THE TREE THAT SAVED CHRISTMAS (2014)

We first see Molly and her friend Lucas as kids on Molly's family's Christmas tree ranch in Vermont. She loves to write stories and Lucas wants to become a photographer. She has a favorite small tree that she names after herself, and when Dad is about to clear that land, she talks him into saving the tree, and even though an axe blow has already been delivered, she dresses the "wound" and saves the tree so it can continue growing. Twenty years later, Molly is still working on her writing but has a job as assistant to Walter, head of a big publishing house. Walter, a widower, feels free to use her as a personal assistant; she often babysits for his two charming daughters and he sends her on Christmas shopping chores. When she runs across the very tree that she saved years ago, now ready for use as a Christmas tree, she decides to drop everything and take the tree to Vermont to spend one more holiday there before her folks have to move because the bank is about to foreclose on the farm in order to build a fancy golf resort. Her brother Ryan, a successful architect, joins her. At the farm, she can't even decorate her tree because Mom and Dan have already packed everything up. She's upset to discover that Lucas is still in town. He gave up on his photography dreams and works for his father, the town banker (think Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life), so she blames him for her family's predicament. Molly and Ryan come up with a scheme to get their house labeled a historic landmark, and when she makes the national news, Walter and his two kids show up to lend support. But the banker and the mayor try to stand firm against them, and Lucas, who still has feelings for Molly, is caught in the middle.

The interesting thing about this Christmas TV-movie is the way, deliberately or not, it scrambles some of the traditional plotlines. Sometimes this is due to writing problems: Walter is set up as a somewhat cold boss, not evil, just oblivious. But his sudden change to being interested in the welfare of her family comes out the blue. In fact, he rather usurps Lucas' role as love interest. This doesn't happen on the surface—the two never develop romantic feelings—but we care a lot more about Molly's relationship with Walter and his kids than we do about her and the drab, passive Lucas. In another surprise, the emotional climax of the movie is not about Molly and Lucas, but about Ryan and his father. Ryan has been blaming himself for not staying on the ranch and taking the business over in the usual family tradition. The scene in which the two clear the air is beautifully written and well-acted, and came the closest to jerking tears out of me. Finally, at the end, it's Walter who steps in to save the ranch. Molly and Lucas do get a romantic kiss, but the final scene, set a year later with all the characters together, doesn't clarify the status of Molly and Lucas. Many of these elements might be seen as faults, but I found them interesting.

Lacey Chabert (Molly), an old hand at Christmas movies, anchors the movie well. Corey Sevier (Lucas) is colorless and never shows us why we should want him to end up with Molly. Matthew Kevin Anderson (Ryan) is likable and has loads of personality. Jim Thorburn (Walter, pictured above with Chabert) is kind of a wild card. In the beginning, he felt disengaged and artificial, but later that tone felt appropriate for the character who we find out walled off his emotions when his wife died. He's also not as conventionally handsome as Sevier, though he is appealing. Ultimately, I really wanted Walter to end up with Molly, though it was clear that the filmmakers weren't going to subvert the narrative rules that much. Eric Keenlyside and Lini Evans are convincing as the parents. Lastly, the title "character": I'm not sure how it saves Christmas since it's forgotten once it winds up back at the farm until the very end. I guess since it's the main reason Molly comes home, it can be said to have saved Christmas, but my preference for a title is something like It Happened at the Christmas Tree Ranch. Overall, recommended. [Amazon Prime, first shown on UpTV]