KWIF: The Brutalist (+2)

KWIF = Kent's Week in Film. I've got the week off, so I've been doing more of what I like to do... consume! I am but a product of our capitalistic society.

This Week:
The Brutalist - 2024, d. Brady Corbet - in theatre
My Old Ass - 2024, d. Megan Park - amazonprime
Longlegs  - 2024, d. Osgood Perkins - amazonprime

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The Brutalist had, without a doubt, the most striking trailer of 2024. It's striking imagery, bold score and alluring typeface had a visceral impact on me as an audience member. Oh it was absolutely unclear to me, at all, what this movie was about, I just new it was something I must see. Leaving nothing about Gladiator II made even close to the impression that The Brutalist trailer did before it. 

Learning of its 3 hour and 35 minute runtime did not deter me (much...but any reservations I had abated once I noticed at the theatre earlier in the week that there was a sign posting about an intermission...bless the intermission!), and having no other agenda I set aside the better part of an afternoon to the film. 

There's something exciting about this process of discovery. Information is so readily at hand, our age of social media, podcasts, and other online discourse, it can be so simple to find out everything about an experience without ever having the experience, just as it can also be hard to avoid information at time. I knew The Brutalist was making top 10 lists (but not universally), but I still managed to avoid descriptions and even knowing what the film was about. I didn't even watch the trailer again, because I just wanted to experience it...thinking it would be an experience. At 215 minutes, one expects to be taken on a journey.

So, even knowing nothing about the film's story, I had expectations of what the film would be, and I have to say, dear reader, those expectations were not met. The Brutalist is an accomplished film, of which there's no doubt, and those key elements from the trailer (Daniel Blumberg's incredible score, the utterly unique credits, the myriad of gorgeous tracking shots) were indeed present in the film, and kept me present in the film.  Alongside stylistic details such as old film reel inserts (whether it's inforeels on Pennsylvania where the film is primarily set, or even the curiosity of vintage celluloid pornography) Lol Crawley's cinematography contributes to the exceptional style of the film that engaged me at times when the story seemed to lull.

I don't mean to say that the story is, in any way, badly executed or performed. I don't recall the last time I've seen Adrien Brody (Golden Globe winner for this role, for whatever that's worth) so invested in a role. He plays László Tóth, a Jewish Hungarian architect displaced by World War II, separated from his wife as they were filtered to different concentration camps, whom he's not even sure is alive when we first meet him upon his arrival in New York in 1947. It is a Jewish immigrant story, and broad strokes of assimilating in the polite hostility and microagressions of American culture, and the overwhelm of a society already in the thrall of capitalism are definitely felt. But László's story seems highly individualistic, that of someone who is already accomplished in his field given the opportunity to return to his chosen profession by an appreciative benefactor and struggling to complete his vision without compromise.

The first hundred minutes are very effective in establishing László's character, who he is as a person. He feels deep love and connection to his family, coming to America to work with his cousin at his Philadelphia-base furniture shop, but he doesn't feel the same need or desire to assimilate that his cousin does. László's experiences have only solidified his identity in a world cruelly intolerant towards it. He had an incident where his face was bashed in and to deal with the pain, he was given heroin on the transport overseas. He's now addicted. And he is recognized as a womanizer, at least by his cousin, and the way Corbet frames every meaningful female character on screen from László's point of view (from his cousin's American wife to his benefactor's 20-year-old daughter), center screen, gives the impression of attraction and danger. 

The film makes plain these weaknesses, alongside his pride and ego, and decades of similar stories have them feeling like a ticking time bomb just waiting to go off. We're so familiar with the dramatic conflict between womanizing artist and their spouses, we've seen the story of the creator who loses everything to drugs, we've seen the story of the visionary whose ego inhibits their success. Every moment one of László's weaknesses presents itself, I would groan, just a little. I was predicting how it would contribute to László's inevitable failure.  As someone who is constantly getting in his own way, I have little patience for stories of people whose character flaws impede their success. Ironic, I know.

So it is much to Corbet's credit that his story never does explode these bombs that are set. I'm much more impressed with it in hindsight than I was in the moment.  I can't say, without a rewatch, whether these act as effective character colour, or if it's just Corbet subverting tropes (I go back to his framing of women in the first act as objects of desire, to the impression that it's definitely the latter).  But the setup of the pride/drugs/womanizing take up such space when Erzsébet (Felicity Jones, Rogue One) and his niece join him in the second half of the film (following the intermission) and she is forgiving of his past infidelity, and turns the moment of her forgiveness into a surprisingly sensual and intimate scene.

Erzsébet is a charming, cultured character who surprises everyone, including the audience. She is a gentle force to be reckoned with, to be sure. She's a devoted wife who adores her husband (as he adores her) but she's also got her own life, ambitions, and issues outside of László's concerns. She is rich enough to support her own story.

The thrust of the film, what most of it is centered around, is the build that László is leading for the Van Burens. His benefactor, Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pierce, Lockout) takes a deep liking to László despite their first contentious encounter, and the community center he wants László to build is in part a memorial to his mother but also a means of (quite literally) cementing his presence in this rural Pennsylvanian community.  It constantly seems a folly. László is at odds with seemingly everyone except Harrison about the build. The barrage of microagressions he receives from the foreman Harrison hires, Harrison's son who is managing the project's finances, the local townsfolk wary of this non-Christian foreigner all threaten his work. It is clear, from both László and Erzsébet's perspective of the project that there will be no compromise of his vision, even if it means he doesn't get paid.

For me, the film's most impactful moment was Harrison and László's trip to the marble quarry in Carrara, Italy. László had a pre-war relationship with one of the miners whom they meet up with and he takes them up the mountainside to show them the marbles. I have never seen a marble quarry before, and, looking at it from a macro scale, I was at once one is taken aback by the marrying of the terrain, but what is exposed underneath and the erratic design of the carving is visually fascinating.  Up in the mines themselves, there are corridors of marble, that László's friend explains, they miners used to resist (and literally crush) Mussolini's forces. There's the blood of resistance and freedom on those stones (it marries with László's artistic vision for his project nicely). 

An incident between Harrison and László on that trip to Italy wrecks László, and the sequences following the trip are the most difficult to process, as they end the story of our main characters with unexpected uncertainty, and the epilogue then jumps two decades into the future. The epilogue is a complete shift in tone stylistically that doesn't fit at all with what came before. It feels much like the end of a long-running TV show that jumps to the future to give you a sense of where things end up, only here, it doesn't feel like we've gotten a resolution to the story at hand. The epilogue serves up the specific intent and meaning of the build, which László never specifically mentions at any time to any one during the build process. In hindsight it does make events of the earlier film more resonant, but it's a really, truly weird mechanism to convey it.

It's this epilogue that I think left me so cold to the film. It doesn't fit.  And as much as I loved the design of the closing credits (although it is to read the stylized font as it scrolls horizontally upwards across the screen in multiple columns), Blumberg's accompanying electro-pop closing track, "Epilogue (Venice)" is just so anachronistic (despite otherwise being right up my alley) that it doesn't close out the film on a note that feels representative of the film.  The whole epilogue is just bizarre.

Going back to the trailer, it features such experimental boldness, but feels so assured, I was expecting a similar film that would stimulate, maybe even overstimulate with style. But it's not that. The Brutalist is much more subdued, maintaining a consistent mood throughout that makes it easy enough to lean back into, but didn't give me the capital e "Experience" I was thinking it would be.  It's good, not great.

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I've been meaning to catch up on Aubrey Plaza's filmography. There are a half-dozen or so well regarded smaller-budget films (eg. Emily the Criminal, Ingrid Goes West) that Plaza stars in that live on Netflix and Amazon that I keep popping up but I never actually watch. My Old Ass is just the latest of these.

The conceit of My Old Ass is that a young woman, Elliott (Maisy Stella), living on a cranberry farm in the Muskokas of Ontario is getting ready to leave for university, when she encounters her future self during a shroom trip. Even following the encounter, they, through magical realism, continue to maintain long distance contact, as Elliott spends her last summer at home.

The "time travel" conceit threatens to overwhelms story of this film, which is a lightly dramatic but breezy and comforting coming-of-age story of this turning point in Elliott's life, but it can only overwhelm conceptually. It is not the focus of the film.

Future Elliott warns herself to stay away from anyone named Chad (not sure if this was meant as a meta joke, or not, given the place "Chad" takes alongside "Karen" in our current lexicon), but when she inevitably meets Chad, he is sweet, funny, and they seem to click with disarming ease. She knows she should stay away from him, but she cannot help but be drawn to him.  This flies in the face of her identity as she's known it, a proud and out lesbian. This reexamining of her sense of self, and sexual fluidity seems like such modern, and necessary, exploration in cinema.

On top of romantic encounters, future Elliott provokes her with the initiative to connect more with her family during the summer, to get to know her younger brothers in a way she's failed to do so as she's explored her independence in her teenage years. She is changing, just as everything is changing around her.

It's an exceptionally sweet, charming, and lightly emotional film. It's wonderfully scripted by Park, and Stella, who cut her teeth on the TV series Nashville, carries this film ably and sublimely, like a Canadian Florence Pugh. She's a talent to watch. Plaza is only featured physically in the early and late stages of the film, but her very specific and well-known on-screen persona acts as a useful shorthand for us to understand Elliott (both now and in the future). She is a welcome presence and despite literally phoning in her role for much of the movie, invests a tremendous amount into the character that we only really see in the emotional closing minutes of the film.

I adored this movie.

[As I was writing this, I learned that Plaza's husband had died by suicide this week. Jeff Baena was a director, three of his films I had seen -- Joshy, The Little Hours and Horse Girl -- and he was still and emerging talent with a large support network, at least creatively. I am saddened by this loss. To my Toronto friends, if you or anyone you know is in need of mental health support, call 211.  Other Canadian resources can be found here. ]

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There is definitely a divide in the reaction to Longlegs, at least from what I've seen. Critics have been praising it and planning it, audiences have been reacting much the same, with a plethora of 5* reviews, but even more 1* reviews. One thing for sure is the division has been profitable for the film's distributor, Neon, to the tune of over $125 million at the box office.

I avoided Longlegs when it was in theatres because it was already a zeitgeisty thing, and I tend to recoil when things get too popular. If it's already become a meme, I'm less willing to engage with it. Plus, I knew Longlegs came from The Blackcoat's Daughter director Osgood Perkins, and I hated that film. A friend petitioned me to watch Longlegs as he was curious my reaction to it, and a recent podcast episode of Comedy Bang Bang where Taran Killam played "Longlegs" in a sort of Emo Phillips-esque affectation spurred on my curiosity.

I hated this film.

As I watched it, I wondered if how I was reacting was just my preconceived dislike for Perkins, because visually, this is a striking movie. Perkins' stylizing of flashbacks as, like, super8 film, or his title cards, or throughout his framing in sequences are all so striking, I should be drawn to it. But his stylizing doesn't make up for the faults in his storytelling.

Like The Blackcoat's Daughter, Perkins' story works its way backwards and forwards to a semi-twist ending, but so much of his storytelling is the obvious and frustrating omission of information as to leave the twist to the finale.  These both are stories told where it's not so much the protagonist - in this case FBI rookie Lee Harker (Maika Monroe, in a performance which I'm not thrilled with, but is clearly what the director was asking for) - unfurling a mystery, but the story being a mystery to be unfurled for the audience through the storytelling of cinema(!). Oh, there are discoveries for Harker to make in the process, but we as the audience are intentionally having key things withheld from us that Harker already knows (as opposed to the common tension-raising device where we as the audience learn things ahead of the story's protagonist). It doesn't work for me, at all.

On top of that, the film presents Harker has having some low level telepathic or extrasensory ability, and just drops that nugget following a visually appealing but contextually confounding testing sequence, and then doesn't follow up on nor explore it. We're just supposed to accept it. Perkins wants this to be a reality where the paranormal exists, but also wants it to be real-world grounded, and he doesn't marry the two effectively. This feels like it is trying to be Silence of the Lambs married with some early Hollywood Cronenberg psychodrama vibes, but it doesn't come close. It doesn't help that its astoundingly clear Perkins has zero concept of how the FBI (or any investigative agency, for that matter) actually function. The investigation is a bigger fantasy than any of the metaphysical aspects of the film. 

Nic Cage plays Longlegs, the serial killer of the film, and does so in heavy falseface makeup that makes him look like Teddy Perkins in that great Atlanta episode. Cage is allowed to do his Cage thing and it is what it is. A lot of the divisiveness in audiences seems to stem from whether this performance is good or terrible. It's neither, it is just Cage and it didn't excite me one way or the other.

The film's ultimate reveal, for me, was simply unsatisfying. I had two or three other scenarios playing in my head as the film was withholding so much, all of which I would have found superior to what resulted, and yet would not have changed my opinion of the film.  I just didn't buy into anything this film was selling at any point. 

To Oz Perkins: you're an incredible stylist, please let someone else write for you. Until then, you're on my shit list.

But Is It Horror? Maybe to some, but I found it more frustrating than scary. I don't think Perkins ever really settled on whether it was suspense or horror, and that indecision is tangible.

[Toastypost - we disagree, vehemently]

T&K's XMas (2023) Advent Calendar: Day 12 - Round and Round

d. Stacey N. Harding 

T&K Go Loopty Loo - Hanukkah Edition - Oh, we love a time loop. It's clear that we're not the only one. Round and Round is, no word of a lie, the best Hallmarkie I've ever seen. It's also a pretty great time loop movie. It's evident that the writer of this holiday romcom (Tamar Laddy) knows time loops well, and isn't just trying to ape other time loop movies. The script actually brings something new to the genre, both in lore and self awareness.  There were some definite surprises, so if you're interested in watching this (and it's worth watching) spoilers below.
 

How did the Loop Begin?
Rachel is awoken with a phone call from Mom, having slept in with too much editing to do (a Hanukkah gift from her boss at the publishing house).  She's tasked with picking up the special sufganiyot (a jam filled donuts) from a specific bakery for her parents anniversary celebration on the 7th day of Hanukkah. Her dick professor boyfriend, Adam, calls with an "airport cold" and cancels on the meeting-the-family gathering. It's the last Hanukkah in her family home before her parents sell it which is stirring up emotions. 

It's disaster at the train station when a stranger bumps into her, and sufganiyot goes flying everywhere.  The dude is in too big a rush to do much other than apologize. He drops his ornate box which Rachel picks up.  At home, there's a light with a flicker that bugs Dad. Sister Soshana, wife Bex and nephew are there  and uncles and cousins (including the snobby and posh moved-to-Britain-four-years-ago one) and Gramma Rosie all arrive.  

Gramma Rosie wants to set Rachel up with Zach, an artist and art teacher, who drove her to the party, and he turns out to be the guy she ran into at the station. Rachel is not impressed.  She returns his fancy box, it turns out he's a big D&D nerd (it's got special D20s in it from his Zayda). Crappy BF Adam butt dials her. Gramma Rosie gifts Rachel a beautiful antique dreidel that's been in the family for generations.  

The cousins play competitive dreidel, but when Rachel spins her heirloom one, some magic starts to happen, but is interrupted when the curtains catch fire from faulty stringlights. The fire department comes, and once all is said and done, the damage isn't substantial but enough Rachel's parents have to postpone closing the house. But the party is over and everyone is off to bed.

Rachel wakes up the next morning to a phone call from her mom, telling her to pick up sufganyot for the party... let the loop begin.

It was the antique, family heirloom dreidel.

What was the main character's first reaction to the Loop?
Rachel at first thinks she just woke up from a dream and is having deja vu. When she gets to the bakery, she's chatted up by the same woman from the first day and asks if they've met before (she says "people sometimes mistake me for Barbara Streisand"). When she gets to the train station and runs into the busker playing the same song as the day before, she asks if he knows any other songs ("sorry, no requests") and then she's bumped into again by Adam (sufganiyot goes flying), and she knows what's up. She tells Shoshanna who writes it off, and then tries to prove her time looping to her sister-in-law Bex who makes a Nicholas Cage in Next reference (!), and then... Montage. (I thought about 3-6 time loops went by but it was just the better part of one day). Late in the day, Rachel assumes that because Zach is a nerd, that she can confide in him about the loop. She's right.

WHY did the main character get put into the Loop? Can someone else be brought into the Loop?
So, it turns out that the dreidel is not just a family heirloom, but also something every member of the family line (Gramma Rosie, her dad, even Soshana) gets a turn at going through a time loop.  But before she learns any of this (which is only once she's out of the loop), she tries to bring Soshana and Bex in but they're seemingly too pre-occupied, but Liam quickly gets it. He tries to put his number in Rachel's phone and says for her to call him if she loops again, but she points out the obvious that if the day resets so does her phone (but neglects to even try to remember his number).

The next loop, she's waiting for Zach at the train station, and, despite precautions, the sufganiyot still gets spilled, but Rachel has learned in the previous loop they key things to get Zach on board...and he's on board quickly.  On the way to picking up Gramma Rosie together, Rachel's filling in Zach on all the things she's tried to change but keep happening anyway (the donuts, the fire) and Zach tells her that "in those time-loop movies, the main character always has a big change to make in their lives"

How long is this time Loop? What resets it? Can you force the reset?
Rachel is in the loop from wake-up to bedtime.  They make it past midnight in one loop so it's definitely not a calendar day, but going to bed resets it.  I can only think that if this weren't constricted to the sub-90-minute Hallmark format that we would see a bit more of them pushing these limits.

How long does the main character stay in the Loop? Does it have any affect on them, their personality, their outlook?
This is concrete, it's 7 nights. It seems like it should be more, but I get the thematic significance of it being 7 nights, and it really makes it quite special, tying it all in with the festivities.
Over the 7 days Rachel gets more confident, more proactive, and ready to do more in her life. 

What about the other people in the Loop? Are they aware? Can they become aware?  Does anything happen if they become aware?
Each time Rachel approaches Zach in a loop, he becomes totally into trying to figure out why Rachel is in a time loop, digging through treasures of her past, coming across her manuscript, and taking her to a local comic book store to see if they can help.  The comic shop nerds don't seem to even bat an eye, they are in! Seth, the comic store manager, goes directly to the "time loop" section of the store and gives Rachel her "homework" (I'm not going to say it's the production so much as the actor really doesn't know how comic shops work when he's selecting his comics).  Rachel protests, but then she's reminded that in Groundhog Day Bill Murray spent potentially more than 12,000 days in the loop, they're going to have to get to work.  They brainstorm, and logic that maybe the antique dreidel was the "inciting incident".  So Rachel, Zach and Seth head back to Rachel's folks to retrieve the dreidel.  They spin it, but nothing immediately happens. She gets butt dialed by dick BF, Zach and Seth suss out what bar he's at.  Zach wonders if dealing with him is what ends the loop. So they go to the bar, Rachel confronts Adam, and alas, no change, except she winds up having a great time with Adam, and she really regrets that he won't remember her the next day.

It's the seventh loop when Rachel's her most proactive and meets Zach at his home first thing in the morning, and it becomes the most difficult loop for him to accept her... the charming, natural rhythm they have had for the past six days seems more difficult, and things seem...different...

What does the main character think about the other people in the Loop? Are they real? Do they matter?
In the fifth loop at the comic store, Rachel, Zach, Seth and the other guy discern that time loop characters are "stuck" somehow, and they begin probing Rachel's life.  It's time for her to return to her young adult fantasy manuscript, and they are just the squad to help her refine it.  It starts her on a new path, but as much as they're helping her, and Rachel uses the time to learn more about the people around her, and maybe even help others make new connections. 

In the sixth loop, the nerds suspect that maybe it's getting the donuts to the party that will end the loop, so they put all efforts into getting those donuts to their destination. At the bakery, Rachel gets her usual call from dick boyfriend and decisively dumps him. Zach finds out that Mildred, the nosy lady in line at the bakery, is all alone on Hanukkah and coaxes Rachel into inviting her to the party. Turns out she's one of Gramma Rosie's old friends. On the way Zach and Rachel kiss.  She's really into him and he clearly gets that she knows him, and he likes it.  He's a positive, optimistic guy, so he's going with it.  But... the Hallmark complication.

Most memorable event in a Loop? Most surprising event during a Loop?
Adam has turned up at the party! (WHAT!?!) The dick boyfriend is now the dick ex-boyfriend who refuses to be the dumpee. I totally didn't see that coming...even though that's the total Hallmark formula, for the dick boyfriend who never has time for his girlfriend to show up in the third act.... but in a time loop it's so effing clever for it to be the anomaly.  Just a stunner.

This makes things ugly and awkward, but it's still a lovely gathering and family celebration and no fire! Gramma Rosie acknowledges that, yeah, she knows something is up with the dreidel but refuses to really say anything more. Gramma Rosie is kinda hilarious. Rachel spins the antique dreidel, magic happens, and she wins everything... except Zach leaves, feeling really down about this girl he's only known for half a day but clearly connected with.

The next morning Rachel wakes up...in her parent's house. She freaks out, so excited for the day to be moving on. Her dad comes in and spills the beans that he too had a time loop to win her mother's heart, and so did Soshana in finding true love with Bex. It's a freaking family tradition! I love it.

But even more, the reunion of Rachel and Zach is straightforward and charming, but even better when Rachel figures out that the special box Zach's been using to protect his dice given to him by his grandfather is the perfect home for the dreidel, and the combination allows Zach to get the memories of the past 7 days back. I love this suddenly very magical reality that exists, and I want to know and explore more!

How does this stack up in the subgenre?
It's a love letter to time loop movies. It namechecks Palm Springs, Edge of Tomorrow, Groundhog Day, even the Paper Girls comic. It really, really understands and likes time loops and timey-wimey things. On top of more nerdiness than ALL the Hallmarks in history combined, there's also a couple needledrops (I Melt Wtih You by Modern English most prominently).  It's not an epic production, it uses the time loop as the perfect vehicle for a holiday movie and a rom com. 

 Clearly Tamar Laddy is a fan of time loops, and understands the tropes very well. She's also clearly well versed on nerd culture (you don't just drop a Next reference), so what could have been very Big Bang Theory (remedial nerd) is sort of like Nerdity 102 (it's not super duper advanced, because she knows she's still playing in Hallmark territory, but she could go hardcore if she wanted to). She also wrote Crashing Through The Snow, one of my favourite Hallmarkies, she does romantic comedy very very well.  I think her scripts are so savvy in playing with subgenres that she could be writing feature films, but maybe she just enjoys playing in the Hallmark realm. Whatever her motivation, I'm a fan.

To be blunt, this was awesome. I enjoyed it immensely. It's probably the best movie Hallmark has ever made, or, if not, the best I've ever watched. The cast is not the usual stable of Hallmark actors. Rachel is played by improv comedian and actress Vic Michaelis. She's super charming, nails the comedy, aces connecting with her costars, and is cute as hell. I know Bryan Greenberg from later seasons of The Mindy Project (which he was on for the time loop episode as well, and he played a nerd there too). Dad is played by Rick Hoffman, who is a total "hey, that guy!" character actor who is best known for being on Suits). Paula Shaw plays Gramma Rosie, and she's been in so many Hallmarkies, but she's never stood out so wonderfully. I kept seeing Carrie Fisher or Debbie Reynolds in her performance. She save some extra special energy for this one.

I seriously, seriously loved this. This is, easily, my favourite Hallmarkie of all time. It's also the best holiday time loop I've seen so far. Yes. Just yes!

T&K's XMas (2021) Advent Calendar: Day 11 - Eight Gifts of Hanukkah

 A Toast to HallmarKent: Eight Gifts of Hanukkah - 2021, d. Mark Jean - Hallmark

The Draw:

I only watched one-half out of three Hallmark Hanukkah movies form the past two years {that would be Holiday Date (2019), but not Double Holiday (2019) or Love Lights Hanukkah (2020)] and the general gist of these movies is "let's explain Hanukkah to the non-Jewish crowd" (I mean, that is me, buuuut...).  Effectively their previous Hanukkah efforts seemed like they were basically appropriating the holiday into a Christmas movie and just end up being a very lazy effort at being representative.

The Deck the Hallmark podcast gave this year's entry, Eight Gifts of Hanukkah, gave big marks for being a typical Hallmark romance set during Hanukkah without needing to so much as acknowledge Christmas (the only XMas injection is putting under the "Countdown to Christmas" banner and the commercials in-between).  They rather effusively praised the movie itself though, so I thought I'd give it a watch.

HERstory:
Seattle-based Optometrist Sarah (Inbar Lavi) has been single for four months and is ready to get back on the dating scene.  She goes on a bunch of really poor, poor dates (all at the same cafe, likely for filming budget reasons) in the opening montage, but then manages to find a decent guy in Micheline-rated, tv-famous chef, Nigel (played by Oliver Rice, an even better Chef name) , his Scottish accent providing an immediate, differentiating charm.

Back at her business, her friend-since-childhood Daniel (Jake Epstein), is busy building new shelves in a tarped-off half of the storefront, trying not to listen in on Sarah's dating exploits.  She's paid yet another visit from Adam (Andrew Zachar - think Seth Rogen when he got fit for Green Hornet), who has once again lost his glasses.  He's really rich after selling his tech firm, and he's been coming in buying new glasses trying to muster up the nerve to ask Sarah out...which he finally does.  She says yes.

Sarah and Daniel are part of the planning committee at the Jewish Community Center working on this year's fundraiser (The Mazel Ball, as well as the childrens' event, Hanukkah Hunt), where Sarah's lawyer ex-fiance Paul is also on the board, making things not uncomfortable at all.

Sarah hosts her family for the first day of Hanukkah, with her friend-from-work Keisha providing the role of someone to explain things to.  It's all fairly brisk shorthand, and not invasive.  Sarah's judge mom, her dad, and her brother is there with her niece, as is Daniel who, we learn, was raised by her family after his mother died and his dad took off.  So Daniel is kind-of brother like, but not a brother, like Barry and Iris on The Flash.  As Keisha is leaving, she finds a gift of white roses on the front porch.  The card is unsigned and a mystery is afoot.

Except it's obviously Daniel.

She has more dates with Adam and Nigel, and she receives more gifts - a basket of her favorite chocolates, a picture frame, a nice watch - and more guessing about who the possible sender could be.  An uncomfortable encounter with Paul after another planning meeting indicates he's trying to reconcile which Sarah's really not okay with.

Sarah and Daniel spend a lot of time together.  Their vibe sort of has a playful familiar dynamic but with some real steam under it.  They play chess at Daniel's obscenely-huge-for-a-single-guy home, they make food together, dancing,  and obviously they're spending a lot of evenings together with family for the holidays.  It's clear something is unspoken between them.  Daniel is the first to admit his feelings, but to his employee who wonders why he's so distracted.

Daniel is making a grand gesture, his big play for Sarah after being off the market for so long with Paul.  But with Sarah now dating both Nigel and Adam, he's feeling inferior.  But it's clear to him, and everyone, that the intimate gifts that Sarah is receiving are having their intended wooing effect, and she has a lot of conversations about who it could be, with everyone, Daniel included...only Daniel is never even a possibility on her list, which wounds him more and more.

The thing is, Daniel is a coward.  Even nervous nerd Adam worked up the gumption to ask Sarah out, and seeing all this competition, rather than stepping up, Daniel withered, and receded into the shadows.There was a perfect, beautiful moment, where the two meet at Bubbe Rose's memorial bench and they're both crying, both vulnerable.  She leans into him and he holds her.  That, Daniel was a perfect gift of a moment to tell her you love her you dummy, and you, dummy, said nothing.

Day 7 Sarah receives the gift of glasses just like Bubbe Rose's (which she'd been trying to find everywhere, they're the emblem of her optical shop).  Something so intimate she is so taken aback. Once more she talks "who could have done this in earshot of Daniel" and, with about 20 minutes to go, Daniel can't hold his tongue anymore.  He's hurt that Sarah doesn't consider him a possibility on her list so he tells her how he feels but with anger and storms off.  But given their almost-familial relationship, it's understandable why she wouldn't put him on that list.  She gets ready for the ball, only to first stop by Daniels and tell her how she feels, but with anger at him for hiding his emotions for so long.  It kind of makes Daniel's earlier outburst worthwhile, if only so Sarah can have one as well.

At the Ball, in her blue dress, she tells her other suitors that she's in love with someone else, and Paul immediately knows that it's Daniel, while Nigel, who is catering the event, the good secular guy he is, just wants Sarah to be happy.  (Adam was probably cut for time).

Daniel enters, asks Sarah to dance, having gotten the band to play their tune (Howie Day's "Collide" \). They instantly fall back into their old rhythms but without that unspoken thing between them... then Daniel gives Sarah her final gift, it's Bubbe Rose's promise ring... as if Bubbe Rose knew they would always wind up together.  Kissy kissy time.  Credits.

The Formulae:
The wonderful thing is this being steeped in Hanukkah traditions and Jewish culture, most of the hoary old Christmas cliches are absent.  It is a breath of fresh air in that regard, for sure.  As noted, I've not spent enough time with the other Hallmark Hanukkah movies to know if there are now new Hannukah tropes that Hallmark is teeing up.

But outside of the holiday feels, there's, well, party planning.  Sigh, always so much party planning in these bizHallmarkies.

There's the POC best friend/confidant.  Both Sarah and Daniel have one (and if it sounds like I'm being reductive it's because these characters are barely characters...and they're both employees of the leads) and their head-tilt look of sympathy.

There's the 20-minutes to go complication.  They kind of double down on it with Sarah finding out that Daniel has an offer to build 30 homes in Denver or something.

Telling the ex/current boyfriend know they're in love with someone else and the ex/current bf being reasonable and accepting.

The big ball/gala/event, and the sexy-but-tasteful blue (or red, but in this case blue) dress. 

Daniel's got a dead mom.

Unformulae:
Well, we don't usually get someone "playing the field" in a Hallmark.  Here we have a woman with four or more possible suitors, but she is actively dating.

The characters yelling their true emotions at one another in frustration.  Kind dug it.

 A live band (Sarah's brother is the drummer in "the Bean Counterz") playing kind of pop-tunes, not Christmas carols.  Like in the real world. (People don't dance to Christmas carols, Hallmark).

Daniel and Sarah are never identified as a couple in advance by anyone (though both the POC best friends inquire with the "well did you guys ever...?")

A steamy eye exam?  Can that be a thing?  Hallmark seems to think so.

True Calling?
This may be the most apt title of any Hallmark ever.
Alternative title: My Stupid, Cowardly Childhood Crush.

The Rewind:
I didn't actually have a rewind moment, except for catching what exactly Nigel wanted to do to Sarah's mom's kugel with raisins. He respectfully asks" I, if there's no objections, might add some currents plumped in port for the Mazel Ball."  That sounds like a genuinely good addition, like something a polite chef might do. Sarah's mom, twice established as a judge, says "Objection overruled."  Hah.

Oh, and when Daniel goes to Sarah's to finally tell her how he feels (mid way through Hanukkah), but then chickens out, and they dance...she's barefoot and he's in his shoes and I worry so much for her feet.  Take your shoes off in her house, you savage.  Jake Epstein's a good Canadian boy, he should know that you take your shoes off when entering the home.

The Regulars: 

Inbar Lavi makes her Hallmark debut with this one and, man, she's good.  I can see why the guys are falling all over her.  She's striking, and her mousy voice belies the fierceness beneath.  Lavi handles every scene beautifully, often conveying much without saying anything.  She hasn't been beaten down by the Hallmark grind like so many of the regulars have.  There's still a full tilt performance going on here.

Former Degrassi: The Next Generation star Jake Epstein has been in quite a few of these holiday romances, both of the Hallmark and non-Hallmark variety starting with Charming Christmas in 2015, and he has Candy Cane Christmas also coming out this year.

Mom Sheila Tyson is a Vancouver-area bizHallmarkie regular, last seen in Christmas Sail.

Dad Barry W. Levy has also been in about a half dozen bizHallmarkies since 2017.

Brother David Kaye was last seen in The Santa Stakeout and Love, Lights, Hanukkah.

Sarah's best friend/employee Keisha Natalie Malaika makes her second appearance in a Hallmark after last year's Cranberry Christmas.

Daniel's best friend/employee Jimmy has been in nearly a dozen Hallmarks.  He appears as the game show host in this year's The Christmas Contest

How does it Hallmark? (How does it fare as a Hallmark movie?)
This really is a cut above most Hallmarks, and easily the most appealing of their Hanukkah movies to date, the first not to seem like a tossed-off "there you go" offering.   There's still a minuscule amount of non-invasive explaining the holiday or specific traditions to secular guests, but in a way that probably rings true.  If I don't sound more effusive about it, it's because it could have reached a little higher, a little further outside the Hallmark romance formula.  That it sits so snugly into it dulls its shine.

How does it movie?
Not so much .

The set-up is a really fun idea, a woman who receives a gift from a secret admirer every day of Hanukkah, while she is also dating multiple guys, has an ex that wants her back and a close guy friend from childhood who's always around.

What it needed was to make the mystery a viable one.  Yes, obviously the guy she's ending up with is Daniel, but you need to play the game of making it seem like any of these other guys are even passibly a threat to him and their happiness.  This movie is just not interested in establishing Nigel, Adam or Paul as real characters with inner lives or wants or desires or personality.  There's never an inkling that they are someone Sarah is going to wind up with.  The dates she has with them are terribly scripted (they basically only talk about dating and next dates).

That this whole thing is just Daniel being a bloody coward in telling Sarah how he feels is so frustrating. I think it would have been interesting had there been another suitor to start who was dropping gifts off but then Daniel, realizing that he does have feelings for Sarah and needs to be making a play, then sabotages the other guy's gifts and replacing them with more intimate ones... and then the other guy starts taking credit... yeah, there's a romcom.

[Toasty, I think I found an angle for our tv movie romance podcast: Fix This Hallmarkie - where we run through how to turn a bizHallmarkie into a real movie]

How Does It Snow? 

There is...snow, but I think it's all melting away (there's a lot of wet sidewalks), so they covered it with cotton batting.  I'm guessing they shot this in north Vancouver in March.  It looks wet, and cool, and grey, but not very snow-laden.  It passes amicably as Seattle.