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Hallmark is renowned for being equally predictable as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, although being less extravagant.
Online humor says that the central figure in Hallmark films is typically a career-driven someone who visits an old town for the holidays.
They meet an old flame there and are compelled to choose between their careers and their newly discovered love for the simple life.
In the end, they leave their professions.
Recently, two Hallmark films were singled out because their storylines were nearly identical.
The Sister Swap movies
Last year, Hallmark released two films: Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday and Sister Swap: Christmas in the City.
Real-life sisters Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Ashley Williams played the same roles in the Christmas-themed tales of both films.
The Sister Swap movies, which contained some of the same dialogue and scenes but different perspectives and angles, were edited by the same person, Kristi Shimek.
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Summaries
The plot descriptions for the Hallmark Christmas movies may be confusing to some due to how similar they are.
Sister Swap: A Hometown Holiday’s plot summary is as follows:
“Jennifer and Meg Swift are two sisters wanting to find a new sense of purpose.”
“During the Christmas holidays, they decide to swap homes and end up discovering what they both truly need in life.”
If you open a different tab and search for Sister Swap: Christmas in the City, the same synopsis will pop up.
Discovery
The 2021 Hallmark movies were discovered by Dan Harmon, the man behind Rick and Morty and Community.
He shared his discovery on Instagram and wrote:
“Okay. I don’t know how to start or finish discussing this so we should start discussing now and take our time,” wrote Harmon.
“There are two Hallmark movies called “Sister Swap.” One is called Sister Swap: Christmas in the City, the other is Sister Swap: Hometown Holiday.”
“So we thought oh cool it’s a franchise and there’s a sequel, which Sister Swap do we watch first? Well HERE’S THE THING. Both Sister Swaps are released in 2021.”
“They are not sequels.”
“Both Sister Swaps are the same story, about sisters – played by real sisters, who have to swap… cities.”
“It should be noted that the sisters AND the cities AND the MOVIES are, so far, indistinguishable. It’s not like one is a hillbilly and the other is a millionaire, that doesn’t matter, we don’t go to Hallmark for conflict.”
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“The crazy thing is that we also don’t go to Hallmark for experimentation on this level. Nothing in the description of the movie says “here’s the thing everybody.””
“The descriptions of each movie are honestly mostly excited that two real life sisters are playing sisters.”
“We found an article called “how to watch the Sister Swap movies” and got so excited and then it turned out to be instructions on how to find Hallmark on your streaming service.”
“I can’t keep talking about this, we just started watching, I can’t spend all night posting about it.”
“We keep going back and forth between the movies.”
“The same conversations are happening in each one but there’s no “Rashomon” or “Peep Show” angle, the dialogue in each version is identical but the scenes are cut differently because I assume they just had different editors.”
“In one of the movies, one of the sisters has a full flashback about her relationship with the other sister.”
“In the other sister’s movie, you don’t get a different version of the same flashback. You just don’t get a fucking flashback in that one.”
“In both movies, they spend 1 minute trying on hats but in ONE of the movies, they also try on glasses.”
“We’re freaking out and I can’t keep typing about it I will come back later i fucking love Christmas though.”
An explanation
More than 33,700 people liked Dan Harmon’s tweet, and in the comments, fans analyzed it and shared their own theories.
One user claimed that she and her partner had completely “fallen into the rabbit hole” after being inspired by his post to see the movies.
The movie’s lead actor, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, saw Harmon’s post and added, “HERE for this,” with laughing emojis.
Williams-Paisley explained:
“We wanted to do something outside the box for the genre but also stay in the genre, and my sister came up with this brilliant idea of two films that take place in the same time frame and sometimes overlap.”
“[And] it took us years to figure out the puzzle, and then, Hallmark finally let us DO IT.”
The explanation provides a unique viewpoint on the direction, and the Sister Swap movies’ unusual style will probably help them gain a huge cult following.
Reference:
Hallmark is being mocked for releasing two nearly identical Christmas movies
