A Welcome Change of Pace

This movie had a lot of words, and they came fast and furious! I was like, “Whoa there, slow down!” for the first 15 minutes or so until I got used to the rhythm. After the first 5, I turned the captions on but that didn’t help because I can’t read that fast. It is packed with banter, exposition, quirky characters, plots, subplots, running jokes, nods to the old movie “Mystic Pizza,” you name it. It was a real change of pace for Hallmark, no pun intended.

Dr. Juniper Jones is a Marine Biologist who is somewhat of a rolling stone despite her important career. She is on her way to Norway to view the Northern Lights when she gets a call from her best friend, who needs her help with a rescued seal. Juniper agrees to come to Mystic Connecticut for a bit to lead the project to get the poor Peppermint back to his natural habitat. The day after Christmas she is headed to South Africa on another seal mission. Also in Mystic is her friend Candice’s younger brother Sawyer with whom June made a strong romantic connection 10 years prior. It is awkward and embarrassing because Juniper poured out her heart to him in an email and he never answered back. We quickly learn that Sawyer claims it was the other way around. He did answer her, but she ghosted him. It’s a mystery, indeed.

The main characters, Juniper and Sawyer, have many lessons to learn and lots of work to do on themselves before we can get to the happy ending. Why is June (June?/Opposite of December?/Juniper?/Christmas tree?-Is that a gag?) so averse to settling down in one place and connecting with people? Why is Sawyer so all-fired determined to help everyone in the town do everything instead of traveling the world and having adventures like June? Before these two can get together, they have to communicate first and their communication skills are one of several things that they need to fix. The turning point comes after a text message misunderstanding that encapsulates their problems in a nutshell. Juniper has to break a date that Sawyer has gone all out for, but doesn’t explain that it’s because Peppermint the seal is deathly ill. Instead of calling him, she texts him (keeping these light again!) Sawyer replies with a thumbs-up emoji instead of finding out what is going on. They are both hurt and angry. They are having words in a crowded auditorium when a very minor but still well-written character, Ken, overhears their conversation and sticks his nose in. Sawyer thought he was being “low key”. He thought he told her not to worry, everything is all good. Ken explains to him that there is a difference between being low-key and passive-aggressive. June is all like “Yeah!”. When June says she texted him and didn’t explain about Peppermint because she didn’t want to make excuses, Ken turns on her and says there is a fine line between making excuses and giving an explanation. This gives them both food for thought and results in them finally being honest with each other and really laying things on the table. June realizes that she won’t settle down because she is afraid of becoming attached to people and having them disappoint and hurt her. Sawyer realizes that he puts everyone else’s needs over his own because he is trying to earn their love and friendship instead of realizing that it would be given freely because he is who he is. The fact that their epiphany is because of Ken, very much a side character whose business their relationship is not, is typical of this movie. Things just come out of nowhere and it is full of unexpected delights that just don’t quit. And through it all, we have the ongoing mystery of that dang email that so changed Juniper and Sawyer’s lives.

All of the characters, from wise and dry-witted Candice, her shy reader of a daughter who is a “late bloomer”,  to the 3 over-eager interns at the aquarium to Sawyer’s ambitious assistant at his pizza restaurant all have great lines, contribute to the story, and have their own character arcs. There are so many details that amuse and surprise. Sawyer’s terrible handwriting, an intern who doesn’t like sweets who is in love with a baker, Candace’s love of murder mysteries that she always figures out (turns out there’s a reason for that), and on and on. The actors handle the challenging non-stop script with aplomb. Everyone was on top of their game in this one, but I particularly loved Jesse Schram as Juniper, Patty Murin as Candace, Delaney Quinn as her daughter Louisa, and Eric Freeman as Peter, one of the interns. Chandler Massey was kind of adorable as Sawyer. Gee, that’s just about everybody.

If there is anything to criticize about the movie, it is the very denseness and fast pace of the script which is bursting at the seams. It keeps things a little too light, bordering on glib. The rat-a-tat-tat dialogue is certainly entertaining, but perhaps better suited to a 30-minute sit-com rather than a whole movie. On the bright side, it’s a movie that will only get better with repeated viewings. It is extremely well-constructed and organized. No lazy writing here. And I loved the way the World Traveler V. Homebody relationship dilemma was resolved. And everyone in the movie loves to read. Always a quality dear to my heart.