November 13, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Tyler Russell
Culture Representation: Taking place in the U.S. state of Georgia, the dramatic film “The Christmas Ring” (based on the novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A widowed mother searches for a precious ring that has been a family heirloom for generations, and her search leads her to a jewelry store owned by a father and a son, who have very different intentions for the ring.
Culture Audience: “The Christmas Ring” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book on which the movie is based, and sappy romance movies that have low-quality filmmaking and unimpressive performances.
“The Christmas Ring” looks as authentic as a counterfeit trinket found at the bottom of a junkpile. This subpar, sluggish, and extremely predictable romantic drama belongs on the Hallmark Channel but instead was released first in cinemas as a blatant cash grab. This greed is the opposite attitude of what this treacly slog of a movie is preaching.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a predictable love story. But when it’s made into a fake-looking movie where the would-be couple has no convincing chemistry, and there’s too much cringeworthy acting from most of the cast members, it all becomes a time-wasting bore. There is absolutely nothing about this movie that has any spark of originality or compelling performances.
Directed by Tyler Russell, “The Christmas Ring” was co-written by Russell and Karen Kingsbury. The adapted screenplay is based on Kingsbury’s 2025 novel “The Christmas Ring.” The movie takes place in the Georgia cities of Marietta and Columbus. “The Christmas Ring” was actually filmed in Tennessee.
“The Christmas Ring” begins with voiceover narration from Vanessa Mayfield (played by Jana Kramer) with black-and-white footage re-enacting something that Vanessa says happened during World War II. Vanessa explains that a young U.S. Air Force pilot named Bill Bailey (played by Kyle Kupecky) was shot down in France during his World War II combat. Bill discovered a ring on the ground and kept it as a sign of hope that he would make it out of alive.
This antique ring has a gold band with diamonds encircling a ruby at the center of the ring. The ring has one word inscribed on it. It’s the most obvious word in a romance story, but the movie makes it look like finding out this one-word inscription will be a big mystery to solve. When the word is revealed, it’s done in a hokey way that is very underwhelming in this no-suspense story.
Bill made it out alive from World War II, and the ring became a family heirloom. Bill was also Vanessa’s great-grandfather. Vanessa is the widowed mother of a daughter named Sadie Mayfield (played by Megan Ashley Brown), who is in her late teens. Sadie is the only child of Vanessa, who lives in Columbus, Georgia. Sadie will soon be leaving home to attend her first year of college. Vanessa’s late husband Alan was a U.S. Army medic who was killed on duty three years ago.
Three years ago, after her husband died, Vanessa accidentally lost the family heirloom ring when she went skiing with Sadie. Vanessa says in the voiceover that losing this ring was one of the biggest mistakes she ever made. She’s been looking for the ring ever since. Vanessa has used the Internet for her search. But she’s also been looking for the ring in the old-fashioned way: by going to stores and shops in person to see if they have the ring.
One day, Vanessa is in Marietta, Georgia, when she goes into a store called Miller’s Antiques. The store is owned by widower Harold Miller (played by Kelsey Grammer) and his widower son Ben Miller (played by Benjamin Hollingsworth), who is about the same age as Vanessa. Ben has no children. Ben’s wife Clara died seven years ago. Harold’s wife died four years ago.
Vanessa meets Harold and Ben during this visit. The shop doesn’t have the ring that she’s searching for, but romantic sparks fly between Ben and Vanessa, who find out that they’re both widowed, and they flirt with each other. Vanessa and Ben exchange contact information and immediately start having a platonic friendship online and through phone conversations. This relationship stretches for five months into the Christmas holiday season, when most of the movie takes place.
With all these widowed people in this story, isn’t anyone divorced? Apparently not, because divorced people just don’t exist in this faith-based movie that’s obviously targeted to audiences who believe divorce is a stigma. Vanessa’s two best friends are also military widows: Leigh (played by Jessie James Decker) and Maria (played by Debbie Winans), who are this story’s version of a gossipy Greek chorus. Leigh and Maria gawk and giggle like teenagers when they talk about Vanessa’s inevitable romance with Ben.
The movie is filled with dreadfully dull dialogue that can put even the most die-hard romantic to sleep. Howard notices Ben’s attraction to Vanessa and says to him: “For what it’s worth, Ben, your mother and I always believed you’ll find love again.” Ben says with all the romantic enthusiasm of a worn-down pencil: “I’m starting to believe it.”
Vanessa is reluctant to tell Sadie about Ben because Vanessa says Ben is “just a friend.” Leigh and Maria don’t believe that Ben and Vanessa have only platonic feelings for each other. Sadie is busy at college and has a military boyfriend named Hudson (played by Austin Robert Russell), who is on active duty. Hudson is still alive because he and Sadie aren’t married. If you’re one of the main characters in this story, and you’ve been married, your spouse is now dead.
Meanwhile, the long-lost ring ends up at a certain store, where the ring is set to be sold for $25,000. Both of the store owners find out that the ring is Vanessa’s family heirloom. One of the store owners wants to sell the ring. The other store owner doesn’t want the ring to be sold and thinks it should be given back to Vanessa. Again: Don’t bother looking for any surprises in this drivel. It’s all so basic and uninspired, it’s really an insult to viewers’ intelligence.
There’s also a subplot about Vanessa being the president of a charity called Columbus Cares, which is having its big Christmas fundraising gala. In other words, this is an event where you know some type of spectacle will happen involving the story’s couple who are afraid to tell each other “I love you.” It goes without saying that Ben and Vanessa have a very chaste romance, so don’t expect anything sexual or scandalous to happen in this movie.
A too-long stretch of “The Christmas Ring” is Vanessa’s monotonous charade of trying to prevent Sadie from finding out about Vanessa’s relationship with Ben, even though you know that Sadie will eventually find out before Vanessa actually tells her. Sadie isn’t an underage kid who needs to be “protected” from the realities of her widowed mother dating someone. Sadie is an adult, but Vanessa seems to think Sadie is too young to handle knowing that Vanessa might have a boyfriend. It’s all so tiresome and corny.
And then there’s the typical romantic story cliché of one person in the couple who wants the relationship to be more romantically committed than the other person, which leads to tensions, arguments, and a probable estrangement. This conflict will then lead to a dramatic moment in the movie where true feelings are confessed. And you know the rest.
“The Christmas Ring” is obviously meant to be a heartwarming holiday romance story. But the story and the way this movie was made is so cynical and lazy in how it treats its audience like idiots, it’s likely to annoy some viewers who can see right through this uncreative sludge. People who want to get into the holiday spirit are better off doing something useful for a good charitable cause instead of wasting any time or money on this bland and lackluster movie.
Fathom Entertainment released “The Christmas Ring” in U.S. cinemas for a limited engagement from November 6 to November 20, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 28, 2025.
