T&K's XMas (2022) Advent Calendar Day 24 - A Christmas to Savour

I screwed up my timing and counting and thought the last one was my last one but it turns out, if I had noticed I was evens and not odds, i would have caught on that Xmas Eve was mine. So, here we are with one more, watched on the morning of Xmas Eve as Winter Proper TM blows around outside.

Ed. Note: I got distracted by Xmas proper, and posted this late.

2021, Jessica Harmon (Fixing Up Christmas) -- download

How many of these movies are directed by women? I need to go back through the years to do a proper count, just from the ones we have watched, but I suspect the answer is "not many". And hey, look it's Dale Bossio from iZombie and ... fuuuuck... she has directed a LOT of Hallmarkies, and .... SNORT... just in the last few years. Goes to show how quickly even the OffBranders can pump these out!

This first one comes from Reel One, which I gather is one of the production companies feeding Lifetime? That said, its very apparent from the initial scenes that they put a bit more sugar & spice into their productions, with the sets and lines just a wee bit more.... movie like? 

Note: "Savour" with British/Canadian spelling just wouldn't cut in the American Hallmark-et, so it gets renamed???

The Draw: Cooking, Its about a chef, and food based, no matter how loose, can draw me in.

HERstory: The Big City. I am pretty sure its New Yorky, but they never say. Being one of those off-brand ones, I guess they needed to stay agnostic as to location, depending on whether they sold to only the Canadian market, or to the US ? Dunno, seems weird to not say it. Anywayz, Scarlett () is a chef in her own resto that she runs with her best friend Claire (). And despite some early acclaim and success, they have become stale, forcing their "angel investor" to reconsider his support. Claire blurts out that Scarlett is working on a new "holiday menu" and he is enthused. So, to become reacquainted with homey style cooking and Xmas Spirit, Claire sends Scarlett on a cooking class (???) in a PST in the mountains, that .... she has to take a flight to (???). Any cooking class in such a setting must be for the richy rich. And yeah, the fly over shots of the PST are more high end ski resort village than actual small town.

The class, in a chalet or Inn that seems to have no other guests other than those taking the cooking class, and happens to be run by her old culinary school rival James (). The guests are a mix of older couples, a newly engaged couple, and an empty nester mom. Not sure how he makes any money off doing this for less than a dozen people, unless they are shelling out the big bucks. Anywayz, James is amused she is there, but also eager to involve her in his passion project. 

James kicks things off by taking his students to the quaint little Xmas Market, where they are introduced to all the fun, Xmas-y items. And the next day, they are right into knife skills, where Scarlett contradicts James as to the best method, reminding him why they were rivals. And then they do meringue snowmen; TERRIBLE snowmen that should have been piped into nice balls, instead of spoon splatted blobs of white. 

But he keeps on interrupting his actual cooking lessons with visits outside with Scarlett, showing her maple syrup cooled on snow, taking her actually tobogganing (like, on a real snow covered hill!) and hot cocoa from one of the stands in that cute little market. 

Finally they get to making something, and this time it was supposed to be traditional gingerbread cookies, and she decides to do a ship in a bottle, which annoys James with its complexity. But she never actually DOES it, but instead (ed note: she tosses flour, sugar and eggs into a bowl -- that IS NOT HOW YOU BAKE SCARLETT) she makes a rather fetching looking Gingerbread Tiramisu. I want that; now please? But that was not the lesson, Scarlett and you are yet again pissing off James.

During one of the "getting to know each other better for no real reason", she confesses the reasons he has so much trouble conceiving a traditional Xmas menu is that she never had a traditional Xmas dinner. Her family has been running restos all her life, and while she grew up in a kitchen, it was never a familiar family dinner. Meanwhile James had a brief resto experience which ended badly so he opted for teaching, where the gratitude of his students always outweighed the stress and anxiety of the high end kitchen 

When Scarlett is not jaunting around with James, or annoying him in the kitchen, she is on the phone. A lot. I guess this replaces the scenes in most Hallmarkies where the Female Lead walks around with a friend or Mom talking the girl talk. At least she talks by holding the phone to her ear, instead of holding it out in front of her face like Claire does. I hate people doing that.

Eventually, she tries to do a Grand Gesture and invites a food critic whom is trying to get her to leave her own resto, for his, to come to the unnamed PST to meet with James. James gets rather pissed about it, because he told her that he was glad he was out of the biz. but here she is trying to get him back into it. After the row, we see her in her car. Like, one tiff and she is gone? And I mean, real gone. The next scene she is back in The Big City at her resto.

But despite there not being any real COOKING scenes in the cooking class, she has come back to TBC with inspiration and a new menu. Traditionally in these movies, we are expecting her to realize she was happier in the PST with her new beau and willing to give up on her dreams for a new guy. I am glad that is not how this goes, as just after her new holiday menu is a BIG success and the angel investor is overjoyed, James shows up with his own confession. While he hated she pushed it upon her, he realized that it was maybe the kind of pressure he needed and is grateful. And he wants to show how much he appreciates it.

A year later the resto is once again still popular, and James has a cookbook out showing that he was able to work outside his comfort zone and she did NOT give up on her dreams.

I just wished they had done some cooking in the movie.

The Formulae: The departure from TBG to the PST is rather artificial, but its there. The Xmas Market is quaint and tiny but looks rather real, and decked out in the arts & crafts from local artisans. The cookie baking is part of the plot. And there is cocoa from a stand in a cup held by two hands.

Unformulae: Its pretty much by the numbers, but I do like the break from norm in that James follows her to TBC and she doesn't give up on her dream resto.

True Calling? No, in fact not at all. The movies is supposed to be about a multiple course savoury meal and a few desserts, but all we really see is baking.

The Rewind: Yep, she did just toss the eggs in after the flour and sugar. Also, her knife skills are ATTROCIOUS.

The Regulars: Neither of the leads are regular fare, but Eric Gustafsson who played one of the "newly engaged" couple has been in tons, more likely as Leading Man.  Bethany Brown, who played the BFF Claire has also been in tons, more likely as a BFF. BJ Harrisson, who played one of the "couple that has been together forever" is also a staple in the Hallmarkie business, even so far as to have made four right after this one. I guess, to be a proper Hallmarkie actor, you have to be a working actor, a stable actor hopping from role to role, always ready to jump onto a new one.

How does it Hallmark? Even not being an OffBrand, its pretty solid in its Hallmarkie aspects. But there are little details that show the difference, more focus on the settings, actual outside shots, etc. That said, the settings were limited, usually being inside the cooking school chalet or Scarlett's restaurant. The "Xmas Market" scenes were obviously backlot, and we never actually go to the PST as I imagine this chalet is on the outskirts?

How does it movie? No, I would not return to this one.

How Does It Snow? Mostly real REAL snow, when it does actually go outside.