“Nothing like a trilogy to make people happy.”
It is the Christmas after the last movie and two of the three brothers have not shown much of the hoped for growth and wisdom which we are promised by the end of the second film. But there is some progress!
The “worst” brother, Taylor (Tyler Hynes), has flourished in his career and is being offered a partnership in a successful tech company in Silicon Valley. But we know by his perpetually pained expression (a Tyler Hynes trademark) while the head honcho is offering him the moon and stars to come on board, that he still has “issues”. Taking the fabulous opportunity would involve moving out of state and out of his mother’s (huge and luxurious) basement. But there is hope. He is still with new girlfriend Caroline, “the love of his life,” who was such a bright spot and force for good in the second movie. The actress, Erin Kurpluk’s, star has not dimmed in this one.
Stephan (Paul Campbell) and Susie are planning their wedding, but he still lives in his Mom’s guest house in her backyard. This is a magic guest house. It morphs from small and sort of modest to ginormous and luxurious from one scene to another. Unless there are two “guesthouses” in her backyard. This kind of lack of attention to detail that Hallmark is famous for does not have any affect on plot or character but it is very distracting. As is the borderline weird product placement. Stephan’s wedding plans are not going well thanks to his skittish behavior and shilly-shallying over decisions. Also his prospective father-in-law is visiting for Christmas and they do not get along.
Luke (Andrew Walker), the third brother is just fine, if a little tense, being the fire chief, the father to Thomas, the titular child of the first 2 movies, and husband to his pregnant-with-twins wife. He’s nervous about his impending fatherhood, which a very ranty and unpleasant birth coach in the first scene did not help. She needed to go back to birth-coaching school.
To get the ball rolling, the boys learn their mother Barbara a.k.a. “Gigi” (Margaret Colin) is selling her huge house which not only throws Stephan and Taylor’s living arrangements into disarray but spurs the boys to make this Christmas, their last in the childhood home, “The Best Christmas Ever.” Thus, the lion’s share of the time remaining is devoted to a rather random string of over the top hijinks, shenanigans, and frenzied activity/disasters which added nothing to the actual story (was there one?) and provided all too few chuckles, unfortunately.
However. There were a few high spots that kept the movie in watchable territory. The well-written dialogue (by Campbell and Sustad) flows smoothly thanks to the rapport of the actors playing the three brothers. Jerry, the talking cockatiel, was pretty funny, and I liked the callbacks to the previous two movies: Mr. B of the Christmas Pageant, Mark Laclark, and Kimberley Sustad’s cameo as the wry local doctor, for 3. Even Fiona (Ali Liebert, yay), Taylor’s girlfriend in the first movie, pops up in a pivotal role. At first I thought they had forgotten about Roy, Gigi’s new boyfriend in the second movie, but his mysterious absence is finally mentioned (I may have missed something) and he returns in a climactic scene. I liked Roy. There is a heartwarming scene or two where Taylor acknowledges his fear of change, and Stephan finally makes it all better with Susie. Best of all, her rude Dad gets told off by a disgusted Gigi very satisfactorily and he is suitably abashed and apologizes. At the end, the trilogy is wrapped up with the two problematic brothers making mature decisions about their future, and Luke welcoming twin daughters to the fold. This ended up being a good wrap up of the trilogy. As Dr. Kimberley Sustad says, “3 is the magic number.” And enough is enough.
