No Buddy, It’s Really Not That “Complicated.”

**Spoilers**

This was shaping up to be a decent pull at the ol’ heartstrings usually involving moving forward after a death that Hallmark Movies and Mysteries specializes in. Stacey Farber was charming and refreshingly natural looking (No long ringlet over her shoulder!) as Maddie, the female lead,  and Brendan Penny, the male lead, is always at least good, and sometimes very good. The two play adoptive parents. Maddie is single by choice, and the mother of Wesley, a fairly well-adjusted kid, except he has recently learned he has a biological brother that he longs to meet. It is his Christmas wish. Brendan plays Paul who has lots of challenges in his life. He owns a struggling ski shop and his wife died a couple of years ago. Their adopted son, Cody, who is maybe about 8 or 9 does not know that he is adopted, and his mother on her deathbed and widowed dad agreed not to tell him until he was 10 years old. First, WTH? And, why?  This does not seem like a good idea in this day and age not to tell a child they are adopted. I mean, what is the big deal? If you don’t raise a child to always know they are adopted, shouldn’t you at least drop the truth bomb on him before he starts school? Why 10? Seems a little random with no regard to circumstances and your child’s personality and maturity level. But anyway, all the conflict arises from this peculiar decision, which later morphs into a “promise.” As in deathbed. Right. As we are told over and over, “It’s complicated”.

Maddie and Wesley visit her parents for Christmas in Park City Utah where Paul and Cody live. They meet at Paul’s ski shop. Mother and Father and the two boys bond immediately and it turns out that Wesley and Cody are, yes, you guessed it, biological brothers! What a happy coincidence! Here is Maddie’s son, yearning for a brother, and here is Paul’s son who is shy and timid and needing to come out of his shell, finally making a much-needed friend in Wesley. And here is Paul and Maddie who like each other a lot. But no. It’s complicated. Since Paul is too stupid and cowardly to tell his son about being adopted until he reaches the magical age of 10, everything is hush-hush. And here’s the thing. I won’t go into all of the details explaining, but he will lose his business and will have to move to Colorado because he can’t take advantage of a business proposition involving Maddie’s father, Wesley’s grandfather. Because Wesley and Cody must be separated so Cody doesn’t find out the truth (before he is 10).

Paul’s life, Cody’s life, the life of his sister who has been a surrogate mother to Cody, his best friend, and even Maddie and Wesley and Maddie’s parents are all going to be torn apart or heartbroken because he won’t tell Cody he is adopted (before he is 10). Not to mention all that he is depriving his son of. And believe me, everyone sees what an idiot he is being except him, and isn’t afraid to try to nicely talk sense into him. Too nicely. It was maddening. And to top it off, when he finally takes to heart all of the wise advice he has ignored or anguished over throughout the movie and tells Cody the news, It turns out Cody already knew! Funny stuff!

So Paul’s foolishness ruined the movie for me, despite the great job the two little kid actors did as Wesley and Cody, the previously mentioned Stacey Farber, the presence of Laura Solis as Maggie’s mom, and the nice Christmas decorations. In the last 2 minutes, Paul apologizes to Maggie, they kiss, tell the boys the truth, the two families come together for Christmas dinner,  and we leave them at the table laughing like maniacs.