CANDY CANE CHRISTMAS (2020)

Phoebe is the owner of a successful small town flower shop, but she's a bit stuck in her ways and is hit hard by the fact that her old neighborhood's Christmas tradition of decorating the entire street as Candy Cane Lane won't be happening this year. Her friend and business partner Laurie tries to get her to adopt some new traditions, like helping to decorate at the local assisted living facility. Meanwhile, Eric, the town's much-loved and handsome vet, is still feeling wounded after breaking up with his fiancée last year and his co-workers are pushing him to start dating again. The obligatory meet-cute moment comes when Eric goes to Phoebe's shop to buy a poinsettia for his Aunt Maggie (a resident of the facility, though frankly she seems more vibrant and healthy than most of the other cast members). Phoebe finds him attractive but when he refers to his aunt only by the "she" pronoun, Phoebe assumes he has a girlfriend. When she goes to help decorate, she meets Maggie and Eric, and realizes her mistake, so it's gotta be clear sailing for the two to start clicking and dating and doing all things Christmas, right? Of course not, because there is still an hour of movie left.

Sad to say, the film goes downhill from here. Of course, the Christmas romance genre demands complications, but the writer isn't able to craft a compelling narrative, let alone a logical one. They kind of, sort of, start to date--they're both rather passive characters and the sidekicks (Laurie, Aunt Maggie, the vet workers, and a delivery guy named Joe, all of whom are more interesting than Phoebe and Eric) put in all the work of trying to get them together. Obstacles include minor misunderstandings about other potential dating interests, and a major misunderstanding when Phoebe overhears a conversation about Eric's ex and assumes that she's back in the picture (how original!). In one of the most ridiculous Christmas movie scenes ever, Eric manages to get Phoebe under some mistletoe, but their kiss is thwarted--by the ping of a microwave oven that was warming up some cocoa. Really? They couldn't warm up their lips and let the cocoa get cold?

I was ready to give up on this halfway through. The only reason I stuck with it was the presence of the charming Mark Ghanimé, of whom I’m a big fan, as Eric. He tries hard, but the only direction he seems to have been given was to smile a lot. Beverley Mitchell, a star of the popular family show 7th Heaven, is just dreadful as Phoebe. She's low energy, unlikeable, and drab-looking (mostly that lank hair). Virtually all the other actors, including Trudy Weiss (Maggie), Benedicte Belizaire (Laurie), and Brett Geddes (Adam, the vet's buddy), are more appealing than the leads. While I was watching, I even conjured up an alternate plotline in which Laurie and Adam became the central couple since Phoebe and Eric have no chemistry. Didn't happen. Though the Candy Cane Christmas of the title is largely set aside for most of the movie, it returns as the end when Eric and his friends (magically, it seems) manage to recreate the old tradition in less than 24 hours to provide a happy ending. Lifetime's holiday movies are usually a little more interesting than Hallmark's but not this misfire. [Lifetime]