A CHRISTMAS MOVIE CHRISTMAS (2019)

Lacy Bell visits her sister Eve at work and finds her watching "Christmas in Christmas Cove," her favorite Christmas movie, which features her favorite TV-movie star Chad Matthew Monroe. Lacy chastises her for her escapes into fantasy and for letting her mean boss, Mr. Peterson, ignore her attempts to get promoted. Eve chastises Lacy right back for floating through life, not committing to jobs or boyfriends. It's Christmas Eve and the two sisters, who live together, are feeling sorry for themselves. When they pass a streetcorner Santa, Eve asks for a perfect Christmas-movie Christmas, and the next morning, the two wake up in a strange bed (with their make-up on and their hair done) in a strange house with a strange woman who claims to be their grandma (or Gran Gran as she likes to be called). Surprise! They are living in a Christmas movie, in a cozy town called Holiday Falls with snow, quaint shops and cute kids (and mean Mr. Peterson as a Scrooge figure). It's a week before Christmas and there are problems that need to be solved, like putting on the Christmas festival and raising money for the animal shelter. Also in town is Chad Michael Monroe who is "playing" a pop star named Russell. Eve is ecstatic, especially when she winds up being courted not only by Russell but by Dustin, the local innkeeper with a big-city backstory. Lacy is less happy--she doesn't tell Eve what her Santa wish was, but we find out it involved wanting to be a better person--and gets even crankier when she becomes the object of the attentions of Paul, the town baker. He is handsome, whimsical, and donates his time to good causes--like the animal shelter--but Eve thinks he's a bit of a stalker, as he makes a stream of homemade cards for her and even stands outside her bedroom window watching her sleep as he places the cards around the yard. Complications ensue: Dustin's ex-girlfriend from the city visits and causes problems for Dustin and Eve; Russell agrees to sing at the Christmas festival, but when he finds out that Dustin is vying for Eve, he petulantly decides to leave town on Christmas morning. Will Eve and Lacy work out a happy ending in Holiday Falls? And, more importantly, in real life?

I loved this cute holiday movie satire, which manages to be quite funny and also avoids being too snarky. Though it originally aired on UpTV, it's harmless enough that it could easily play on the Hallmark Channel without offending anyone. The cliches are mocked (the incessantly cheerful grandma, the small town personalities, the pile-up of problems that need to be fixed by Christmas, the big-city gals who need to have their lives fixed by the down-to-earth small-town guys) but generally respected. I won't spoil all the jokes, but my favorite is when the gang has only a few hours to fix the Christmas festival. Lacy asks how on earth they can manage to do so much, and Eve shouts, "Montage!" followed by a montage of all the fixing they can pull off. The movie obviously had a smaller budget than the Hallmark movies and it shows occasionally, though one plus is that it was filmed in Frankenmuth, Michigan at a year-round Christmas village and the decor seems more authentic and less fussy than the Canadian locations used by Hallmark.

Despite some problems with the budget and the storyline (the ending, though satisfying, doesn't quite work), the actors, mostly from TV and other Christmas movies, put this over. They seem to be having fun without veering off into silly exaggeration. Lana McKissack is absolutely right as the sweet Eve and Kimberly Daugherty is just as good as the more cynical Lacy--and they even look like they could be sisters. Ryan Merriman suffices as the blandly handsome Dustin (though he winds up playing an oddly passive role in the story's outcome), and Addy Stafford is note-perfect as the ex-girlfriend/bitch who shows up to put a temporary damper on things. Best of all is Brant Daugherty as Paul; he manages to walk a tightrope edge, balancing charm, whimsy, and non-threatening small-town masculinity. The sparkle in his eye helps to keep the slightly stalkery aspect of his love for Lacy in check. And he is as good-looking and sexy as any traditional Christmas hero (he had experience in MINGLE ALL THE WAY). Brant and Kimberly, married in real life (pictured at top left), wrote the screenplay. This is the last of my Christmas in July posts, but I doubt I will find another Christmas movie this year that is more fun than this. [Amazon Prime]