The title would indicate that a snowy cityscape and a jaunty Christmas carol should open this film, but instead, we get some rather ominous music and shots of folks in togas looking anguished against a seascape. In 12th century Greece, the lovely Daphne (Jessica Morris) rejects the amorous advances of the studly Pericles (Kyle Lowder), so he goes off to war and his mother Theodora (Sheree J. Wilson) puts a curse on Daphne, turning her into a mermaid. She'll get a chance to redeem herself by periodically returning to human form to find Pericles reborn and perform a selfless act; if she succeeds, she'll remain human. If not, the touch of salt water will return her to her mermaid self. Flash forward a few centuries to Christmastime in the coast town of Cocoa Bay, Florida where the studly Travis (also Lowder), still grieving from the death of his wife Vanessa a few Christmases ago, is about to lose his dive bar, the Coral Cantina. The villainous mayor, Tiffany (Arianne Zucker), has bought all the property surrounding his in order to build new hotels and condos. Now she's offering him good money for his bar, but he refuses to sell, so she gets the bank to call in his $50,000 loan—which was used to cover Vanessa's medical bills—just days before Christmas. Travis is holding a fundraiser at his bar, but Tiffany is forcing people to stay away. Enter Daphne who, noticing Travis's resemblance to Pericles, decides to help him raise his money. Travis, his charmingly clumsy brother Beau, and his feisty bartender Roxie (on whom Beau has a secret crush) all assume that Daphne is just a nut case, but on the beach, Travis sees her legs transform temporarily back into a tail.
To get the money Travis needs, Daphne swims out to sea and brings back a treasure chest full of gold, enough to pay his debt and then some. But this can't be the end because there's like 20 minutes left in the running time, and sure enough when salt water hits Daphne, her tail returns. What more can she do to prove her selflessness? Well, she and Travis are falling for each other, but Tiffany, whom we discover used to date Travis before he married Vanessa, tells Daphne to leave or she'll tear down all the properties around his bar to destroy his livelihood. Before it's all over, Tiffany will reveal a secret that has caused her great guilt, Beau will try to tell Roxie how he feels, Travis will commune with his dead wife's spirit to try and get her OK a relationship with Daphne, and Daphne will have to decide if she's willing to give Travis up for his own good.
First things first: this isn’t a traditional Hallmark Christmas movie. Its holiday tropes are more inspired by Dickens than by Hallmark. Also, it seems to have been done on a much lower budget than most holiday TV movies. But the first thing is a good thing, and the second thing doesn't ultimately hurt the movie, though I wish that the Coral Cantina had been a less shoddy set—it's not even up to dive bar standards. I wasn't familiar with the actors, but it turns out that most of them are soap opera stars (Lowder, Morris, Zucker, Kathleen Gati who plays Travis' mom, Nadia Bjorlin who plays Vanessa). Sheree J. Wilson, who appears only in the short prologue, was a regular on the original Dallas, and Ian Buchanan, who has appeared in soaps for some thirty years, is the narrator—though he only narrates for a couple of minutes. In terms of talent, they can generally hold their own against Hallmark regulars. Morris and Zucker are particularly good, with Zucker having fun with the bitch villain role. At one point, someone says to her, "You sound like a character on a soap opera" and later when she's asked why she's being so mean to Travis, she replies, "Because I'm the bad guy!" She also has a cute running gag where she keeps yelling, "Christmassy is not a word!!" Lowder is a little weaker, but I'm shallow enough not to care because he's pretty darn hot. Chadwick Armstrong is amusing as the hapless kid brother. There's no snow (because, Florida) and in fact, even the Christmas elements aren't played up very much. It also has a hard time keeping the balance between serious and humorous from tipping occasionally. But as a change of pace from the usual holiday fare, this was kind of refreshing. [Amazon Prime]
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