CHRISTMAS SHORT TAKES 2

DASHING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS (2020)

With her sister due to give birth around Christmas, high powered business consultant Emily (Paniz Zade) wants to get back to her hometown quickly, but things aren't going well. When her Uber driver misses her, cute all-round nice guy Simon (Adrian Spencer) comes to her aid. At the airport, his chattiness drives her crazy, but she loses her seat until Simon again comes to her aid. A storm causes the plane to be diverted and she is stuck overnight in a strange city. At a hotel, she realizes she has left her wallet at the TSA checkpoint and Simon once again helps her out. They platonically share a honeymoon suite and soon the two are warming to each other. More hotels, cars, and a train are in their future, and in the usual TV-movie way, an initial kiss gets thwarted. But just as she's planning to bring Simon with her to her family Christmas, he finds out that in the course of her job, she winds up suggesting mass layoffs to companies, and decides to cut things off before they get started. Will a Christmas miracle keep them together?  The best word for this movie, produced for UpTV, is lame, mostly due to poor writing. The character of Emily is poorly written, there are plotholes galore mostly in terms of details about how airports and hotels are actually run, the only supporting player to speak of is Emily's uninteresting sister, Simon’s objection to her livelihood comes out of nowhere and doesn't feel real, and the low budget hurts the sets and visuals. But I lost my Christmas romance heart to Adrian Spencer (pictured) who plays angelic and innocent very well. His glasses give him a sexy Clark Kent look (he is less fetching without his glasses) and he manages to work up some chemistry with Zade who is so-so at best. Fans of handsome, wholesome blond boys should watch; others can skip it. [Amazon Prime]

A CHRISTMAS TO TREASURE (2022)

The much beloved Mrs. Marley has died. Everett (Kyle Dean Massey), who took care of her for the last year of her life, wants to save the house from the clutches of developers. As Christmas nears, Everett and five of his childhood friends get letters from the late Mrs. Marley asking them to meet up at her property for a treasure hunt. One of the friends is Riley (Taylor Frey), a social media maven, whom Everett had a crush on back in high school. Riley still feels hurt after thinking that Everett had unceremoniously ditched him back then—the truth is that Everett was conflicted about being gay—but he shows up with Tipper, another one of the friends who is in business with Riley. Also along are town official Ricky, famous basketball star Clay, and his wife Jeannie. The treasure hunt begins but the six soon find out that Mrs. Marley had an ulterior motive: she wants Everett and Riley to get together. As this is another new addition to the small list of gay Christmas romances, I'd like to say how good it is. It's not terrible, but the ludicrously stupid plot set-up mostly sinks this effort and the hard work of the actors. Massey and Frye, married in real life, are fine in the leads. Even better are Roberto Aguire and Katie Walder as Ricky and Tipper, who slowly become a likable secondary couple—I wanted more screen time for them. [Lifetime]