2022, David Weaver (A Christmas to Remember) - Hallmark / Download
HERstory: Kerry's (Kimberly Sustad, The Nine Lives of Christmas) clothing store in the PST of Twelve Oaks, Colorado, is swimming in debt, and likely she will have to close by the new year. Meanwhile, a Hallmarkie production is in town to shoot "My Favourite Santa" starring Brad Baxter (John Brotherton, Fuller House), the King of Christmas -- a hammy, square jawed actor known for his holiday romcoms. Kerry is not impressed by Brad. But as plots have it, Kerry is drawn to the production when their costumer backs out for a Matt Damon movie. First they buy out her store (cough rent cough) and second, they ask her to come on set to be the costumer. Thus she gets stuck having to deal with Brad's smarmy square jaw, and that fucking painted on goatee. You see, in the movie (within the movie), Brad is Nick/Santa, and when in character, they paint some white on, to ... give the impression of a white beard? I was not sure if it was a self-effacing reference to low effort costuming in Hallmarkies or just a non-ironic terrible choice. Considering the low effort of the rest of this movie, I am going with the latter.
To be honest, I was bored and nodding off throughout most of the movie. Sustad, as Kerry, is a professional Hallmarkie actor and she was the only thing that kept me going. I was just not buying Kerry's attraction to Brad, and I am not sure the script was either, as it kept on redirecting to the secondary story line where the film's two producers (a divorced couple) are constantly bickering, but eventually see through their differences to reconcile. And the other plot element is that, since her store will still likely have to close (after the production abuses her returns policy), she is taking the confidence afforded her by how much the production loves her work, and applying to be a Big Designer in New Yorky ! Buuuuuut Brad is thinking about taking a movie offer in the UK, one outside his usual Holiday romcom fare, and asks Kerry to join him, as that movie's costumer. So, she turns down the offered designer job (WTF Kerry!?!) to join Brad, only to find out he turned down the film, as he wasn't ready to try a more serious role, which in turn scuttles her costumer job. She's hurt, they break up.
The other thing about this movie, is that most of it is done as flashbacks during the premiere of "My Favorite Santa" where we can see the palpable tension between Brad and Kerry. That said, this is a Hallmarkie so at the end, during the gala party for the movie, Brad apologizes profusely, realizing how much of an ass he was, and Kerry basically does a, "You had me at Hello" and they kiss and they live happily ever after.
Final scene; cringey wink from Kerry mocking Brad's signature holiday romcom wink.
The Formulae: Being all meta like, this movie surprisingly only touches on a few of the hallmarks (pun intended) of holiday romcom tropes. Of course, we are taking place in a PST, one Twelve Oaks, Colorado. We have a business that is in need of saving. We have a tree lighting ceremony! We have decorating! We have mugs held by two hands, and probably some hot coffee or hot chocolate in them. We have the aforementioned "sacrificing of career goals for love", which always annoys me.
Unformulae: Given that the movie wants to be on the set of the other movie as much as possible, we disappointingly don't get as many of Twelve Oaks Xmas-y moments as I would have liked. But the primary break from norms is that Kerry is the PST native, and Brad is from The Big City, a Big City we never even visit, and all his incentives for coming to said PST are totally legit; no being trapped here by work or snow storms or single roads into town. One the most lacking elements was a lacking of a Santa Clause. I didn't want to include the character Brad is playing the movie, despite that being the key plot of that movie.
True Calling? Yeah yeah, pun on Hollywood blah blah blah.
The Rewind: Honestly, it was the chuckle at seeing one of the outfits worn by Toronto's "Fashion Santa" used as a key plot element of the movie, wherein Kerry is asked to modernize Nick's Santa outfit and gets rave reviews for ripping off Fashion Santa. I almost wished they had gone full on ripping-off of Paul Mason's look, and given Brad a giant fake beard and white white hair, instead of seeing him constantly wiping off beard-white-ner.
The Regulars: Sustad; she's the real Queen of Christmas! I honestly, truly enjoy how she plays her characters, and will have to add in a few more of hers into this season before we finish. Surprisingly, Brotherton has done fewer than I expected he had, even less than the character he plays. And as I find myself repeating the phrase "has done a few" as this is pretty much the usual answer. So, from now on, I will only mention those actors that stand out enough to warrant being mentioned. For example, Laura Soltis, who plays Kerry's holiday romcom loving mom, has been in OH... SO... MANY... of these !
How does it Hallmark? Somewhat? In that it was a meta movie, it kind of sacrificed some of its own Hallmarkie charm for the fake movie being shot. And what was left, kind of left me .... nodding off and bored.
How does it movie? Rare will be the instance where I comment on something about the movie that allowed me to enjoy it above the somewhat-ironic somewhat-not-ironic enjoyment I get from these movies.
How Does It Snow? Big swaths of cotton batting snow laid out in the background of the painfully obvious backlot setting this movie was shot in. It soooo lacked any Colorado mountain snow aesthetic.
I really like Sustad, but I haven't seen her in anything better than the Nine Lives Of Christmas. She has a good cameo in Three Wise Men and a Baby (which she co-wrote) but she really needs to be in one of the hallmark spotlight movies which they give a little more budget to. She's a good romcom actress and the com of the romcom needs more time to get done right.
ReplyDelete