COYOTE CREEK CHRISTMAS (2021)

My Christmas in July review:

Paige is a big city event planner working her way up the corporate ladder. She's happy for some down time to go celebrate Christmas with her parents in the small mountain town of Coyote Creek where they run a very successful (and very large) inn. But when she learns that Mom and Dad are scaling back a bit on the holiday plans this year, she's quite upset and decides she will "plan" the inn's Christmas as an "event" to add to her portfolio. She settles on the theme of Christmas Around the World and plans for German cookies, Japanese food (fried chicken), Icelandic traditions, etc. and throws herself into the planning. What her parents are deliberately keeping from her is that they are in the middle of selling the inn so they can spend their senior years traveling. And who are they selling to? A real estate development firm run by the Bailey brothers (not George and Harry from It's a Wonderful Life, but wouldn't that have been fun?). Jack, the more driven brother, sends Dylan, the handsome single father, out to the inn to finalize the sale and start making plans for a razing and rebuilding of the site to suit a corporate buyer. But the parents ask Dylan not to tell Paige about the plans yet. Really, Hallmark viewers need to know nothing more—big city folks in a small town, family property, corporate plans, pretty gal, handsome guy—a happy ending for both the couple and the property is in the bag by the 115 minute mark at least (out of 120). Dylan pals around with Paige and helps with the Christmas plans, Dylan's precocious son Noah (who loves using Word-of-the Day words in conversation) takes a shine to Paige, and in the end, things work out all around, with the promise of Dylan and Paige getting together and (probably) staying in Coyote Creek.

But getting to the ending is not as smooth a ride as it should be. The good points: Ryan Paevey, he of the handsome face, deep voice, and unthreatening masculinity (at left), is great. Janel Parrish, born in Hawaii of Chinese and American parents, is also quite good until her poorly written character betrays her (more on this later). The parents (Linda Minard and Cameron Bancroft) are fine. Paige's sidekick Quinn (Naomi King) is fun and gets her own same-sex romance on the side, though honestly it feels like a last-minute thing added by the writers to kill five minutes of running time. There's also a cute bit involving a Christmas marmot and Coyote Creek folklore. The Christmas décor and aura are perfect.

The bad points: The big conflict that surfaces around the 90-minute mark is when Paige discovers the plans for selling the inn. Though the secretiveness is all due to the parents, she turns into a bitch and takes out her anger pretty much solely on Dylan. In my eyes, this made her almost irredeemable, and it kind of stunk up the somewhat forced happy ending. (Maybe after the writers' strike, the Hallmark writers will come back energized with some new ideas and stronger characters.) I was confused about Quinn's place in the proceedings—I assumed at first that she was Paige's sister, but Quinn kept referring to Mom and Dad as "your parents" to Paige, so I guess she's just an old friend who works at the inn—or maybe not even that; I can’t remember if she actually works there or is just around all the time. The kid playing Dylan could have been reined in a bit, unless the plan is that he'll be a gay English major at some point, but he is enthusiastic. By Christmas Eve, the inn is so deluged with guests that they have to set up "glamping" tents outside to accommodate everyone, a stupid plot point—I guess overbooking is cool by these people—that's not needed. I’d probably watch this again, but I'd bail at the 90-minute mark and imagine a different ending in which Dylan and Paige get together but also go back to their big-city jobs and let Mom and Dad sell out. Pic above right: Mom, Dad, Quinn, Paige, Dylan and Noah. [Hallmark]