Christmas in Tahoe

Laura Osnes is likeable and the entire cast delivers a watchable movie. Pat Monahan sings well. But....., Christmas? Claire is a capable, ambitious organizer who wants to stage a great show, in hopes to land the job of her dreams. She gets help from Ryan, her old flame, and new sparks are awaited. The show happens to be scheduled on Christmas Eve and includes a comedian' s act and some pretty bad music. The clue is a number where 'Silent Night" gets totally butchered, while ecstatic fans cheer loudly. What happened to the time when people are inspired to be generous and forgiving, when families and friends reunite in wonderful traditions, when they celebrate with music that has warmed the heart of generations after generations? Hallmark has added another nail to the coffin of Christmas tradition, with a soulless presentation of materialistic holiday values.

One night before Christmas, in Oberndorf, a small village up the Austrian Alps, young Rev. Joseph Mohr and his friend, organist Franz Gruber, found divine inspiration and composed "Stille Nacht", perhaps the most beautiful Christmas Carol ever. They would feel mortified, could they see what is done to their immortal creation and what is passed for 'Christmas Spirit', over two hundred years later! Hence, enjoy the view, is you please, but do not call this a "Christmas " movie.

Gaslighting booking agent, clinging fans, paparazzi, meddling mothers, unappreciative father, overly persistent guest. Isn't this fun. Don't forget schemes to get past security. Actually, some of those were vehicles for humor, but annoying isn't funny to me. Then there are the three top acts that cancel at the last minute. (What no broken pipes?) It does get better in the last half.

Beyond all the efforts to sign up acts, the story is pretty much the usual stuff. Finally after a while, Kyle Selig and Laura Osnes get a chance to show some chemistry.

There are a few musical numbers here and there, mostly in the closing show. I was disappointed that Osnes wasn't one of the performers.

The story was good enough, had a couple of twists not obvious in the first ten minutes. The main complaint i have is that tahoe is beautiful but i doubt it was actually filmed there. Other than one line, this could've just as easily been christmas in kansas city, or albany, or anywhere. The few outdoor scenes were not in identifiable locations; the most tahoe the viewer sees is in the opening montage, possibly all stock footage.

There is some real life reality in this film where personal careers and goals temporarily take priority over Ryan (Kyle Selig) and Claire's (Laura Osnes) own relationship. The Christmas period is that magical time when forgiveness is on everyone's mind and reconciliation between estranged family and friends occurs more often than anytime of the year.

The supporting cast was just that, very supportive in their respective roles and to have the lead singer of Train, Pat Monahan, play Jackson, an administration assistant to Claire was a Christmas gift for all of us.

The only knock against this made for TV film was the producers and film editor decided to insert that irritating musical "bing bong Christmas tingle" interlude through most of the films conversation and I for one just get tired of hearing that cheesy bing bong twinkle background sound throughout. Never the less, I would recommend the film to both romantics and Christmas film lovers. I give it a respectable 6 out of 10 IMDb rating.

6/10 - I will admit to really enjoying the trope where one of the exes has made it big and is now super famous and this certainly captured the heart of that trope which made it stand out ever so slightly among the rest of the 2021 holiday movies.