‘To Philly with Love,’ a new Hallmark movie, wants to be ‘National Treasure’ meets ‘The Notebook’

As a general rule, I only watch Hallmark movies of the holiday variety and I only watch them from the day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Eve, lest I give myself cavities from consuming all that sap.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in Philadelphia, it’s that rules are made to be ignored. I broke my Hallmark doctrine in 2024 when Christmas on Call, a Philly-set Hallmark holiday movie, premiered before Thanksgiving, and I broke it last weekend to watch To Philly with Love, a new Hallmark history-mystery romance set in our fair city.

What’s that, you didn’t see it? Maybe that’s because it premiered at 8 p.m. Saturday on the Hallmark Channel during the first Flyers playoff game in six years. Nobody in Philly saw this movie when it aired (even I had to DVR it).

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the made-for-TV film, especially since I knew this one wouldn’t have the high-intensity drama of a Christmas tree lighting ceremony or holiday bake-off. I’ll tell you what I did not expect though — a scene featuring the two romantic leads set at the President’s House site.

“Oh my God,” I wrote in my notes as I watched.

The best way I can describe this two-hour movie is if National Treasure and The Notebook had a mediocre baby and the Hallmark Channel was the doula. This is also, quite obviously, Hallmark’s attempt to contribute to the nation’s 250th anniversary this year, which is not something I was aware anyone was asking for.

Our heroine, Emily (played by Rebecca Dalton), travels to Philadelphia to help clean out her recently-deceased grandmother’s house with her mom. Through a series of events, she reluctantly agrees to take on a research project her grandma was working on before she died involving love letters from a Revolutionary War soldier. Armed with the soldier’s letters, Emily sets out to find the missing response letters from his beloved.

While on her quest, Emily just moseys into the National Archives Philadelphia branch like she owns the place, asks to speak to an archivist, and is led to the chief one, our male lead, Nate (played by Stephen Huszar and not FOX29’s Mike Jerrick, as some people on Instagram thought after seeing the promotional poster).

Nate agrees to help Emily and together they discover secret messages hidden in the letters like they were Nic Cage. When decoded, the soldier’s letters take them to places around Philly on a hunt for the missing letters from the woman the soldier loved. Adventure, drama, and painfully extended looks of longing ensue. Emily and Nate stare at each other like Gritty stares into the void.

To its credit, this movie has more plot in the first 15 minutes than most Hallmark movies have in their entire run time. That’s not necessarily a good thing, though. Some folks on the HallmarkMovies subreddit (which I just discovered is a thing) said it was a bit of a slog, and I have to agree.

I watch Hallmark movies for the intricate plot lines like I watch Pixar movies for the jump scares. I want my Hallmark movies predictable to the point I don’t have to pay attention and I want the romance at the center of them to be a will-they-will-they one. There better not be any won’t they about it. I don’t come to Hallmark for broken hearts and story arcs.

Philadelphia looks lovely in the film, because it is (honestly I can’t believe every movie isn’t filmed here). There are lots of nice drone shots of the skyline and the parkway, as well as footage of LOVE Park and Elfreth’s Alley, but, predictably, nothing exists in this Philly multiverse beyond Center City and Old City.

In one scene, the lead characters are shown walking in front of Independence Hall and in another, they visit the Liberty Bell, which they have all to themselves (hahaha).

Hallmark shoots most of its movies in Canada (the Philly-set Christmas on Call was filmed in Winnipeg), so I questioned whether the actors were actually filmed at Independence National Historical Park, which requires a permit from the National Park Service, or if they were CGI-ed in. While representatives from the Hallmark Channel and NPS did not respond to my questions, Huszar, one of the film’s leads, posted some behind-the-scenes photos on Instagram and wrote that he filmed parts of the movie “in the historic streets of Philadelphia.”

And now we come to the only scene in a Hallmark movie that’s ever had me close to doing a spit-take, when Emily and Nate end up sitting inside of the President’s House site on Independence Mall while trying to decode one of the letters.

To be fair, it is one of the only places on Independence Mall with public seating, but to be frank, what were they thinking? The film doesn’t mention that the site traces the role of slavery in the founding of our country and memorializes the nine people enslaved by George Washington while he served as president in Philadelphia. It’s just a place for some white people to sit down and have a moment.

The scene feels particularly tone deaf given the absolute turmoil the historic site has gone through this year, with the Trump administration removing panels because it said they “inappropriately disparaged” the U.S. The people of Philadelphia responded with outrage, advocacy, and a lawsuit, and a judge later ordered the panels to be restored (some have, but the battle remains ongoing).

I can’t believe nobody at Hallmark thought “maybe we should cut this scene,” especially after the case made national headlines. People outside Philadelphia may not recognize or understand the importance of the site, but all of us here do.

“Where are all the Black people?” I wrote in my notes as I watched the film. “Maybe they were raptured?”

The cast is overwhelmingly white, considering the movie is set in a city where Black residents make up the largest racial demographic.

Also, not a single person appears to actually be from Philadelphia. Nobody has a Philly accent, which makes it especially strange when Nate corrects Emily to tell her the right way to pronounce water ice is “wooder ice” (wooder you even doing, Nate, go back to bed).

Of course the couple get “Philly cheesesteaks,” which they eat outside on a park bench, without making a mess. Listen, if your cheesesteak doesn’t require two hands and a table to give you a break from holding its weight, then it’s not from Philly.

I will, however, accept Emily’s declaration that the “Philly cheesesteak is the perfect sandwich” and Nate’s assertion later on that Philadelphia is “the most historical city in America.” Those are just facts.

The National Archives Philadelphia branch is a prominent setting in the film, but the exterior shots make it appear to be located in Center City, where it hasn’t been since 2014, when its collection was moved to to a warehouse on Townsend Road in the far Northeast.

The characters also go to the Arch Street Meeting House at one point, which is shown to be directly across the street from the Betsy Ross House. While the two historical sites aren’t far from one another, they are not on the same street.

And, I didn’t spot a single person in Eagles gear, which immediately broke my suspension of disbelief. You can’t walk down the street in Philly without passing at least a half-a-dozen people repping the home team.

That being said, I’m happy to report there wasn’t a single, pandering “Go Birds” in the entire movie (don’t say it if you don’t mean it). But as one Instagram commenter pointed out, Hallmark did miss the boat by not calling a Philly-set movie about love letters Dear Jawn.

To Philly with Love is streaming on Hallmark+ and will be rebroadcast on the Hallmark Channel at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, and at 10 p.m. Saturday, May 2.