The Draw: I told myself I wasn't going to watch any movies for which I had already listened to the Deck The Hallmark podcast review. Instead I made Toasty do it.
But when the DTH boys came out fairly positive about a new movie starring Kimberly Sustad (from an all-time favourite Hallmarkie, The Nine Lives of Christmas), with a particularly meta supporting player in Paul Campbell, and highlighting that it was an actual Hallmark comedy that was funny... I couldn't resist... even though the premise is soooo stoooopid.
HERstory: For basically her entire life, Kate North (Sustad) has been trying to escape the burden of the North Star Santa School her father founded. And now with her father retiring she finds herself the sole owner of the flagging training center. The competition from rival The Saint Nicholas School started by an ex-employee of North Star has put a huge dent in their business, and her father leaving has seen enrolment drop even more rapidly. Kate, and her just-graduated younger sister Bailey (Lindsay Winch) are all that's left to keep the school running... except when Dan turns up looking for work.
Dan (Benjamin Ayres, Saving Hope) and Kate went on one date a few years ago and Dan has been quite sweet on her since. Kate can't stand him. Dan has been working for The Saint Nicholas School, earning the moniker of "the best Santa trainer in America" all this time, and in helping TSNS grow, it's been punishing for North Star. Plus, North Star has lost the Christmas Cup -- a "friendly" competition between the schools Kate's father started -- every year.
Dan convinces Kate to give him one semester, and she agrees. Dan also lost his company car in the "conscious uncoupling" from his previous employer, so he also needs to carpool with Kate, much to her chagrin. On the first day, on the way to work, Kate nearly runs into a man dressed in a Santa costume stammering on the road (there's simultaneously whole gag around a mug of hot chocolate that's... pretty dand funny). As Kate and Dan help him they see, unbelievably, reindeer and a sleigh fly away. They've just found the real Santa, and he has amnesia!
They take Santa to the school, rather than the police, hoping that, well, firstly, he'll fit right in and secondly, maybe "Santa training" will jog his memory. They call Santa "Nick", as they meet the other students: a European folklore nerd, a senior spiting his grandchildren, a Jewish neo-hippie, a shy man who communicates through his hand puppet, an aggro feminist out to prove anyone can be Santa, and... actor Paul Campbell, researching a role.
As Kate and Dan and train up this rag-tag class of students, Kate is able to see past "Dan, the enemy" and turns out he's pretty fun and charming, and good at what he does. Dan encourages team building and they head out for a night of drinking and trivia. It's a good time.
North Star has a tight relationship with a shopping mall magnate, Ned, and they're given the opportunity to trial run the new recruits, as well as do some secret Santa shopping. It's pretty disastrous (hilariously so) for all involved, except Nick, who seems to have the perfect touch...and a bit of magic that starts to raise some eyebrows of the other students. Nick also has been having flashes every time he makes contact with someone, kinda like The Dead Zone, but festive. He saw that Ned wants to buy North Star (for the land, not the business...wise choice).
That evening, they hand out secret Santa gifts, after which Dan asks Kate out...again. She agrees. Somewhere along the way they figure out that the key to Santas isn't rigorous uniformity but personalization, and they get their students to embrace who they are in the role of Santa.
They go out on a proper date at the Christmas market, and then crash a nearby private party. They manage to evade security for a few minutes, scam some drinks, take some photos, dance a little, before they get caught. When Kate drops him off they make out pretty hard. And when she picks him up in the morning, they do it again.
At North Star, Kate and Dan accidentally blab about Nick being the real Santa, and Bailey gives Kate an idea on how to help him jog his memory. Magic. But Dan finds out about the offer Kate received and reacts selfishly. It's no real complication though, as they both come to an understanding before the Christmas Cup. And so too is Nick's memory restored...when his wife shows up. But he stays to help out the school in the competition.
The Christmas Cup, heralded as the saviour of everything, is won by North Star, but the reality is it's only the promise of maybe brighter things. Kate has no illusions about the uphill climb before her, but a Christmas gift from Santa (two tickets to Paris in the spring) at least gives here something to look forward to... and Ned's offer isn't completely off the table. The end?
The Formulae: there's hot chocolate, and Christmas Magic... I think Christmas trivia at a bar is now part of the Formulae. Christmas markets of course are a staple. And Christmas-themed competitions are also a Hallmark standard.
Unformulae: I don't recall a lot of Secret Santa gifts exchanges in Hallmarkies past, and the amount of meta-Hallmark inside jokes that come out of Paul Campbell are tremendous fun (at trivia, when trying to name the three wise men he shouts "Me, Paul Campbell. I was the third wise man." There's a lot more drinking drinking in modern Hallmarkies in recent years, but I've never seen two Hallmark leads crash a Christmas party before. That was fun.
True Calling? I'm not sure why not just "The Santa School" or "School for Santas" (I like that one), but yeah, it's fine.
The Rewind: Pretty much any Paul Campbell scene is worth rewinding, and the whole training sequence at the mall is so well done. They turn those children into frothing at the mouth monsters.
The Regulars: Sustad and Ayres and Campbell, obviously. They're all over Hallmark. Lindsay Winch has been a rock-solid supporting cast member in many a Hallmark as well. Trevor Learner who plays Santa/Nick has been in a bunch, ditto for Mrs. Clause Sheila Tyson. Tom Pickett who plays senior Patrick has been in so many of these things. Carmel Amit who played Megan and Graeme McComb who played nerdy Timothy and Ryan Beil who played neo-hippi Isaac have all starred with Sustad and/or Campbell before (now that I think of it, most of this crew has. Does Paul just keep getting his Vancouver acting buddies gigs?)
How does it Hallmark? I keep saying this but modern Hallmark has really changed. I think the transition years were a bit rougher, but a lot of the films this year, while suffering a little under constrained budgets, have a lot more ambition and reach for more than just tropes and familiarity. This one is one of the more ludicrous premises we've come across (competing Santa training schools, and...real Santa is a student?!?) and somehow it works. With a cast that is charming, playful, and allowed to be funny (could, as I suspect, these performers all know each other mean there's a lot more chemistry here than most random Hallmarkies? Probably... if I'm right) it makes the durrrrmmm premise really quite entertaining. Both Sustad and Ayres are very talented performers who know how to deliver expertly timed patter, and equally expertly timed reactions. And the way the relationship between Kate and Dan plays out, it feels very easy and natural, not forced or expected. Again, the premise requires such suspension of disbelief, and yet within that premise, the characters feel so grounded and aware. I was charmed.
How does it movie? Still not even close to a real movie. It's a budget thing. It's a scale thing. In a real movie there would be more prominent arcs for each of the students (yes, Paul Campbell included), and they would need another 10-15 minutes for that which they don't give here.
I also figure a real movie would have been more focused on, you know, the real Santa of it all and not...winning a competition.
How Does It Snow? There's a lot of trickery involved here, including cotton batting and digital manipulation. The scene where Kate and Dan come across Santa it's snowing real hard... but it's digital snow. And as good as it is, there's an uncanny valley to the snow falling and how it's not interacting with its environment at all. It's kind of upsetting to see two characters walking through a snowfall and gather no snow at all on their person.
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