holiday romance stars Rhiannon Fish as Kim Jones and Clayton James as Mark. The film was made for UPtv rather than Hallmark, and its central premise immediately gives it a different emotional flavor: Kim is a workaholic whose boyfriend breaks up with her instead of proposing, prompting her mother to take her to a Christmas retreat. There, Kim meets Mark, the retreat owner’s recently unemployed brother, who has plenty of his own reasons to rethink the direction of his life.

That setup works because the movie is not really about a woman searching for a new man after heartbreak. It is about someone being forced to slow down long enough to discover that the life she has been chasing may not be the life she actually wants.

Kim begins the story with a very recognizable problem. She has become so focused on work, achievement, and the next milestone that she has allowed the present moment to disappear. Her relationship suffers because of it, and the sudden breakup becomes the interruption she never would have chosen for herself.

Christmas, however, has a way of turning interruptions into opportunities.

The retreat becomes more than a picturesque holiday destination. It gives Kim the rare chance to step away from the routines that have defined her. Without the constant pressure of her professional life, she has to confront parts of herself that are easier to ignore when she is busy. That emotional reset is one of the movie’s most appealing ideas.

It is also what makes the romance feel more satisfying. Mark is not simply introduced as the perfect Christmas love interest who magically solves Kim’s problems. He has his own struggles. The story describes him as newly unemployed, and he shares some of Kim’s work-driven tendencies.

In other words, they recognize something in each other that neither is initially eager to admit.

That is where the film finds its charm.