If there’s one thing that I can understand in life, it’s wanting to go back in time. Wanting answers and trying to figure out what happened and why it happened – that’s instinctual. I understand the desire to fix things. I can also understand when used to see the people that are no longer with you get the answers that everybody asks you about, but you don’t have anything to say because there are no answers.
A Grand Ole Opry Christmas was filled with tons of stars, but really, those country music stars weren’t the draw. Nikki DeLoach and Kristoffer Polaha stole the show – every scene that they were in, regardless of who else was in the scenes. The story was beautiful and filled with heart.
Nikki’s performance reminded me at least of the innocence of wanting more but the fear of getting it, as her character of Gentry, is invited to the Opry and ignores the invitation. Her father was a member of the Opry, and she’s being asked to be there to represent him. She’s avoiding it, and yes, the reasons are private. She’s always asked about her father, why he stopped singin,g, and what happened to his favorite guitar.
The biggest question she is asked is why he stopped singing. She doesn’t have an answer and wishes she did. She doesn’t know what happened and why he stopped performing. Gentry wishes that she had answers and that she could talk to her father one more time. How could she do that? Well, that’s time travel for you. Apparently, the seats on the stage – you combine Opry magic and Christmas magic – they take you back in time. Those seats took her back to 1995, which is the last time that her father played with his partner at the Opry,
I can’t imagine what it would be like to experience time travel. I also instantly felt for Gentry Wade, because she’s experiencing something anyone who has lost a parent would like to experience – just a little more time.
But that doesn’t mean that in 2025 she wants to be on the Opry stage. She just wanted it to be on her terms. DeLoach plays Gentry so beautifully – an independent woman who doesn’t seem to see her great potential and her strength, but over time embraces it and holds on tight. She makes you feel for Gentry Wade, and you want to protect her.
And you want to protect her relationship with Mac – the guy whom she grew up with and who loves her. She doesn’t see that he’s in love with her, but anyone else with a pulse does. It’s him who can get answers out of her. So when she says that she doesn’t wanna participate in the Opry, because she’d always wanted to be a songwriter and stepping into the Opry circle – this isn’t how she imagined it.
Gentry, sitting on the stage, travels back to 1995 and then is suddenly back in 2025.
If your friend told you that they time-traveled, would you believe them? I’d have them checked out and probably placed on a hold. Mac – Kristoffer Polaha – really loves her, though, because it doesn’t faze him. When she tells him that she’s going to travel through time again, I would have been like him and run to the Opry. But I also would have had the ambulance on standby.
I guess you have to believe that it happens, though, when you are also not able to think they’ve lost their mind when you time travel also. When he shows up, there is a sense of calm around her. She feels peace, and I do believe that is a sign she loves him, too. I love a love based on friendship, and I love a trope that comes to life so innovatively.
The thing about Mac is he’s never going to let her suffer, and he’s not going to desert her. She wants to talk to her father and figure out why he quit music. When you are looking for answers, you have to be willing to ask the right questions. The thing about life is you never know the right questions, though. And how can she guarantee that she’ll ever get answers?
Over the two hours of the movie, there are a lot of things happening, but nothing more important than Gentry getting to know her father. Every conversation, every interaction – the way that they learned and grew from each other was emotionally moving. The things she learned about herself, but also the things that he learned about the type of father he wanted to be from her.
At an industry party, Wade is rude to her, and I know that I shouldn’t like that, but I was appreciative of it, because it leads to a scene with Mac and Gentry that was everything. Gentry and Mac were sitting outside in the cold, and he did want to comfort her. They’re talking about basically why she stopped writing, and that she should have continued. She tells him that she pulled out her writing and that she wants to do as much as she can. She tells him there was a song that she couldn’t finish because she had wanted to finish it with her dad, who passed away before she could. Mac asks her to sing it for him, and when she does it anyways little does she know that her dad is behind her listening to the whole thing.
As Gentry runs into her Dad again, he tells her that she’s quite determined to speak with him, and I wonder what it would be like to have that chance to talk to a parent once again. Seeing her get to write her song with her Dad and the connection that he makes with her made me cry my eyes out. It was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in a Countdown to Christmas movie – because the peace and hope it gave was different.
When her Dad disappears to think about what he wants to do – make the next record and go on a tour, or go spend time with his wife and daughter. No surprise that he chose his wife and daughter.
But Gentry – she got to see her Dad perform once more. Nothing seemed as special as that moment, and I was so happy for her. Happy that she got the chance to say goodbye to him and let him know that he is loved.
Wade made the decision to walk away from performing to be a good father. Her getting to see that and know that he loved her unconditionally was something that I believe would change the trajectory of her life.
And brought her back to the Oprey stage. To Brad Paisley singing and her dad’s former partner talking her up.
I don’t think there was a better ending to this movie than seeing Wade walk through the door and hug his wife and child. He was happy. They were happy.
Hallmark did a great job with this movie, and I am appreciative that they took a chance on this one. It was one of the good ones – ones that they took a chance on
It’s a reminder that no matter what, happiness comes in different forms for people, but if you open your heart and you open your mind, you can see that there is no better place than the arms of people you love.
That’s the magic of life, Christmas, and the Grand Ole Opry.
