Un Noël de roman

A sweet coming home story always gets me.

I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I did! It was well acted & directed as well as beautifully made. As a true southern belle, I loved that she called her parents Momma & Daddy, that pimento cheese was preferred over patè and that southern traditions were shown as endearing and lovely as they truly are.

So many films set in the south are unbearable to watch when actors use some creepy southern accent that they heard from some other actor using a nails on the chalkboard accent...not case in Christmas on the Coast, even though Drew did not have one, it worked.

The chemistry between ours stars felt more authentic than some I've watched recently. I will definitely watch this one again.

The producers of "Christmas on the Coast" missed the boat (pun too?). The idea for the plot is okay, and could have been a very good film, but as a comedy. There's just enough in it as is, especially with the characters of Hawk Cramer, Fletcher Reese, Drucinda Cassadine and Ellie Cassadine. Indeed, Julie Ann Emery and Bonnie Bedelia have naturally humorous personas as daughter and mother. But instead, this movie was made as a drama, but without much of anything convincing along those lines in the screenplay.

Even the lead role's name begged for comedy treatment - Drucinda evokes the name of a mean step-sister of Cinderella, Drisella; or of a mischievous witch from some other tale. Brian Lafontaine's Hawk is a comedic character itching to be cut loose. But for a few lines that attest to that, and his voracious appetite, his character is wasted and certainly doesn't fit in any drama of this film. And the drama, or what seems to pass as the drama, seems very forced and unbelievable. Mom and her friends are shocked and hurt after reading a few chapters of Drucinda's new book that makes them appear as a bunch of hicks. Even with the names and places changed, they are hurt because they know she was writing about them. Then, as proof of how lame this plot scene is, they so quickly get over it.

Finally, as a romance this film fails completely. If there is any chemistry at all between Drucinda and Brysen Flynn, it must still be in the petri dish of the producer's lab. Burgess Jenkins has so little life and spark to him that his character appears bland most of the time. The only other occasional sparks in the film are provided by Clarence Gilyard as Fletcher Reese, and Cait Pool as Brysen's daughter, Peyton Flynn.

And these characters, along with Drucinda, her mom and agent (Hawk), were ideal for building a very good comedy film. It could use the same premise, the same settings, etc. It just needed to be rewritten for that purpose. And then, maybe even the romance could enter in with Drucinda's coming back to earth at the end, and realizing what life could really be like.

I doubt very much that a huge four-engine passenger jet would be landing at an airport in a place like that, as the movie implies. But, the scenery is very nice where the fictional Harbor Point, South Carolina, was filmed around Saint Simon's Island, Georgia. I always enjoy coastal scenes that have lighthouses.

In living on both coasts of the U. S. over the years, I became very interested in lighthouses and the history of the Lighthouse Service. The stories of lighthouse keepers included many rescue efforts from shipwrecks. The U. S. has the most lighthouses of any country in the world. Many have been abandoned, taken out of use, or succumbed to nature. But many more are still active as beacons for navigation. By the end of the 20th century, all lighthouses had been automated. Some have been transferred to historical trusts to operate, and others taken out of service have been transferred to historical preservation groups or sold to private sources. In my travels, I have been to or seen all of the lighthouses on the continental coastline of the Pacific Ocean, and most of the lighthouses below New England on the Atlantic Coast. I have been to and seen many along the coast of New England, several along the Gulf Coast ,and many in the Great Lakes, as well as some along the Alaska Coast and in Hawaii

Here are the best lines from this film.

Drucinda Cassadine, "I don't like Harbor Point." Hawk Cramer, "You don't have to like it to enjoy it." Drucinda, "What does that mean? Hawk, "It means... I don't know."

Drucinda Cassadine, meeting her mom at the airport, "Here's my stuff." Ellie Cassadine, "Did you leave anything in your closet?" Drucinda, cynically, "Ha, ha, mom - that's very funny."

Drucinda Cassadine, cynically, "Wow. This place is exactly the same." Ellie Cassadine, eagerly, "I know it. Ain't it great?"

Hawk Cramer, after Drucinda chases him out of her mom's kitchen, "I really want pancakes."

My Christmas film viewings over-time have been a very mixed bag. With some surprisingly good hits, where regardless of how predictable they are succeed in being full of charm, warmth and heart so succeeding in being light-hearted and undemanding fun. But also some quite big misses, where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them. Have seen both extremes throughout the Christmas film completest quest and also many films with elements of both.

Personally have seen worse Christmas films overall than 'Christmas on the Coast'. When it comes to Christmas films made in 2018 however, which was a very mixed bag (some surprisingly good, some average to decent and some average or less), 'Christmas on the Coast' is to me one of the worst. The premise was a quite nice one, despite not being exceptional, and there are a few good things (though ones that have been quite a lot better in other films etc). But the flaws are also many and most of it are really quite big.

Did think that the production values were quite nice, especially the scenery.

Also that Burgess Jenkins was an amiable male lead.

The same cannot be said about wooden Julie Ann Emery, who also overdoes her character's very negative personality. The excessive unlikeability of her character brings 'Christmas on the Coast' significantly, overdone character flaws are a major pet peeve, especially if the character in question is meant to be likeable or/and rootable later on, and have not seen arrogance and disrespect this blatant in a long time. . It is true that there are plenty of flawed people out there and that they do change and grow, but the flaws here are so overdone and any change or growth felt rushed and underdeveloped. Didn't detect any real chemistry between the two leads, which looked cold and under-rehearsed.

Furthermore, the supporting cast are very cartoonish. The worst performance of the film coming from Bonnie Bedelia, who really overacts and comes over as a really bad impersonation of Dolly Parton. Also agree about the distractingly bad accents, possibly the worst Southern accents since 'Beautiful Creatures' except worse, and all the characters and their ways of living come over as too stereotyped and in an over-generalised and at worst inaccurate way.

Story is rather flimsy and it drags a lot, due to finding Emery's character so excessively unrootable any charm or heart was very difficult to detect. What there is of the story is very little different to what has been seen before many times and better, while the final quarter is too pat and contrived. The script is stilted and can be very corny and too often mundane, also found it over serious. The music is forgettable at best, overbears and doesn't really fit stylistically, belonging more in a soap.

Very weak film all in all. 3/10.

Bonnie Bedelia's portrayal of Dolly Parton was cringeworthy at best.

It's not surprising that there are some sharp criticisms of this movie. As unassuming as holiday TV movies are, some of us make the mistake of expecting a production that rivals movies with exponentially larger budgets and time.

Don't let that happen to you. This movie is not trying to be anything it is not; it's a simple, interesting plot that takes place with visually appealing surroundings and actors that are easy to watch.

Everything you may love about Christmas in the south, the coastal areas, or small towns is present in this movie. If you are partial to beach life, or have been exposed to the beach, you may love how this movie conjures those feelings. The home featured in the movie is beautiful, especially the bedroom with a window seat.

The premise of the movie is believable to me in the sense that we all understand what it means to be burnt out and scraping along in our work life. Getting a reset is exactly what we need, and that is the premise of Drucinda's acceptance of her mom, Ellie's, invitation to go home to Harbor Point, SC. When she arrives, she's stiffly cemented in NYC-mindset, methodically getting rid of the objects in her bedroom that remind her of life before she became a successful author. This is important; the movie is showing us how difficult it is to revisit times in our lives when we weren't as confident or accepted as we are now. Most of us run from those memories, just like Dru, and the point was to help us get a sense of how unhappy those years were for her. She was unpopular, not accepted, "the weird one".

As she gets acclimated, she reconnects with her best friend and her family, in the process meeting Brysen Flynn and his daughter, Peyton. All along the course of the movie, Dru slowly progresses from severe writer's block to a fresh crop of ideas, thanks to the 'characters' that now surround her during her visit home.

Unfortunately, this bodes poorly for her, and impacts every single relationship she's cultivated since her arrival, including her loving mother, who otherwise seems incapable of disdain.

It's a joy to see Bonnie Bedelia in her role as Dru's mom; funnily enough, I thought her southern accent was believable. Her voice was not very loud, and she had a softness that made her seem like the perfect complement to Drucinda's brashness.

Burgess Jenkins is also kind, soft-spoken as a character, and plays the try-hard Dad that isn't macho, but also isn't a doormat (see: refusal to hand over the last bag of marshmallows). He earns her hard-won trust, especially while reassuring Dru that everything will be okay as they are stuck in an unfueled motor boat without any sign of fuel.

Peyton is his teen daughter, whose kindness highlights that she was raised very well by her late mom and Brysen, and she projects an unspoiled quality with ease.

Julie Ann Emery, Drucinda, is pretty wonderful to watch, although it is easy to dislike her. She has a self-centeredness that makes the viewer cringe, but that's also the reason she's great at her role. Watching her throughout the movie will help you feel better about who you are; if you're struggling with making a recent mistake or letting others down, there is almost still no comparison to Dru's gaffes!

Christmas on the Coast could have improved its story line by raising the stakes a little higher with regard to Dru's indiscrete stories about her fellow locals. The inner shriek we feel when realizing that there is about to be an unveiling of disloyalty or friend-manipulation is not quite as strong with this movie, perhaps because we're not really given any believable reason that Ellie would be disparaging. We understand that she was a social outcast prior, but the whole town didn't deserve to be mocked (i.e the strangers shopping, or even Brysen and his daughter). If it did, we'd need to have more context.

The forgiveness scene at the town gathering was also hard for me to watch. Her dress was so pretty, but didn't particularly add to the symbolism or meaning of the scene. Also, the camera pans to the townspeople who are dutifully agreeing as she asks their forgiveness, but this seems far-fetched; chances are, I would not think too hard about a stranger that disparaged a few people in my town, to the point that forgiveness would need to be asked of me personally.

I think it would have been better if she had pulled aside the people she had betrayed, and made a genuine effort to make things right.

Also, in the end, her young friend Peyton gets the story to the right people, but that is probably the biggest jump in reality. I think settling for the ending being less conclusive on the writing, but more conclusive on the relationship resolutions would have been a good move.

All in all, this movie delivers well for the beautiful setting, the likable characters (for me), and the positive, forgiveness-centered message. I liked the scripture that they included, and how they helped translate the faith-message to a universal one (we all get lost and will need to call upon others to help us).