Meghan Ory

A Christmas Angel Match

/ Rebekahrox / 2 Comments
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Winging It

There seems to be some mixed, mostly negative, (man, I thought I was a little sour sometimes) reviews for this one, but I really enjoyed it. Written by the lead actress, Meghan Ory, it had some cute lines, ideas, and “world building” as far as angel and heaven culture was concerned. I thought the sets and the costuming were terrific. 

Monica (Ory) is an experienced and award winning angel who has worked at the Department of Christmas Connection all her life. She is 587 years old and we are told that she was born an angel, so has never been human. She takes a thoughtful and serious approach to helping singles find true love during the Christmas season. She goes strictly by the Angel Handbook aka The Hark. But she’s been in a slump lately.  Young people these days are too distracted and busy on their phones to look up and make an in-person connection with one who might be their soulmate. She loses the Angel of the Year award to the new kid on the block (only 97 years old), Michael (Benjamin Ayers), who takes a “fun” approach to match making. Monica believes that a more serious well planned methods facilitate more meaningful long-lasting relationships. Michael may have put together more matches than her, but how solid are they once the Christmas magic wears off? The tidings are bad, not glad, when a mistake happens and they both are assigned the same couple to match and are forced to work together. There is a lot riding on this particular assignment. “Cloud Command” is not happy with the DCC’s performance lately and they may be forced to downsize and merge with the Valentine’s Day folks. And the office manager Gabriel does not get along with Cupid.

I like when there is a lot going on in a Hallmark romance. In addition to getting together the “tenderheart” (human) young couple, their grandparents are making a match of it, as well as, of course, Monica and Michael. Monica takes the lead at first. But the plan to have Patrick and Daisy bond over cute puppies goes awry as well as the tried and true “Brewed Awakening”, the old collision with coffee routine. They are both called on the carpet and Monica and Michael realize that they have to work as a team. Along with trying (unsuccessfully) to get Patrick and Daisy to connect throughout most of the movie, Michael makes it his mission to show Monica some human type fun and get her to loosen up. Neither Michael nor Monica are exactly likable at first “We are not arguing, You’re just wrong!” But I liked their journey. As they tick off all of the meet-cute tropes on the Hallmark checklist, (Christmas crafts, picking out a Christmas tree, snowball fight, hot chocolate, getting caught under the mistletoe, etc. etc.) the two angels slowly learn to work together and develop a friendship and mutual respect.  I still haven’t tired of the self aware humor that results when Hallmark makes fun of their own Christmas romances. And this movie was all about that-right down to the partially heard convo that results in a misunderstanding and temporary heartbreak.

There were some nice touches that added a little depth.  Along the way, we learn that  Monica has been matching Patrick’s family for generations which is one reason why this one is so important to her. At one point Michael finds Monica in church looking for divine intervention, she says. He thinks church is a good place for that. It wasn’t perfect. It started out repetitive and got a little draggy in the middle and although Daisy was adorable, I didn’t take to Patrick. Some of the acting was a little forced. Daisy’s best friend was a gay man who also gets matched up and he was too stereotypical and it had too much of a “Check that off the list” feel. As was the interracial aspect of Daisy and Patrick, I suppose. Hallmark really has a lot to balance, so I can’t be too hard on them. On the other hand, “Baby Steps” just doesn’t cut it anymore. All in all, I appreciated the fast paced dialogue and banter and the out of the box plot. I wonder what will happen next with Monica and Michael. A heavenly wedding and little baby angels?

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

The Secret Gift of Christmas

/ Rebekahrox / 25 Comments

A Gift Wrapped Christmas 2.0

In catching some of the previews for The Secret Gift of Christmas, I was struck by the similarities which appeared to be between it and one of my favorite Christmas TV movies, Lifetime’s 2015 flick, A Gift Wrapped Christmas. To start off with, here are the opening scenes in both movies:

Come on now. And their jaunty walks are identical.

In both, a cheerful force-of-nature type woman is a personal shopper, for those that can afford such a thing. Their clients are primarily business owners and corporate types who must impress their colleagues and clients at Christmas (and other occasions, presumably).  As the movie went on the similarities continued to be striking. Both shoppers (Bonnie and Gwen) take great pride in their work and are really committed to finding the perfect gifts that will amaze and delight. They are both hired by workaholic single-Dad widowers who do not spend enough time with their attention starved children. They are still dealing with the deaths of their wives and are closed off from moving forward. Both do not want the shoppers to go outside the box with the gifts and just want them to buy boring and impersonal under-the-radar type things like plants or mugs. In both movies their instructions are ignored and Bonnie and Gwen find gifts so special and perfect for the giftees that the result is great good will, effusive thanks, and big business wins for their handsome clients. At first very skeptical and resistant, they are won over. Both men even let the women revitalize their boring wardrobes. Not stopping there, the women both grow close to the men’s children and forge ahead to repair their personal lives. It isn’t long before their relationships with their kids are on the right track, and stuffy attitudes are melting away. Both Gwen and Bonnie both have supportive sisters who want more for them than just their work, and absent parents though for different reasons. And, needless to say, clients and the personal shoppers start falling in love. In both cases, this raises the ire of a jealous other woman and we have conflict and misunderstandings.

In the end, there are just enough differences between the two to avoid a copyright infringement lawsuit. Although I am not a lawyer. Bonnie uses shopping to fill the void left by the death of her mother and she is estranged from her father. Gwen is just great at shopping for others and her mother is a free-spirited world traveler. At the end the couples are brought back together by different things. Gwen goes to her clients cabin to deliver his son’s most yearned for Christmas wish, a sled. And in the 2023 version, Patrick, Bonnie’s client, finds and returns a beloved Angel necklace she thought she had lost forever. Bonnie had some work to do on herself, as she was kind of on the verge of being a shopaholic. She learns that “presence” is more important that “presents”, thanks to a last minute appearance of a magic Santa Claus. Gwen was just a shining star and had no issues whatsoever to work on, to my memory.

A Gift Wrapped Christmas was a 10 for me and this new one was a 7. As good a job as Meghan Ory did as Bonnie channelling Meredith Hagner as Gwen, she couldn’t compare with Meredith Hagner’s portrayal in the first version. She was not a breath of fresh air, but a tsunami. The 2023 movie one did have Christopher Russell who was as handsome and authentically nice and sweet as ever. I was getting kind of worried I wouldn’t see him in a Hallmark Christmas movie this year. So I would have to give The Secret Gift of Christmas the nod for the male lead. I do want to acknowledge the excellent job by the actress who played CR’s daughter. She struck just the right balance between eliciting both our sympathy and our admiration. She was never a Debbie Downer about not seeing enough of her father, but always upbeat, frank, and wise beyond her years. All in all, for a story that was basically a copy of an old Lifetime movie, it was well done, and I enjoyed it.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

PS. I recently saw that the powers that be eventually did credit the story writer which, indeed, was the same for both movies. The script writers are different. This was not on IMDb when I wrote this review because I specifically looked for such a credit. IMDb credits often dribble in long after the premiere, which is unfortunate. So in the interest of fairness and full disclosure, I wanted to add this note to my original review.

September 26, 2024