A Playful Romance

I wasn't expecting this to be one of my top tier of holiday movies this year, but here we are. I loved this. Let me count the ways.

First, an excellent script. So many of these holiday TV movies have manufactured drama and conflict, things that could easily be resolved if only people would just talk to each other. Not here. The conflict in this story is presented early on and the tension is kept up throughout. We have a true Scrooge of a villain, and she isn't a-kiddin'. Yet you can ultimately understand her motivation.

The conflict resolution in the final act is beautifully done with a Big Gesture that releases the tension/conflict in an authentic way. It made sense for the characters.

Second, there's the romance. Both leads are extremely appealing. They had great chemistry and fit well together as a couple. Jamie Perez as Riley truly sparkled. She had a strong and fun personality and was convincing as the director of a local theater company. Thomas McDonell as Sam was more laidback with a soft edge that worked with in contrast to her drive.

And then there was the A Christmas Carol theater production. I wanted to see more of it. We only got the a few short readings. But there was some nice caroling by the show's cast midway through that was impressive, and there were echoes of the Scrooge story in the main storyline.

All told, this is a keeper and is in my top five this season.

A Starstruck Christmas/ A Show-Stopping Christmas/A Playful Romance (2021) -

As Christmas film efforts go this one was pretty standard without anything to specifically distinguish it from the others. In fact I'm sure I've seen the same "You can't sell the theatre to build condos!" plot before at least twice. That's not to say that it was bad, but it just wasn't anything to write home about, which makes it hard to write a review about.

Firstly I didn't buy Sam (Thomas McDonell) as a Hollywood movie star. He was fairly cute and mostly likeable in his role, although make up needed to fix his beard, but leading Hollywood guy?? Not so much.

The other lead character Jamie Perez was a bit much in her role of Riley though. She never stopped to consider what other people might be going through and she was a bit obsessed with the theatre's threatened closure. And it was all about how it would affect her and her circle.

All she did was rile up Regina (Maureen Keiller) without once thinking about her feelings. And there in lay the crux of the story and why Riley's attempts to save the theatre were repeatedly thwarted.

To be honest though, Reggie really needed to get over it and realise that her late husband Jake would never have wanted her to be that way. Although I know that there's no time limit on grief it might also perhaps have been more believable.

If her loss had been fresher than 7 years before.

While the theatre troop were very competent singers, I personally thought that their performances on stage were pretty bad, especially as they were tackling such a classic play. Sam didn't exactly give an Oscar award winning performance as Bob Cratchit either, which was another example of him not being Hollywood enough.

I could however appreciate the budget spent on extras and the special effects, particularly when you consider it was 80 degree heat when the film was recorded.

So how did Riley save the theatre and find love along the way? It was all fairly obvious to be honest, but it didn't hurt to watch it and it certainly wasn't one of the worst efforts I've seen.

6.34/10.

This movie is not a rom/com. It is more of a rom/dram or really a dram/rom. Throughout much of the first half, I was having troubling getting into the flow because I was anticipating just another Christmas movie based on the common premise of saving the town theatre while giving a performance of A Christmas Carol. The story does focus primarily on the fate of the theatre and the role that theatre has played and is playing in the lives of the principal characters. And that extends beyond just Riley and Sam.

It is tempting to see Regina as just a mean theatre owner who assumes some of the traits of the villain who wants to tear down tradition and replace it with condos. But the actors and director did a good job of playing this so that something seemed off about that assumption. There was a twist about half way that made me totally reevaluate how I was perceiving this story.

The acting is good and so is the dialogue, but don't expect a comedic dialogue. There is chemistry between Jamie Perez and Thomas McDonell, but again, don't see it the way it usually fits into the Christmas romance movie. In some ways, Maureen Keiller is the lead. Or perhaps more accurately one of the three principals. I felt like she overplayed the vindictiveness a little, but then I'm not sure how the alternative would have fit the overall scheme. I also think the climax was melodramatic almost to the point of being cheesy, but maybe it needed to be.

There was a nice caroling scene just before the twist. The theatre cast performed two carols and they were much more than the usual Silent Night.

This movie is well done. Don't take my rating as a reflection of that. Quality of acting, dialogue and plot - 9 stars. My personal enjoyment 5 stars. Net 7 stars. But not one I think I will want to watch next year.