It’s always hard to watch a movie that you want to love, but you don’t. Ms. Christmas Comes To Town was a movie that I did want to love. I mean it’s Barbara Niven. She’s amazing. I love Brennan Elliott. I thought that I would walk into this movie loving every second.
But I didn’t.
The premise made me think, hey, I am going to cry my eyes out. What is it? Well lets just dive right into this. I will just pray that people can forgive me for not loving this movie.
What It’s About
A once-aspiring movie starlet, Gale Storm (Niven) ultimately found fame as Ms. Christmas, the fan-favorite host of the Holiday Shopping Channel (HSC). After receiving a terminal diagnosis prior to the height of the holiday season, Gale decides to retire so she can sign-off the airwaves on her own terms. The network wants to send her off in style, so the Ms. Christmas is Coming to Town Tour is born, allowing Gale to travel from city to city while she shines the spotlight on local products and brings Christmas cheer and surprises the way only Ms. Christmas can. Concerned about her well-being while on the road, the network insists on having Travis (Elliott), a travel nurse, accompany her and Gale reluctantly agrees. Gale and Amanda (Durance) – her director of operations and hand-picked successor she dubs Ms. Holiday – have known each other for many years and are more like mother and daughter than co-workers. Gale isn’t ready to share her diagnosis yet with Amanda, so Travis poses as the network head’s godson who’s coming along to learn the business. As the festively decked out RV goes from town to town, much Christmas cheer is spread, lessons are learnt and love blossoms – possibly even for Gale, whose former fiancé James (Mark Brandon, “Firefly Lane”) unexpectedly turns up at one of their stops. Though Gale doesn’t how they can rekindle their romance, this may just be what the doctor ordered.
What It’s Giving: Sleep. A lot of sleep. Sorry, I know that I was supposed to feel more, but I just felt like it missed the mark on giving me angst and actual feelings. It made me tired.
Standout Performance: Brennan Elliott. What is not to love about him. He’s always amazing and hey, he can pull that off with the weird haircut that they gave him at the beginning. What the heck was up with the semi-mullet?
My Scroogish Thoughts: I have read so many posts about people excited for this film and so I am apprehensive about writing this review. And TBH, I have never felt like more of a scrooge disliking a movie that is about a person dying, finding love, and finding a path.
Ms. Christmas is an institution. The world loves her. She’s the most popular thing on the Home Shopping Channel and everyone looks forward to seeing her every year. But this year will be her last. She has a brain tumor and she’s been given a year or two at the most to live.
The thing is – Gale Storm bores me. She is going through all of these things and shows little to no emotion. She’s wanting to keep it a secret, but the way she does it makes it feel like it doesn’t matter. And when her assistant – who she is teaching to take over her spot as Ms. Christmas finds out – it just felt meh.
They are on a tour for the show, because Ms. Christmas wants to see her fans before the end. The studio wants a nurse to go with them, but Ms. Christmas doesn’t want anyone to know she’s sick, so the nurse goes under the premise that he’s the studio heads godson.
Travis (Elliott, whose weird mullet I can’t overlook) had met Ms. Christmas’s assistant when she thought he was her blind date. Amanda (who is Ms. Christmas’ assistant) and Travis are supposed to have some chemistry, but I don’t see it. Don’t shoot the messenger – I just don’t see it.
I think a big part of my issue with the movie is the characters of Ms. Christmas and Ms. Holiday. Both just didn’t make me connect with the movie. Amanda (Ms. Holiday) was supposed to be this character that you can’t get enough of, but honestly – I couldn’t wait for her to not be on the screen.
I couldn’t wait for either of them to not be on the screen.
Don’t get me wrong Barbara Niven and Erica Durance are good actors and normally I would love the both of them. But when I am watching this movie all I could think was how these two really aren’t playing off of each other.
The thing is with the story line had potential and I honestly am not saying that it’s all the acting. It’s not. It’s the writing. The potential for angst and a good story are there. But then there is the casting. The cast did not mesh for me.
But the movie did try. It truly did try. It tried with the romance and it try with relationships. It tried to bring emotions out of the viewer. But for this scrooge – it put me to sleep.
No Christmas cheer felt here.
Christmas Cheer: None
Well, I loved this movie. So to each their own