Sam Page

Christmas in Rome

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Roman Holiday

Lacey Chabert and Sam Page make a good pair. I really liked the rapport they had together. They really matched. This 2019 production is set in Rome and although it had a lot of the usual travelogue elements, there was a lot more plot to this one and it definitely had its moments.

Lacey plays Angela who is an expatriate American living and working in Rome as a tour guide. She loves Rome, knows every little nook and cranny, and delights in taking her tourists off the beaten path to show them the real heart and soul of her favorite city. Unfortunately, her forays away from the safe well traveled tourist sites have sometimes gotten her and her little ducklings into trouble. Her latest out of the way adventure to a 400-year-old bakery results in one of her clients getting attacked by gluten. It is the last straw for Angela’s boss and he fires her. On her way home she meets a visiting business executive, Oliver, played by Sam Page, who is lost. She gets him to his business meeting successfully despite taking the scenic route, to his impatience. Oliver wants the retiring Luigi, played by Franco Nero, as handsome and charismatic as ever, to sell his high end family ceramics company to his firm. Oliver is all business, all the time. He is all about the bottom line, ignoring the niceties, and cutting right to the chase, which might be okay in some countries, but not in Italy, as Angela tries to tell him. As it happens, Luigi is very rich and doesn’t care how much money he gets for his Christmas ornament and other ceramics manufacturing company as long as its heart, soul, and artistic culture is preserved and nourished. There is lot of talk about “heart” and “soul” in this one. When Angela steps in and saves his bacon with Luigi who was very put off by Oliver’s initial approach, she adds life coach to her tour guide duties. She escorts the culture-shocked American around “the real” Rome showing him its heart and soul while lecturing him to death. There is nothing that Angela does not know about anything Roman. This was a very educational Hallmark. Oliver is won over and encourages her to start her own kind of tour guide company, specializing in tours that are much more than just the top ten tourist must-sees and selfie sites in the Eternal City. Meanwhile, Oliver is fending off his boss’s constant nagging about-When he is going to close the deal? What’s taking so long? Why do you look so relaxed and happy? And what does kneading bread with Lacey Chabert have to do with Luigi’s manufacturing plant? God, she was annoying. And the more she talked, the more I was afraid that Oliver actually would convince Luigi to sell his wonderful company to them as they were the exact opposite of everything that Luigi wanted from its future owner.

There were some really good moments in this one besides the scenery.

Angela refusing her former boss’s pleas to come back to work for him was one high point. Despite the inconvenience, seems Angela was very popular with his clients and frequently mentioned by name in his Trip Advisor reviews. His alarm when she tells him she is starting her own company and is on her way to line up some investors (arranged by Oliver) was very satisfying. A real “Hee-Hee-Hee” moment. I really liked that Oliver really bought into and supported Angela’s business aspirations.

Her pitch to her future investors was well done and the outcome was well managed, with just enough suspense to contribute to the overall effect.

I even liked that big conflict at the end which was well-founded and not silly or cooked up. At a celebratory dinner, Angela and Oliver agree to give their relationship a go despite living in different countries. Oliver tells her he will stay in Rome through New Year’s which signals that he has found balance between work and his personal life. Also, he has refused to take his boss’s calls! Angela is so encouraged that when she rings again, Angela encourages him to talk to her. He does, but he comes back to the table with news that he has been promoted to vice president (good news) but he must leave for New York immediately after all (bad).  In an instant, Angela sees the sad reality of their future in front of her versus the dream of making a go of it with the back-sliding Oliver. She calls the whole thing off and is direct, strong, and articulate. It was a great scene, and I was cheering her on all the way. Sam Page perfectly conveyed Oliver’s confusion and heartbreak.

There was a lot to resolve to achieve a satisfactory ending: The romance, Angela’s business venture, Oliver’s work/life balance, and, importantly for me, the future of Luigi’s beautiful little company in the hands of Oliver’s cutthroat employer. All were hanging by a thread. At one point Angela is even contemplating moving back to Seattle, of all places! Sure enough, Hallmark checked them all off and did so right in front of St. Peter’s Basilica during a Christmas concert. Well played.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Rescuing Christmas

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Cute as the Dickens

This was just as delightful as I remember it being when I saw it last December on the Hallmark Now channel (free trial subscription). I remember thinking that it was one of the best Christmas movies of the season and wondered why it wasn’t on their network Countdown to Christmas 2023. I didn’t review it then because of that and because there are just so many reviews one can do in a week at the busiest time of the year. So it was no hardship to look at it again last night.

Erin (Rachel Leigh Cook) is somewhat of a Christmas scrooge. She only appreciates Christmas for the joy it gives others, particularly her own niece and nephew. She is picked at random for “Operation: Wish” conceived by two of Santa’s elves, Chuck and Debbie, to help humankind rediscover its Christmas spirit which has been lost in the wake of such crimes against humanity like social media and macaroni and cheese ice cream. She is driven to distraction by the two elves incessant emails to claim her last wish (the first two were for her Mom’s Christmas cookies and her old boyfriend to to come back and give her the credit she deserves for his new found success (long and entertaining story: She ends up throwing the asshole out of the house). Finally in frustration and a little scared because her two previous wishes came true by coincidence, she wishes for Christmas to disappear. When it does, she soon realizes her mistake and spends the rest of the movie trying to bring Christmas back with the help of the love interest, Sam, played by Sam Page. He did not endear himself to Erin at first when he showed up for their blind date in Reindeer Antlers. Of course now that Erin has wished that there is no such thing as Christmas and never was, his love for the holiday is not an issue. But yet, despite his initial incredulity over what she is blathering on about, he helps and supports her because he really really likes her. We know it’s true love when she calls him to bail her out of jail.  It was sweet and romantic.

Erin’s attempts to explain Christmas and how to celebrate it to everyone are very funny and thought provoking. A tree in the house? Pantyhose full of rocks? And who was this Mary Krismas again? She sets about trying to recreate it for her loved ones, Sam, and then the whole town. It is gold mine of visual humor. Red and Green aren’t a thing now that Christmas never was, so Erin has to make due with pink and chartreuse. When she sends her parents out to purchase the usual Christmas paraphernalia, they come back with leftover Halloween decorations,  pink feather boas, Hawaiian Leis, tennis balls, and beach balls (“You said to get ornaments like brightly colored balls!”). Is christmas even possible without twinkle lights? Will a fox do for a yard ornament? Because reindeer? Really?

Everyone who had a part in this movie was wonderful, but I particularly loved the quirky performances of Patrick O’Brien and  Bailey Stender who played Chuck and Debbie, the two elves responsible for the whole fustercluck who were eager to help Erin but had to do so with only the most discreet use of Christmas Magic.  The writers made the decision to keep religion and spirituality out of this movie entirely. And I see why they did that. But to me, it brought this one down just a bit. I would have appreciated even a cursory nod to the original reason for Christmas, since this was what the movie was kind of about. It was kind of an elephant in the room. Despite that, with Santa’s help, all ends happily with Erin finally realizing she loved Christmas for the joy it gave her, not just her loved ones, and satisfactorily paired up with Sam. (“Is romance always part of Christmas?”, he asked. “Of course, whole channels were devoted to it.”) In the end, even Chuck and Debbie got their wish and no longer had to deal with humans again.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Joy for Christmas

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The Mystery of the Lost Plot. Or Was it Kidnapped?

This movie began by ticking me off. Cindy Busby plays a publicist whose boss screws up a booking with their client leading to great embarrassment for her. Then he turns around and throws her under the bus when it was his fault. And apparently, it is not the first time. Now, most “Hallmark” heroines would suck it up and take one for the team, but not Cindy. She ups and quits on the spot! Her boss is horrified because she is his star employee. So as quickly as it made me angry, it immediately redeemed itself.

At a loss as to her next career move, the family business beckons. Her sister is a top executive with the family firm and she tells her that they need her desperately. All of the money meant to fund their big charity of the year has been swindled. Cindy left the firm after her father, under the apparent influence of his second wife and her son, had gotten away from the charity, community, and people-focused ethos begun by her dead mother and is now solely focused on profits. So it’s the two sisters, “the Silver Belles” against the rest of the family. This is shaping up nicely into an interesting story involving more than a hint of family skullduggery with a dose of wicked stepmother and an equally wicked half-brother. And maybe even some justice served, groveling, and redemption on the horizon.

To save the charitable event she recruits a fellow victim of the charity swindler, Sam Page, a famous ex-baseball player. It isn’t easy because he eschews social events and is a famous Scrooge. It seems like a high-cost and low-probability of benefit scheme, and it’s boring. But with only the support of her sister, she finally succeeds in getting his help. Romance proceeds but they fail in attracting enough donations to benefit the needy children. Disappointingly for the intrigue and plot, the stepmother turns nice and helpful all of a sudden.

Cindy and Sam have fallen in love and have shared intimate confidences. At the end of the failed event, her still wicked stepbrother spitefully twists her words about Sam to him which results in hurt, confusion, and a breakup.

Ok, it’s all shaping up as usual and I was all set for the misunderstanding to be cleared up, the charity saved at the last minute, and best of all for the bad stepbrother to get his comeuppance. Then the story just falls apart at the seams. I don’t know what happened but either the writers either lost the plot or the powers that be in charge of family values at GAC tampered with the script. Without warning or explanation, the stepbrother’s firmly established conniving bad-guy persona gets abandoned and he’s suddenly all about goodness, family values, rainbows, and unicorns. The charity and the romance are rescued in a non-related plot development and the bad guy is as happy as the rest of the family. It was downright insulting. So this was an 8, got demoted to a 6 or 7 during the middle, and ended up a 1. I’ll be nice and up it to a 3 out of respect for Cindy Busby and Sam Page who were great together.

Rating: 3 out of 10.

December 29, 2021

One Summer

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Jack takes his son and daughter to his late wife’s beachside hometown hoping to heal and become closer. The summer brings visions of the past that could forge a new path forward.

Hallmark Blues

This one is a throwback to those old time very earnest Hallmark Hall of Fame-type productions that play sometimes on Hallmark Drama. Thus it makes sense that they showed it on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries rather than the main Hallmark Channel. Because Hallmark Drama just shows reruns and this one doesn’t fit with regular Hallmark’s mission statement. Apparently.

It is about a man who lost his wife while he himself was dying from a mysterious disease he got while deployed in Afghanistan. When his wife was getting him medicine she dies in a car crash, leaving him, his 15-year-old daughter, and his younger son bereft. He “wills” himself well from this unknown but fatal disease. It’s a miracle.

He takes his kids to the little (North?) Carolina Island where his wife grew up so they can heal from all of this sad trauma. He becomes friendly with a nice café owner and his daughter becomes infatuated with her son. The dead wife starts to appear to Sam Page, the Dad, to guide him through his grief.

This is not a real light-hearted cheerful movie. The actors do a fine job. Sam Page, who usually plays such conservative buttoned-up-looking characters with the straightest hair part in Hallmark-land (other than Paul Campbell), really lets his freak flag fly with longish tousled hair and a scruffy beard. I liked it. Amanda Shull as the ghostly wife and Sarah Drew as the alive love interest do a fine job as usual. Madeline Grace Popovich who plays the typical teenage girl, that is, unreasonable, obnoxious, and whiny, makes you really dislike her. Almost as much as you dislike the annoying and controlling mother of the dead wife. But the young actor who plays the sad anxious little son is fantastic, and really tugs at your heart.

This drama is not about romance. What there is between the parents and their teens is only to cast a hopeful rosy glow on the final scene of the movie. Do not question or think it through. Things cannot proceed with the two single parents until their infatuated kids are out of the house because that would be more than just awkward. Enough said.

I like the direction that Hallmark seems to be going with some of their features. Whether they can keep it up throughout the upcoming rampage of Christmas Movies remains to be seen.

Rating: 8 out of 10.

October 8, 2021

Touched by Romance

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Uninvolving Characters

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Famous author Norma (Doris Roberts) is dying of cancer. Her Nurse attempts to influence her decisions as far as treatment and her estrangement from her son. I found the Doris Roberts character too unpleasant and unlikable to be much moved by her plight. Maybe I missed something, but I did not understand her broken relationship with her son or why her diagnosis had to be kept from him. I liked Emma and how she stood up to her, but she also was kind of boring. As was the romance.

Rating: 5 out of 10.

June 2, 2020

The Perfect Christmas Present

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Why Can’t They All Be This Good?

This one was really good. The two leads were very likable and I liked their gradual falling in love. The fact that the hero made a living picking out the perfect gift for his clients to give their loved ones was very problematic in many ways, but I just suspended my disbelief in that aspect. Sam Page was very effective in the role, and his female lead was very lovable. This story revolves around a former fraternity brother hiring our hero to pick out a gift for his girlfriend that will “smooth over” some rockiness in their relationship. He was clueless to the max and kind of scary and creepy in his pursuit of his girlfriend. On the one hand, he is worried that she is drifting away from him, but he continues to neglect her, while badgering our hero to hurry up with the perfect gift. Just didn’t make much sense. Of course, she finds out that all of our hero’s interest in her was only research, so her hurt and anger are totally understandable. He did fall in love with her and his interest was sincere, so all is resolved at the end with the presentation of his perfect Christmas Gift. That part was really good, and the last few scenes were amusing as we wrapped up the loose ends with our main couple’s former love interests, 8 stars out of 10**

Rating: 8 out of 10.

November 14, 2017