There seems to be a lot of movies about people dying and their lawyers calling last minute for something missed. I get it – it’s a way to move a story. Christmas at the Catnip Café is Hallmark‘s latest Countdown to Christmas movie starring both Erin Cahill and Paul Campbell, it’s exploring that (kinda). Just when you think you’ve seen everything, you are surprised with more.
It’s like an education in cats.
I have to say I am not a cat person. Christmas at the Catnip Café starts with Cahill loving a condominium and having to find a way to get a bigger down payment. Right after that, she is called into her aunt’s lawyer’s office. Her aunt has left her a part-owner of the cafe that she never mentions. The Catnip Café is one of those cafés where cats run free. There are lots and lots of cats.
As Olivia goes across the country to meet the co-owner and try to talk him into selling. Olivia, played by Erin Cahill, is all over the place. She doesn’t know what she wants. I think that Olivia is trying to plant roots, as her parents are nomads and she’s lived her life on the go. Meeting Ben, played by Paul Campbell, Olivia is instantly irritated. He won’t sell.
She remembers the time that she spent in this town with her aunt, but she also doesn’t really seem to understand the dynamics of a small town. She is honest with Ben – she wants to sell for a bigger down payment on a condo. Ben seems a little put off.
He wants her to see the effect it has on the community. You can’t blame a man for wanting his community to stay the same, and to really grow people come into that café and you can see that these cats are therapeutic to them.
Olivia and Ben make a deal – she helps with Christmas at the Cat Nip Cafe, and he doesn’t block the sale. She reminds him that he can slow it down but can’t stop it. I watched her say the words, and I saw the pain in his eyes. The slice of pain that made him conflicted and the part that didn’t want to let go.
The way that Campbell and Cahill are on the screen, you can see that they have been friends for a while. You can see that they both want the best for each other, and it comes through in their characters. It’s that connection with themselves, as well as with their characters, that makes the movie endearing.
Olivia and Ben are changing each other, and at the same time, changing everyone in the town. Olivia may not realize just how much it’s changed her. All of the flashbacks make us understand who she was as a child, but also make the viewer feel for Olivia. BUT, also angry at her.
Instability isn’t an easy thing, and I don’t think that anyone wants that. Olivia’s fear of the unknown, as well as her fear of losing people, is sad. It’s sad that she doesn’t seem to grasp what she needs to take care of herself. Now, I have so much respect for Erin Cahill, and so it was no shock that she was able to bring Olivia to life.
I don’t think that there is anything that Paul Campbell can’t do. He’s yet to make me dislike a role that he plays. The man is talent personified. His portrayal of Ben – the Ben stuck in the past and the one that is moving forward- didn’t matter. Campbell – in any role – puts the viewer at ease.
So seeing what happens between the two – how Ben and Olivia are able to be there for each other, but also the entire town – well, that was the chef’s kiss. You know how it works – there is a conflict that arrives, hurt feelings, some big revelations and then a payoff.
And the payoff is there. It definitely is in the cutest way possible. Sometimes you don’t need extravagance and an overproduced movie. You just need feels. And here you can feel.
Christmas at the Catnip Cafe wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was a good movie. We can thank Paul Campbell and Erin Cahill for that.
