Janel Parish

Christmas on Duty

/ Rebekahrox / 4 Comments
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Oorah!

First of all, I don’t have a military bone in my body, so I am not going to comment on how authentically or inauthentically military culture, protocol, uniforms, etc., etc. were depicted in this movie. But kudos to Janel Parish for being outfitted in bulky military camouflage throughout, except when she was wearing an elf costume, instead of the usual array of red and green coats and cute winter hats our heroines are usually garbed in. She really took one for the team because that cap was really ugly. The one thing I did learn about the military was how much our soldiers love the insurance company, USAA. Honestly, I was expecting Rob Gronkowski to pop up at any minute. Oh wait, they sponsored this movie. I get it.

 We first meet Blair and Josh when they are in basic training at Quantico. They are rivals but also kinda like-like each other. Blair is a star student and Josh is not far behind, but when the rankings come out, Blair is first in her class and asks for the very assignment that Josh has made no secret of hoping for. She had told him she was going after something else but changed her mind at the last minute without telling him. Naturally, Josh was quite put out by this dirty trick  oversight. It ends their friendship and they go their separate ways. Cut to the present day, 6 years later. It is Christmas time and Blair is shown to be very competent and respected in her position on the Marine base as some kind of trainer or instructor. We learn the commanding officer of the base is retiring and  Blair is up for a company commander position. At the Christmas/retirement party her old enemy Josh is introduced as a newly promoted company commander, one of the coveted slots Blair had hoped to get. Blair is vexed. Karma’s a bitch, girl. Josh and Blair get into a big loud fight and knock a big fancy cake all over a visiting Colonel and his wife. Apparently, this kind of thing is frowned upon, and Blair and Josh are reprimanded and relegated to spend Christmas Eve and Day working together at the base instead of at home with their families. Speaking of families. Blair and Josh are both products of longstanding military traditions. Their fathers are retired and have been nursing a grudge against each other for years and years. The sins of the fathers are visited on the children and all that.  Josh’s dad is very strict, scary, and demanding and it was to please him that Josh wanted the assignment that Blair ended up getting 6 years ago. Blair’s dad is nicer, but was always very discipline- oriented, until his wife, Blair’s mother, recently died. Now he is trying to lighten up and take her place as far as Christmas cheer and more traditional holiday fun is concerned. Josh finds out some bad news from his sister, who bears an unsettling resemblance to Blair. (This  led to a bit of confusion on my part at one point-Why is Josh dancing at the party with Blair when they are so hostile?!) It turns out that his little nephew, along with all the other military children in the neighborhood, are not going to get their Christmas presents on time because of a snowstorm shutting down all deliveries. Josh and Blair propose to the retiring Colonel, their commanding officer, that since they have access to a military vehicle, that they go south to where the toys are and the snowstorm isn’t, and bring back Santa’s bounty for all of the kids. He says no way and that is that. Ha ha, I jest. Of course he agrees, especially since he has a little granddaughter whose heart is set on a pink skateboard.  And how else are we going to have all the high jinks, teachable moments, and the enemies to lovers romance that Hallmark is famous for?

This was an OK effort by Hallmark. Although the overall arc of the romance and plot was predictable as usual (the feuding fathers bury the hatchet in the end and Josh’s father learns not to be a d*ck) the actual activities were a little different (no festival, institution saving, or climactic holiday ball!), adding a little freshness to the 88 minutes or so. The opening credits were really cute. Janel Parish and newcomer Parker Young were fine and made a good couple. Also, thanks to Josh, all professional and personal misunderstandings are cleared up and Blair is recommended for a Company Commander. It’s all Happy Families on the personal side, and Janel finally gets to ditch the camos.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Return to Office

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments
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You’ve Got Post-it Notes

This is a version of what some call the Epistolary Romance trope where two people get to know each other through the written word while remaining unknown to each other, or sometimes antagonists, in real life. You know, like Shop Around the Corner which You’ve Got Mail was based on. Or an old 1950s era movie, A Letter for Evie, which many probably don’t know (but which I highly recommend for fans of this trope). This one shares a device with a popular English romance novel and later TV series, The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary , in which two people share an apartment, one at night and one during the day and communicate using post-it notes.

Liv (Janel Parrish) is the Director of Corporate Strategy for a large tech conglomerate who works closely with the eccentric founder and head honcho. Her boss Walter obsesses over trivialities and “peacocks around” while she does the real work. She tactfully manages him and he depends on her loyalty and support (though he doesn’t know it.) She mostly works remotely from home, and has her routine down pat which is just the way she likes it. The huge firm has just purchased a boutique social media platform that is art and artist related. Tom is the Head of Design for this company. He is more of a free spirit, being of an artistic bent and all, which is the opposite of Liv. During a video call with all of the important officers of the firm and the “newbies” including Tom, Walter announces that he is instituting a “return to office” policy as part of his “vision.” But now having more employees than office space they will work alternate days and share desks. Liv and Tom end up paired up with the same desk. Liv works in the office Mondays and Wednesdays and Tom is at the desk Tuesdays and Thursdays. They work out the Desk-ual politics by means of communicating with post-it notes ( succulent v. rubber duck, a messy trash can v. a neat one, food left to fester, etc.) Poor desk being very much an innocent bystander caught in the middle. At first hostile, they quickly work out their differences and the friendship progresses to text messages, which start to get personal. When they meet and work together in real life the business end of the relationship also progresses, while they are both still unaware that Liv is his “Ms. Monday”, and he is her “Mr. Tuesday”. That is until Liv, who volunteers at the assisted living facility in which Tom’s mom lives, gets to know her, and in conversation, her son Tom’s dual identity as Mr. Tuesday is revealed.

Complications, continued flirting, dilemmas, matchmaking mamas, and workplace drama ensue. I won’t go into all that because it’s a lot, but  just stop there and say what I liked about this movie. Besides a nicely written script (despite a lot of suspension of disbelief being required) I really liked the chemistry between Liv and Tom in both versions of their relationship. They were both very likable, despite Liv’s not standing up to her egotistical and volatile boss when he gets stupid. I loved that Tom calls her out on her lack of backbone, not standing up for what is right, and being a “yes-woman.” And I really loved that Liv did not get all pissy over his criticism but took it to heart and started to rethink her approach. I also liked that Tom’s mother defended Liv by reminding him that he had never had to answer to a demanding boss, work for a promotion, or be a team player.   Acknowledgement that things are not all black and white and can get complicated. I liked that no one says “It’s Complicated.” When, in this movie, for once, it really was.  Christopher Shyer was great as Walter, taking his character from a silly caricature of an Elon Musk-type to vaguely menacing to an outright villain. At the end, Liv and Tom see that their individual strengths and weaknesses make for an unbeatable team, professionally and personally. I also liked that Hallmark tackled the phenomenon of AI encroaching on and replacing human creativity. They don’t approve. Although our couple have a brief parting of the ways before the end, it is not due to some stupid misunderstanding. Very much a fan of that.

The only quibble I have is that I would have really liked to see an epilogue. Although Walter gets his just deserts somewhat, I would have loved to see him suffer more and have the consequences of his actions come home to roost in a more spectacular fashion. I also would have liked to see more closure to the couples partnership and love story. **7 1/2 stars**

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Sugarplummed

/ Rebekahrox / 5 Comments
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A Very Meta Christmas

Hallmark making fun of itself in their own movies seems to be a bit of a thing lately. They take all of the usual Romantic Comedy ingredients, fold in all of the cliches and tropes that are exclusive to Hallmark itself, and fill up a movie with them. If I was a cynic, I would be  a little suspicious that it’s an excuse to get another Christmas movie in the tank without having to think of an original plot. And they can still say, “ Hey, aren’t we clever? See how we are laughing at ourselves!? Our movies are filled with cliches but that’s OK!”  I thought this was the way this one was going and I felt the tedium coming on, but then it took a turn.  And I started to really enjoy it.

 We meet lawyer Emily (Maggie Lawson), her architect husband (Brendon Zub-love him) and her two teenage children. Although the family love each other, we see there are troubles a brewin’ . Emily is over-organized and tightly wound. She is determined to give her family “the perfect Christmas” (or else) so they can reconnect and become closer together the way it used to be. We see her husband is overworked by his bully of a boss who has been making his and all of his coworkers miserable since his divorce. “It’s like I’m working for Scrooge, but instead of 3 fun ghosts, he’s just haunted by regret.” Their son is struggling in a new school and feels like an outsider. Emily’s relationship with her daughter though is the most troubled. Nina has dreams of being a singer and going away to a performing arts school. Emily discounts her dream and insists she go to the university close to home and study for a more practical career.

Emily gets to the office and and her assistant is watching the famous  and beloved series of Sugarplum Christmas movies. Sugarplum saves a bakery, Sugarplum meets a secret holiday Prince, etc. They have a long conversation over the rules of Christmas movies, as seen on the “Harmony Home Network”, where following these rules will always result in a perfect Christmas for the cast of characters. Later that evening, Emily wishes on one of her mother’s old ornaments, a Christmas star, for the perfect Christmas to make her family happy and create special memories like her mother did for her. Christmas Magic happens and Sugarplum herself appears, a little discombobulated over being sucked out of her perfect Christmas movie world and into the real one, where she assumes things will work just as smoothly as she is used to. And at first, it does! Everything goes according to the rules in her very thick Christmas rule book (which she pulls out of her bottomless purse where all of her fashionable coats and matching accessories also live.)

**Spoilers**

She replaces the artificial tree with the perfect real one, which she cuts down herself from Emily’s grinchy neighbor’s yard. She uses a magic snow globe to cause a snowfall inside the son’s school which proves very popular with the students and helps him bond with his classmates. She solves a dispute between one of Emily’s clients, the owner of an old ski lodge/Christmas tree farm and a developer who wants to knock it down and put up a resort. Sugarplum takes one look at the couple (played by Fiona Gubelman and Victor Webster, Hallmark regulars in amusing cameo performances) and knows they are destined to fall in love and come to a compromise solution on their own. And they do! Right before our eyes! Lots of other stuff happens, and Emily is well on her way to her “perfect” Christmas. Except her family is still disconnected and stressed out.

But then things start to go awry for poor Sugarplum and Emily. Sugarplum meets a handsome man by an elevator (another cameo-this time by Carlo Marks) and romance beckons, as it does when elevators are involved in Rom-Coms. Until he serves her with a summons for criminal trespass (the Christmas tree incident). The rapprochement between Emily’s  client and the developer turns out to be nothing but a ruse to get her to sell her land to him. And finally, Sugarplum is thrown in jail for starting the snowstorm and snow ball fight in the school lobby and causing damage to government property. Also, the police are very suspicious because “Sue Garplum” doesn’t exist according to the internet and she might be a terrorist(?) because her fingerprints all look like snowflakes. Apparently Sugarplum’s Christmas magic is fading due to all of the heavy lifting needed bringing magic to the real world. It’s just getting worn out. Can anything revive it? Hmmm. I wonder. Maybe Emily learning the true spirit of Christmas? In the meantime, it’s a good thing she is a lawyer.

After a slow start, this turned out to be one of the most entertaining, funny, and clever of  2024’s Christmas movies. At first, Janel Parrish as Sugarplum seemed too over the top cheerful and perky. She was getting on my nerves and I was getting antsy. Emily’s blindness to what would truly make a warm and wonderful family Christmas was frustrating. She confides that her favorite childhood memory with her late mother was the Christmas all of their presents were stolen, the tree caught on fire, and they ended up spending Christmas day in a motel. But it was great because they were together! She won’t listen to her own words! Her assistant, seeing Emily’s holiday stress, advises her to quit chasing perfection and live in the moment.  Emily cynically tells her she sounds like a Christmas movie and discounts that advice, which turns out to be the lesson of the whole movie. But then things got great.  I think it all turned around for me when Emily, fully invested in Sugarplum’s magic, makes gingerbread cookies even though she doesn’t have any ginger. But that doesn’t matter because in Christmas movies all cookies are delicious and perfect even if they don’t have all the ingredients! “I didn’t have any ginger so I just threw in a whole bottle of gin!”,  she boasts. Luckily, Sugarplum “couldn’t drink another bite.” because last thing we need is a drunk Sugarplum.

Being a Hallmark movie, Emily finally gets the message, the faded magic returns, and everything comes together for her and her loved ones in all phases of their lives. But it’s all about the journey to the inevitable happy ending, isn’t it? For Emily’s family, all is resolved very poignantly at the school Christmas Pageant starring Emily’s singing daughter.  But there’s more! The final scenes back home, with some unexpected visitors, were funny, surprising, and are what really tied the bow on top of this almost perfect gift of a movie.  Right down to the kiss under the mistletoe.

All of the actors in this did well but Maggie Lawson and Brendan Zub were perfectly cast and I was glad to see them again as Hallmark leads after such a long time. Kyra Leroux was also as stand out as Emily’s rightly resentful and talented daughter. The imperfections in her singing at the beginning turned out to be perfect in the end, reflecting the moral of the story. This movie was a solid 8 1/2 or 9 but those last scenes were just so fun.

Rating: 10 out of 10.