CHRISTMAS 2020 WRAP-UP

As this was the tipping point year for same-sex couples in Christmas romances, I wanted to briefly comment on two more movies that made news. In DASHING IN DECEMBER, on Paramount Network and Logo, Peter Porte is a big city financial planner who goes back to visit his widowed mom at the family ranch over Christmas. The horse ranch, which hosts holiday guided tours, has been losing money for years; Porte has been paying its bills and taxes but has decided the time has come to sell the property. Mom (Andie McDowell) is sad but understands; however, openly gay ranch hand Juan Pablo Di Pace is not only upset but fairly hostile to Porte--until he discovers that Porte is also gay, and single. The traditional ups and downs follow until they finally kiss and make up. Some critics are comparing this to Brokeback Mountain, but don't believe it--this is a TV romantic comedy/drama, not a serious and melancholy character study. I wanted to like this, but it falls a bit flat. Although Peter Porte is gay, he feels like he wasn't told he was playing a gay character, so Di Pace (pictured to the left of Porte) has to do all the heavy lifting here. There is little chemistry between them--a failing in many a Christmas romance--so the romance element falls flat, though gay male viewers will still thrill to their kiss, and to a lingering shot of Porte in boxer briefs. 

Hulu made a media splash with HAPPIEST SEASON, a Christmas film with two women (Kristin Stewart and Mackenzie Davis) in the leads, but this is not really a Christmas TV romance, as the women are already together, with a marriage proposal in the offing--it’s really a Christmas coming-out story. Davis and Stewart are already living together when Davis invites the orphaned Stewart to come to stay with her family over the holidays. Stewart assumes that Davis is out to her parents but she's not so the two have to hide their relationship, which over the week becomes harder for Stewart to do. There are laughs but also some serious moments, and other family secrets threaten to come to light. Victor Garber, Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Dan Levy, Jake McDorman and a criminally underused Ana Gastyer are all fine in supporting roles. Stewart is a bit too intense here--it feels like she's acting a different, more interesting movie--but overall it's likable if not as ground-breaking as Hulu would like you to think.

I'm very happy to see same-sex couples featured in these films, but I wonder it it's just a one-season novelty thing. Also, the three romance genre films (DASHING, CHRISTMAS SETUP and CHRISTMAS HOUSE) highlight the artificial and repetitive nature of the movies. Adding gay characters may have stretched the tolerance of conservative Christian viewers of Hallmark and Lifetime, but it didn't substantially stretch the genre conventions themselves. All three films could have featured male-female couples with little change in dialogue or plot, with DASHING and SETUP holding on to the big-city/small town dichotomy so prevalent in the genre. It's not a complaint, but an observation. I'll be curious to see what the next holiday season holds for same-sex romancing. One last note: my favorite Christmas movie of the season is one I reviewed back in July, the gently satirical A CHRISTMAS MOVIE CHRISTMAS (with Brant Daugherty, pictured at right) which I would recommend for any time of the year.