T&K's Xmas Advent Calendar: Day 12

A Christmas Love Story, 2019, Eric Close (Christmas at Graceland) -- download

Oh! That Eric Close! He will always be the lead in that short lived comedy action piece where he plays the new body for John Goodman, after he is hit by a train. And Close also plays a small role as best buddy of the main character in this, hopefully, forgettable holiday flick.

OK, let's go.

Katherine (Kristen Chenoweth; Pushing Daisies) is the leader of a youth choir in NYC, one know for putting on a big Xmas Event, whose purpose is ... to fun itself? That's not very charitable!! She's basically just fund raising her paycheck! Sorry, also, kids.

*ahem*

We are tossed into this setup via a nice drone shot of NYC. You know the type, where we fly in over the picturesque skyline of the city, zooming down into the uptown location of Katherine's school.

*record scratch; rewind*

Waitasec; that's not a drone shot. That's an el cheapo CGI animation ! The cars look like toy cars ! This is Taiwanese news station (a meme from 10 years ago kiddies) level animation.

I digress. So, Katherine leads the youth choir. Traditionally someone famous writes their closing number, which always leads to great online sales of the single, and all the money they need for the coming year. But, ring ring, oh noes! Famous person backed out! Take a shot. Whoever will write our famous song. Waitasec, Katherine, aren't you a famous Broadway person who had a single hit show waaaaay back when? Didn't you never have any success after and therefore ended up as a teacher for a school you have to raise money to keep going? Doesn't that make you the PERFECT (i.e. free) person to write the song? Of course it does.

Enter complication -- kid with the perfect voice but some family issues. His Dad (Scott Wolf; Nancy Drew) wants the kid to Stick to the Plan. The Plan was something they came up with before Mom passed away (take a shot), and Dad gets heartbroken by even the slightest deviation from said plan. So Kid is not allowed to be in music school production, despite perfect voice. Until Katherine treks all the way out to Connecticut to convince Dad as to what Kid should do. Katherine ends up spending the night (no not that way perve) due to a winter storm, and therefore ends up spending some Xmas decorating time with Dad and Kid, including some singing into spatulas. Dad agrees to allow Kid to join the music show.

So, Dad and Katherine end up dating. But its a weird, not exactly brimming with chemistry courting, but I blame the director. Wolf is charming enough but far too reserved for spilling-forth-with-exuberance Chenoweth. But what do we need, we need COMPLICATION ! Katherine confesses she had a child in her youth, and because of where she was, she gave him up for adoption. Ding ding ding! The Peanut Gallery ends up calling it, and yes, Kid is her kid. In fact, he found the music school purely to find out who she was. He tells Dad, Katherine finds out and everything gets weird. But pain is gold to creatives, so she finishes the song. But that's alright, cuz the night of the choir show, Dad and Katherine reconnect, Katherine and Kid sing a duet together, and everyone lives happily ever after.

The Draw: Why did I choose this one? Well, for one, it was a contemporary one, airing this season and on the Hallmark Channel directly, and is directed at Old People Kissing. Of note, both of these Old People are younger than me. But no, really, it was because of Chenoweth. Big fan here, ever since her days on Pushing Daisies.

The Formulae: Well, Dead Mom is at the forefront. And there is a big charity / Xmas Event that the main has to prepare for and its supposed to be taking up all her time, but of course, she ends up spending most of her time making moon-eyes at Male Lead. And there are complications. But no, PST, as we are now adding NYC to the roster of where these movies need to be shot. Oh, and the Red Dress was during a middle act date, not Event. Boo.

Unformulae: Old People Kissing breaks the mould pretty quickly, as well as the idea that Katherine is not an upwardly mobile young lady with challenges in her chosen job. Katherine loves her job, despite there being some backstory of her being a failed Broadway star (which they delicately hide), and obviously something happened in her 30s, that she had a child who she felt she had to give up.

True Calling? I would say, how can they not match the title considering its Christmas Time and all these movies are love stories. BUT, while it may be a movie at Christmas, nothing about the Love Story is Christmas related. So, bzzzzzzzzzzzt.

The Rewind: Oh that opening scene of fake bad CGI drone shot required a definite rewind and a, "Hey, Peanut Gallery, come here and see this! Can you believe its ACTUALLY that badly done?" Wooooooo boy.

The Regulars: Nope, nobody.  This was all fresh blood.

How does it Hallmark? Can Hallmark not Hallmark? Do they ever try and break the formula? Well, I can only assume this one was an anomaly. Maybe they did it because they got her? As a love story, it was ... cute. But no, the couple didn't really convince and it seems they only chose Wolf because he is a believable height next to Chenoweth.

How does it movie? This is what this post will be all about. That this movie was SOOOO not a good movie. Close needs to either go back to Directing School or be hired by Asylum. Let's skip the part that he inserted himself into the movie as Best Friend and focus on how he directed. Scene. Exterior shot. Scene. Exterior shot. Scene. EXTERIOR SHOT. Scene. EXTERIOR SHOT. This was not a bloody sitcom coming back from commercial to establish where our cast is now. This was a MOVIE, even if we find it initially presented on a TV channel. And it was not a sitcom. Also, there were so many scenes where I felt we were watching something only this side of High School Drama Production. Laugh Laugh, characters interact, Laugh Laugh, say poignant thing, Laugh Laugh. I honestly though the best actor was the Cousin Supporting Character, because she seemed to just play her character and ignore whatever Close was directing her to do; likely, she was handled by Second Director. This was How Not to Direct a Movie.