Hallmark Fake Relationship Movies

Ranked by IMDb average rating, drawn from the films our database flags with the fake-relationship trope.

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   New Year's Wish

   2015 · 85 min★ 8.4

   The highest-rated here at 8.4, from the When Calls the Heart world. As Hope Valley rings in the new year, Rosemary spins a whopper of a lie that she and Lee are married, all to impress a visiting big-city reporter. The fake marriage is one thread in a busy, beloved ensemble piece (Erin Krakow, Lori Loughlin, the full bench). The show plays the ruse for both comedy and heart, and the warmth is total. A treat for series fans, and a cozy place to start if you've somehow never visited Hope Valley.

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   When Calls the Heart

   2014 · 43 min★ 7.9

   The pilot that launched Hope Valley, rated 7.9 across nearly 16,000 votes, by far the biggest audience on this entire list. Elizabeth Thatcher trades a wealthy life back East to teach in a frontier mining town. The fake-relationship strand surfaces through the town's tangle of secrets and pretenses, including the marriage fibs that run through the wider arc. Mostly, though, this is a sweeping introduction to a much-loved universe: period charm, slow-burn romance, the start of everything. A natural place to begin.

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   Love Comes Softly

   2003 · 88 min★ 7.3

   The classic prairie marriage of convenience. Katherine Heigl's newly widowed Marty strikes a flat-out practical arrangement with a grieving widower (Dale Midkiff): a roof for the winter in exchange for mothering his daughter. Rated 7.3 across more than 7,000 votes. The fake marriage starts as pure survival and turns into something neither of them planned for, in the cracks of a hard season. Real grief, frontier hardship, no rom-com gloss. The film that launched the Love Comes Softly saga, and foundational Hallmark.

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   Loving Leah

   2009 · 95 min★ 7.1

   A thoughtful outlier. Lauren Ambrose's Leah, an Orthodox widow bound by an ancient marriage law, enters a platonic 'roommate' marriage with her secular brother-in-law (Adam Kaufman) so she can finally chase her own dreams. Rated 7.1 across more than 3,800 votes, with Natasha Lyonne and Mercedes Ruehl. The arrangement is born of tradition rather than rom-com convenience, which gives it texture you rarely get in the genre. Tender and smart, and a genuine departure for the brand. One of the better watches on this list.

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   Christmas by Starlight

   2020 · 84 min★ 7.1

   Kimberley Sustad's Annie cuts a deal with a careless corporate heir (Paul Campbell): she'll pose as his legal counsel for a week to satisfy his father, if he halts the demolition of her parents' café. Rated 7.1 across more than 2,600 votes. The fake-professional ruse goes personal as they plan a Christmas fundraiser side by side. Campbell and Sustad have terrific, easy comic chemistry, and the save-the-café stakes give the pretending something to push against. A clever festive favorite.

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   Next Stop, Christmas

   2021 · 84 min★ 7.0

   Lyndsy Fonseca's surgeon Angie rides a magical commuter train back to 2011 and, among the choices she gets to revisit, keeps up a pretense or two while sorting out who she actually loves. Rated 7.0, with Lea Thompson and Christopher Lloyd. It's a high-concept time-travel romance with a clear Back to the Future wink, and the fake-relationship thread tangles cheerfully with a second-chance one. Inventive and a little goofy in the best way. A blast for the high-concept crowd.

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   Sealed with a List

   2023 · 84 min★ 7.0

   Katie Findlay's Carley quits after being passed over for the boss's lazy son (Evan Roderick), then ties her fate to his in a self-improvement pact with a pretend-couple edge. Rated 7.0. The arrangement starts transactional, she teaches him responsibility, he pushes her toward her dreams, and warms from there. There's a New Year's resolution list and a chaotic method-actor Santa in the mix. A slightly screwball holiday charmer about earning your own way rather than coasting on someone's name. Light and likable.

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   An Unexpected Christmas

   2021 · 83 min★ 6.9

   Bethany Joy Lenz and Tyler Hynes in a comedy of errors: Emily is sent to her ex's hometown for work, and his family assumes the two of them are still together, a misunderstanding nobody rushes to correct. Rated 6.9 across more than 3,000 votes. So the fake relationship grows straight out of an awkward assumption, with a real second-chance pull humming underneath. Hynes and Lenz are a delight and the comic energy stays high. A fun, slightly farcical holiday rom-com.

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   A December Bride

   2016 · 86 min★ 6.8

   Jessica Lowndes's Layla is dreading her cousin's wedding to Layla's own ex-fiancé when an acquaintance (Daniel Lissing) impulsively announces they're engaged. Rated 6.8 across more than 3,700 votes. The fake engagement, blurted out as a toast, snowballs into a web of lies that conveniently flatters both their careers. It's a fake-relationship and December-wedding blend with a festive glow, charming and a little soapy and unmistakably holiday. A reliable cozy crowd-pleaser.

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    Write Before Christmas

    2019 · 84 min★ 6.8

    Torrey DeVitto and Chad Michael Murray anchor a chain-reaction story: dumped before Christmas, Jessica sends five cards that ripple out through several lives. Rated 6.8 across more than 3,700 votes. The fake-relationship beat is one strand in an ensemble of reconnections, including a band reunion and a music teacher's son. It's gentle, multi-thread, and big on the power of small gestures. Sweet and a touch sprawling, the sort of movie you put on for a low-key December night and let unfold.

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    Mingle All the Way

    2018 · 86 min★ 6.8

    Jen Lilley's Molly builds an app that pairs busy professionals for strictly platonic holiday-party plus-ones, then has to test it herself, and gets matched with a man (Brant Daugherty) she's already clashed with. Rated 6.8 across more than 3,200 votes. The whole premise is a fake-date machine, with a business investment riding on the founder's own love life. Modern, charming, and a smart spin on the trope. A fun watch for anyone who's ever dreaded the 'so, are you seeing anyone?' question at a party.

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    Snow Bride

    2013 · 84 min★ 6.7

    Katrina Law plays a tabloid reporter sent to dig dirt on a wealthy family who, after her car dies in a snowstorm, is mistaken for a runaway bride and taken in by one of the sons (Jordan Belfi). Rated 6.7 across nearly 4,000 votes, with Patricia Richardson. She keeps up the ruse to land her scoop while falling for the very family she came to expose, guilt mounting the whole time. Wedding-dress-in-a-blizzard chaos and all. A fun, screwball fake-identity romance.

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    Surprised by Love

    2015 · 84 min★ 6.7

    Hilarie Burton Morgan and Paul Campbell star: Josie tries to convince her uptight parents to accept her current boyfriend, then finds herself falling for an old high-school flame instead. Rated 6.7 across more than 3,000 votes, with Tim Conway. The fake-relationship angle gets tangled with a second-chance spark, all under the pressure of family approval. Warm and easygoing, built on a family-expectations squeeze most people will recognize. A pleasant, lower-key charmer.

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    The Mistletoe Promise

    2016 · 84 min★ 6.6

    Jaime King and Luke Macfarlane play two self-declared 'Christmasphobes' who sign an actual legal contract to pose as a couple through the holidays. Rated 6.6 across more than 3,900 votes. She needs to fend off a manipulative ex, he needs to look like a family man for a partnership, and the literal contract is both the joke and the structure. Watching the cynicism crack as the season wears on is the whole point. Macfarlane is reliably charming. The definitive fake-relationship entry, terms and conditions included.

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    A Song for Christmas

    2017 · 84 min★ 6.6

    Becca Tobin's rising country star Adelaide hates the fake romance her label has manufactured for publicity, then ends up stranded incognito at a struggling Christmas tree farm. Rated 6.6, with Kevin McGarry. Here the fake relationship is the industry's PR fiction she's trying to escape, while a real connection grows under a pseudonym. It's authenticity versus image, with music and snow throughout, and a nice flip on the trope: she's running from the lie instead of into one. A cozy seasonal pick.

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    Anything for Love

    2016 · 85 min★ 6.5

    Erika Christensen and Paul Greene in a double-deception charmer: a real-estate exec and a nurse both lie about their jobs on a dating profile and fall for each other regardless. Rated 6.5 across more than 2,600 votes. She poses down to dodge fortune-hunters, he's been talked up as a doctor by a meddling friend, and the two fake identities collide when her father lands in his hospital. A tangled honesty-in-relationships romance with appealing leads. Breezy and fun once the lies start colliding.

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    Moonlight in Vermont

    2017 · 85 min★ 6.5

    Lacey Chabert's Fiona flees to her family's Vermont inn after a breakup, and when her ex turns up with a new girlfriend, she recruits the temperamental head chef (Carlo Marks) to pose as her boyfriend. Rated 6.5 across nearly 2,500 votes. The fake romance, hatched to spark jealousy, runs alongside a maple-syrup festival and a clash that's half enemies-to-lovers. Autumnal, scenic, and charming, a reliable Chabert vehicle built on a classic pretend-dating spine. Easy to put on and easier to finish.

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    Hitched for the Holidays

    2012 · 87 min★ 6.5

    Joey Lawrence and Emily Hampshire star: freshly single on Thanksgiving, Robbie and Julie answer an ad to be each other's holiday dates and keep their overbearing families off their backs. Rated 6.5 across more than 2,400 votes, with Marilu Henner. The ruse spirals through fake names and fabricated backstories, especially once a grandmother gets attached to the arrangement. An early, cheerful entry in the fake-dating canon, warm and family-centric. The kind of premise the genre has been happily reusing ever since.

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    Cranberry Christmas

    2020 · 84 min★ 6.5

    Nikki DeLoach and Benjamin Ayres play a separated couple who fake marital bliss on national television to boost their town's Christmas festival and their own business. Rated 6.5 across more than 1,200 votes. It's the trope flipped: pretending to still be together rather than pretending to start, with rekindled feelings muddying the act. Cozy, festive, and a little bittersweet, since the lie they're telling is about something they used to have for real. A nice variation for fans who like the formula turned inside out.

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    The Dancing Detective: A Deadly Tango

    2023 · 84 min★ 6.5

    Lacey Chabert's Detective Bailey goes undercover as a contestant in a high-stakes ballroom competition in Malta after a CEO is murdered on the eve of his corporate event. Rated 6.5 across roughly 1,000 votes, with Will Kemp. The fake identity is her cover for the investigation, and dancing shoulder to shoulder with the suspects keeps both the tension and the chemistry high. A glamorous Dancing Detective mystery with real international flair. Stylish and fun, and the culprit stays a secret here.

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    Holiday Date

    2019 · 84 min★ 6.4

    Dumped right before the holidays, aspiring designer Brooke (Brittany Bristow) recruits an actor she barely knows (Matt Cohen) to play the ex-boyfriend at her family Christmas. Rated 6.4 across roughly 2,000 votes, with Bruce Boxleitner. The arrangement gets a fun twist when her fake date turns out to be Jewish and has never celebrated Christmas, so the ruse opens into a Hanukkah-meets-Christmas culture swap. The deal is simple: sell the relationship for one holiday. The trouble, of course, is that he's nicer than the real ex ever was.

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    The Santa Stakeout

    2021 · 84 min★ 6.4

    Tamera Mowry-Housley and Paul Campbell play mismatched detectives who move into a festive neighborhood posing as newlyweds to stake out a heist suspect next door. Rated 6.4 across nearly 1,500 votes, with Joe Pantoliano. The fake marriage is strictly the cover story: caroling, potlucks, and forced couple-y behavior to keep the act convincing while they watch their man. Naturally the close quarters do their work. A breezy undercover-romance that leans into the comedy of two cops pretending to be madly in love. The case itself stays unsolved here.

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    When Love Springs

    2023 · 84 min★ 6.3

    Cornered by her ex at her parents' vow renewal, high-strung publicist Rory (Rhiannon Fish) blurts out that the B&B owner's son (James William O'Halloran) is her new boyfriend. Rated 6.3 across roughly 900 votes. The arrangement is a clean trade: he plays the perfect partner so she's not humiliated, she uses her PR skills to save his struggling B&B before a famous critic arrives. Two people performing a romance with a hard business deadline attached. A lake-set charmer that knows exactly what it is.

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    Wedding of a Lifetime

    2022 · 84 min★ 6.3

    A recently broken-up couple (Jonathan Bennett and Brooke D'Orsay) get nominated by their small town for a televised 'Wedding of a Lifetime' contest and decide to fake still being together rather than disappoint everyone. Rated 6.3 across roughly 850 votes. They're far too good at the act, mostly because ten years of real history is doing the work, and a string of autumnal challenges keeps throwing them together. The whole thing hinges on a single question: is the televised wedding for the cameras or for real? Sweet, second-chance-flavored fun.

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    Reunited at Christmas

    2018 · 85 min★ 6.2

    Nikki DeLoach plays a novelist who returns to her late grandmother's house for one last family Christmas, dragging along a romance she's not sure she wants to commit to. Rated 6.2 across nearly 1,500 votes. The fake-relationship thread runs quieter here than in most: this leans family drama, with divorced parents, a posthumous list of traditions to complete, and a heroine wrestling with a proposal she keeps dodging. The pretending is about appearances and avoidance more than a contract. A bittersweet, grief-tinged holiday watch.

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    Friends & Family Christmas

    2023 · 84 min★ 6.1

    Photographer Dani (Humberly González), buried under holiday events and a surprise parental visit, asks a lawyer (Ali Liebert) to pretend to be her girlfriend to get through it all. Rated 6.1 across nearly 1,500 votes. The arrangement is pure convenience at first, a way to manage the chaos and the questions, until the performance starts feeling unrehearsed. A warm, low-key Christmas romance that runs the fake-dating playbook with a likable pair and plenty of seasonal bustle. Easy comfort viewing.

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    Just for the Summer

    2020 · 91 min★ 6.1

    Childhood sweethearts Penelope (Hayley Sales) and Jason (Brant Daugherty) reunite at the family lake house and, to dodge their grandmothers' relentless matchmaking, agree to fake getting back together for the summer. Rated 6.1 across roughly 1,200 votes. The deal is defensive: pretend you're a couple so the meddling stops. The catch is that the old feelings never fully went anywhere. A sunny, no-holiday entry built on the most reliable version of the trope, with a 75th-birthday bash and a secret manuscript stirring the pot.

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    Wedding Season

    2023 · 84 min★ 6.1

    Cynical magazine assistant Trish (Stephanie Bennett) is assigned to write about being a bridesmaid in three weddings back to back, and gets paired with her best friend's globe-trotting photographer brother (Casey Deidrick). Rated 6.1 across roughly 750 votes. The fake-relationship beat grows out of needing a date for the whole wedding-industrial gauntlet. Her skepticism versus the relentless romance of it all is the friction. A tart, modern take for anyone who's ever been 'always a bridesmaid' and side-eyed the bouquet toss.

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    The Seven Year Hitch

    2012 · 88 min★ 6.0

    When his best friend of seven years gets engaged to a slick corporate climber, Kevin (Darin Brooks) digs up a common-law-marriage loophole to claim he and Jennifer (Natalie Hall) are already legally hitched. Rated 6.0 across more than 1,600 votes, with Frances Fisher and George Wendt. The fake marriage is a stalling tactic with a real certificate behind it, and she spends the film trying to make his life miserable enough to grant a waiver. A screwball best-friends-to-more setup with a genuinely silly legal hook at its core.

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    An Old Fashioned Christmas

    2010 · 88 min★ 5.9

    A period sequel to An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, set when Isabella and Tilly travel to Ireland hoping a long-ago suitor, the Earl of Shannon, can help get Tilly's writing published. Rated 5.9 across 500 votes, with Jacqueline Bisset. The fake-relationship and class-mismatch tensions play out among estates and aristocracy rather than the usual small-town fare. Quieter and more costume-drama than the modern entries on this list, and a curiosity for fans of Hallmark's Louisa May Alcott adaptations. A gentler, old-fashioned watch.

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    All Saints Christmas

    2022 · 84 min★ 5.9

    Grammy-winning R&B singer Lissette (Ledisi) is heading home to New Orleans when a misread photo turns her and her ex (Roger Cross) into a viral 'engagement,' so they agree to fake the rekindled romance to boost both their images. Rated 5.9 across roughly 500 votes. The arrangement is part PR rescue, part family-pleasing, with a rival journalist circling and a label sidelining her for a younger act. New Orleans traditions and real music give it texture. A fake-reunion romance with a soulful backdrop and a career-on-the-line edge.

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    #Xmas

    2022 · 84 min★ 5.8

    Interior designer Jen (Clare Bowen) enters a lifestyle-brand contest by inventing a flawless family online, casting her best friend (Brant Daugherty) as her husband and her baby nephew as her son. Rated 5.8 across roughly 1,350 votes. The lie balloons when she becomes a finalist and the brand insists on spending the holidays with the 'family' in person, forcing the charade into full-time, in-the-flesh mode. It's fake-relationship by way of influencer satire, poking at curated digital perfection. A timely, slightly chaotic Christmas comedy.

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    The Convenient Groom

    2016 · 84 min★ 5.7

    Celebrity dating expert Dr. Kate (Vanessa Marcil), whose whole brand is rigid relationship rules, gets publicly dumped during her own live-streamed engagement party, so her childhood-friend contractor (David Sutcliffe) impulsively steps in as the replacement groom. Rated 5.7 across more than 1,600 votes. The fake engagement is damage control for her reputation and a big book deal, played out through a wedding being planned for the cameras. The irony of the rules-obsessed expert finding love is messy is the whole point. A wedding-set charmer with a tidy premise.

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    All I Want for Christmas

    2007 · 86 min★ 5.6

    A ten-year-old enters a national video contest wishing for a new husband for his widowed mom (Gail O'Grady), and the winning entry vaults her into a televised romance with a wealthy bachelor. Rated 5.6 across roughly 1,200 votes. The manufactured relationship is corporate spectacle: a dating campaign with cameras, stakes, and a community center to save, while the man next door (the real best friend) waits in plain sight. A 2000s-era fake-romance with a kid playing matchmaker and a contest engine driving the lie.

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    This Magic Moment

    2013 · 90 min★ 5.5

    A Hollywood crew rolls into a small town and an Oscar-nominated star (Diane Neal) strikes up a very public 'romance' with a local video-store owner named, of all things, Clark Gable (Travis Schuldt). Rated 5.5 across roughly 450 votes. The fake relationship is her play to make her co-star ex jealous, and she nudges Clark toward his secret screenwriting dreams in return. Two people using each other's spotlight for different ends. A lighter, showbiz-flavored take with a fun central gimmick and a small-town heart.

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    Undercover Holiday

    2022 · 84 min★ 5.4

    Rising pop star Jaylen (Noemi Gonzalez) heads home for Christmas with a new bodyguard in tow, then tells her overprotective family the rigid ex-Navy SEAL (Stephen Huszar) is actually her boyfriend. Rated 5.4 across roughly 900 votes. The fake-dating cover is meant to stop her family worrying about the security scare that prompted the hire, and the by-the-book guard makes an unlikely pretend beau. Anonymous notes add a low thriller hum. A holiday romance built on the bodyguard-and-the-star setup, played warm and easy.

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    Family Plan

    2005 · 85 min★ 5.4

    Career-driven marketing exec Charlie (Tori Spelling) lies about having a husband and daughter to impress a family-values-obsessed boss, then hires a struggling actor (Jordan Bridges) and borrows a friend's kid to sell it. Rated 5.4 across roughly 800 votes, with a young Chloe Grace Moretz. The fake family spirals when the boss moves in next door, forcing a round-the-clock charade. It's the full fake-relationship-plus-fake-child farce, all maintained at home under constant surveillance. A broad, sitcom-y romp from Hallmark's mid-2000s era.

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    Confessions of a Christmas Letter

    2024 · 84 min

    Angela Kinsey plays an eccentric matriarch determined to win her town's Christmas-letter contest, so she hires a novelist (Alec Santos) to ghostwrite the entry, only for a mixup to spark gossip that he's engaged to her daughter Lily. Rated as one of Hallmark's 2024 releases, with Brian Baumgartner. The whole family then plays along with the fake-fiance misunderstanding, which is the trope in its most chaotic group-improv form. Kinsey is a delight, and the holiday-letter framing is a clever hook. Warm, funny, and a little unhinged.

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    A Carol for Two

    2024 · 90 min

    A 2024 Christmas romance about an aspiring Broadway performer, Violette (Ginna Claire Mason), who arrives in New York only to have her tour collapse before it starts and takes a job at a restaurant while growing close to a playwright-server (Jordan Litz). The fake-relationship strand comes through a misguided scheme that complicates everything just as the holidays peak. Theater-kid energy, a stranded-at-Christmas setup, and a heroine finding her voice. A musical-tinged entry for anyone who likes a little Broadway dreaming with their cozy.

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    The Christmas Charade

    2024 · 84 min

    Rachel Skarsten plays a cautious librarian, raised by home-security experts, who lands in an undercover FBI operation after a blind-date mixup and has to pose as the girlfriend of a special agent (Corey Sevier). A 2024 release, with Cynthia Dale. The fake-girlfriend cover puts a risk-averse bookworm in the middle of a real-life caper she is wildly unequipped for, which is most of the fun. It's fake-relationship by way of spy comedy, with a Christmas wrapper. A light, plot-forward holiday adventure.