Watched: 11/22/2024
Format: Amazon
Viewing: First?
Director: Jonathan Wright
Ah, the Golden Age of Hallmark. If you weren't a city-gal falling for a simple boy from... somewhere else even 45% more rural?... were you even Christmassing? This one is still from the Hallmark era of Actresses I Knew From Other Things Picking Up A Quick Paycheck. And, to wit, Alicia Witt is our star.
In this movie, Witt plays the world's perkiest depressed girl. In the wake of her father's passing, she's running his antiques business - right into the ground. While she has no visible traffic in her shop, she also won't find time to organize the store, do her books, or do much but stand in place behind the counter. She seems to have no friends and her mother has left. She's dating a guy who openly has contempt for her, and seems to have picked her because she'll agree to whatever, like a real life Sim.
She is unwell.
Her man is, of course, Business Man. And that is bad. Because business. City. Cell phone. He is bad. Even if, you know, he's rightfully pointing out that she's running her dad's business into the ground. That is bad. Do not point out the inevitable failure. He proposes to her stupidly and publicly, and for reasons, she agrees, because depression is a wild ride, I guess. He then tells her she's flying to meet his family, and he'll catch up. And she does this.
The titular very merry mix-up occurs as Witt is a moron who meets another moron and neither realizes the other's story doesn't match, and she just leaves the airport with this guy and goes to his house, believing he's the brother of her fiancée. Btw, she's never even heard her fiancée has a brother also, btw, (friends, do not go with a stranger just saying things that sound vaguely comforting to a second location).
She, of course, falls for the brother because we can't quite do While You Were Sleeping, but we can come close! And she loves Christmas, and... get this... so does he! The brother, Matt, is not much of an actor, and you can feel Witt just over-caffeinating herself to get some energy out of their scenes, because she's, like, good and stuff, and kind of stuck in this movie.
Anyway - she figures out she has the wrong house and goes to the right house, and Business Man's family is hilarious. Yes, they suck, but that sucking is by far the best part of the movie. It's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf about to break out at any moment.
Knowing Witt is ruining her dad's business, Business Man (a) finds a way for her to sell the property for $3.5 million, and then (b) offers to help her set up in another spot a couple of blocks over. Yes, this will benefit him, too. Which is something that would help her, is she's marrying him. It's the definition of win-win. Yet... Witt, who thinks owning a business is about nostalgia for one's childhood and not feeding oneself, gets mad and breaks up with Business Man, refusing the deal.
She gets back with dumb-dumb. The End.
This is a movie about dumb, sweet people belonging together. There's worse things. I think they'll likely be bankrupt within a year, but okay.
The movie is full of gigantic plotholes, the main character seems traumatized and that goes undiagnosed (and I worry for her). It's dumb things happening so movie will happen. It hits all the Hallmark waypoints. City bad. Business bad. Not Business Man good. Wise old relative. Stupid stories about the past. Decorating a tree too close to Christmas.
It was good to go back and see one of these Classic Formula movies, and I do miss them starring someone famous for something outside of being in Hallmark movies.
Anyway, if you want to buy me the Alicia Witt Christmas record, I won't complain.
Witt is, of course, a stone cold fox, which makes this easier to watch.
