Hillary (Bonnie Somerville) is a reporter for a small newspaper tracking down a neighborhood story when she briefly crosses paths with a cute guy in a human billboard costume who gives her some info for her article. Sadly, that afternoon, Hillary gets some unwanted news: the paper is closing. Being as it's close to Thanksgiving, her mind is more on her current boyfriend Jason, an ambitious lawyer. She's happy that she finally has someone to show off to her family at the holiday gathering, and has told her mom (Shelly Long), who meddles too much in her daughters' lives, to expect him. But Jason has decided that she may be a liability in his new career, so he breaks up with her. Not wanting to seem to be a failure, she takes her roommate Sophie's advice and posts an ad on a web site devoted to finding fake escorts for social occasions. The guy she picks is an out-of-work actor named David (Jordan Bridges), who happens to be the human billboard guy. The deal: David comes with her for Thanksgiving weekend and pretends to be Jason, and she'll give him two resort vacation tickets she won in a radio contest. Of course, complications pile up right away. Mom puts the two in the same bedroom, so David volunteers to take a cot and let Hillary have the bed. Dad (Sam McMurray), a city council member, wants legal advice from Jason about some possible charges of wrongdoing. David keeps forgetting little details about Jason (Jason likes yams, David hates them). Worst of all, with Mom pining to be involved in their assumed upcoming wedding, Hillary blurts out that the date is set for December 21st which sends Mom into a tizzy of planning, and creates a quandary for the local priest because David is Jewish. What more can happen? Well, just as sparks of romance begin flying between Hillary and David, the real Jason shows up because he didn't get the promotion he wanted at work. And someone else comes into play: David’s ex, who wants the resort tickets.
Despite the labored and predictable plot, and some big problems with narrative logic (like how does unemployed Hillary afford her apartment, and why on earth would she blurt out a wedding date, and what exactly is Dad guilty of?), this is enjoyable because of the two leads. Somerville, Ross's girlfriend Mona on season 8 of Friends, makes a potentially unlikable character charming. Bridges, a real cutie pie, manages to come off as both real and as too good to be true. Long and McMurray are fine doing their clueless parent shtick. There is a somewhat complicated backstory involving Hillary's sisters (Haylie Duff and Carrie Wiita) who are both keeping secrets from Mom, and these scenes are dropped in here and there without much development, though there is a very amusing moment when a milquetoast podiatrist boyfriend spends some time cuddling up to David's feet. I also enjoyed a brief scene of Sophie's flirtation with an over-the-top surfer dude whom Hillary rejected as an escort. Though set at Thanksgiving, the house gets decorated for Christmas over the weekend, and there is a very sweet scene in which David and Hillary sing "Angels We Have Heard on High" at a piano. So yeah, it might as well be a Christmas movie. Pictured are Bridges and Somerville. [Hallmark Channel]
No comments:
Post a Comment