Back to trending
The Birthday Wish

The Birthday Wish

TV Movie · Romance · 2017

A woman expecting to get engaged on her all-important 30th birthday gets a different surprise after she makes her birthday wish: a glimpse into her future – which doesn’t resemble anything she’s ever imagined for herself.

Movie details

The Birthday Wish

2017 TV Movie · Romance 1h 24m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.0 / 10

Community rating

A woman expecting to get engaged on her all-important 30th birthday gets a different surprise after she makes her birthday wish: a glimpse into her future – which doesn’t resemble anything she’s ever imagined for herself.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Birthday Wish?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

A Wish Come True

A Wish Come True

TV Movie · 2015

On the night of her 30th birthday, Lindsay Corwin, an unlucky environmentalist with a string of bad relationships, decides to make the ultimate wish: for all of her birthday wishes to come true. When her nearly three decades of wishes, including everything from losing weight to meeting Mr. Right, start magically coming true all at once, Lindsay is awestruck—until she realizes the life, and the man, she’s always wished for might not be the one she really wants.

A Wedding for Christmas

A Wedding for Christmas

TV Movie · 2018

Haley Foster built a big city life in Los Angeles as a top wedding planner at an elite and powerful company run by Ms. Reynolds. When her sister, Angela, insists on getting married Christmas Day on the tree farm in their old hometown of Truxton, Haley is resigned to make her sister’s dreams come true and her parents happy.

Summer Love

Summer Love

TV Movie · 2016

Maya Sulliway is a struggling single mom who's studying to become an accountant. When her young daughter goes off to sleepaway camp, Maya accepts a summer internship at Kizzmit, a tech company known for developing a popular social app, in order to receive college credit.

Moonlight in Vermont

Moonlight in Vermont

TV Movie · 2017

After fast-paced New York City high-end real estate broker Fiona Rangely gets dumped by her boyfriend, she escapes to her family’s quaint Vermont Inn for a few days to slow down and evaluate her life. When her ex-boyfriend Nate shows up at the Inn with a brand new girlfriend, Fiona quickly devises a plan to win him back: pretend the handsome and very laid- back head chef Derek is her new boyfriend! Much to the surprise of Derek --and to Fiona herself-- in pretending to be in love, she realizes that she’s been thrown a curveball: sometimes the best things in life are worth the wait.

Love in the Sun

Love in the Sun

TV Movie · 2019

When successful dating app creator Alana hesitantly gets engaged, she returns to her hometown in Florida to deliver the news to her dad. Upon returning home, she crosses paths with her former flame, Kai, and finds herself falling in love with the fun and adventurous lifestyle tied to her community. As Alana and Kai work together to help her dad restore his declining property, Alana finds herself conflicted as to whether or not her current way of living makes her happier than the home and community that she always knew and loved.

Merry & Bright

Merry & Bright

TV Movie · 2019

Cate, CEO of the Merry and Bright Candy Cane Company, meets Gabe during the busy Christmas season. She assumes Gabe is the suitor her well-meaning mother is trying to set her up with when in reality, he works for Empire Corporate Recovery, which has been hired to take a closer look at Merry and Bright's operation and find ways to make the company more profitable. As Cate and Gabe begin to work together, they find ways to elevate the business and find that they have more in common than savvy business sense.

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby

A Christmas Prince: The Royal Baby

Romance · 2019

Christmas brings the ultimate gift to Aldovia: a royal baby. But first, Queen Amber must help her family and kingdom by finding a missing peace treaty.

Once Upon a Prince

Once Upon a Prince

TV Movie · 2018

Susanna gladly accepts help one day from handsome stranger Nate at her parents’ garden store in small-town Georgia. Sparks between them fly, but when a photo of them gets leaked to the press, Susanna is in for the shock of her life when Nate is called back home by his mother… For his coronation as the King Nathaniel of Cambria!

One Starry Christmas

One Starry Christmas

TV Movie · 2014

An aspiring astronomy professor finds unexpected Christmas romance when she meets a charming cowboy during her holiday travel. As she decides between this new cowboy and her practical boyfriend, she must decide whether it's better to play it safe in love, or let an adventurous cowboy steal her heart.

A Royal Christmas

A Royal Christmas

TV Movie · 2014

A young working girl with a blue-collar background is surprised when her new fiancé announces he is actually a prince of a small sovereign country in Europe. After the couple quickly takes off to spend the holidays at his family’s sprawling, royal castle, she must work hard to win over her disapproving and unaccepting future mother-in-law—the Queen—and find out if love truly can conquer all.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Peter DeLuise

Written by

Julie Sherman Wolfe

Jessy Schram

Jessy Schram

Gwen Turner

Luke Macfarlane

Luke Macfarlane

Dave McKinley

Marcus Rosner

Marcus Rosner

Alex

David James Lewis

David James Lewis

Bruce

Cardi Wong

Cardi Wong

Greg

Derek Green

Derek Green

Charles

Drew Ray Tanner

Drew Ray Tanner

Kian

Court is in session

Put The Birthday Wish on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.