The Ski Lodge One

This was the one about the Ski Lodge. You know, the struggling old fashioned family one which is about to be taken over by the multinational resort developer, which will erase everything that made it special with its hateful updates? Like Wi-Fi and indoor plumbing? Haha, I kid. But you get the idea. My goodness this year’s “Christmas in July” offerings have been lame and run-of-the-the-mill. Have they always been like that? Or is it just me? This one starred Vanessa Lengies who has been in some very good Hallmarks which were very good mainly because of her. She plays Cassie Evergreen (last name is Christmas-y instead of first, for a change of pace. The only.) She is  the daughter of the owner of a small chain of boutique hotels who is visiting from the big city to assess the value of Linden Lodge to determine its fair market value. Her mother is an old friend of the owner and if Cassidy does a good job, she will give her a big promotion. She hates the cold. The original owner’s widowed son-in-law, Trey, has equal shares in the lodge which is interesting. He is trying to fight off his father-in-law’s plans to sell. He is a single Dad and technology averse. He still listens to his music on a Sony Walkman and “Could you print that out for me?” All hopes rest on “The Christmas Fest” which will benefit from Cassidy’s computer skills while she drags Trey (Marcus Rosner) kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The big deadline of Christmas Eve (of course) looms, but they do everything but worry about the deadline.

I had a glimmer of hope for this one because of the talents of Vanessa Lengies and a cute scene in the preview with Skywalker Hughes, who plays Lily, Marcus Rosner’s daughter. But not even Vanessa could raise this one above the mundane. I was not surprised to learn that this one is also a movie that has been sitting on the shelf for two years, waiting for Hallmark or someone else to air it. I’m giving it a generous 6 because there wasn’t anything blatantly dumb about it and didn’t make me too mad. It also had real snow (I think). To answer my original question posed in the previous paragraph, Yes, Hallmark “Christmas in July” movies have been pretty much second stringers, at least for the last two years. Last year was the unremarkable “Unwrapping Christmas” quartet. And before that, the only one that rose above the fray was the delightful Rescuing Christmas, which was actually featured on the Hallmark streaming service prior to the Network premiere. So. Next Week’s offering does not look promising either “for reasons.”