Hallmark tries a couple of new directions this year for their Christmas movies. One works, one doesn't. SUGARPLUMMED is a meta-movie which begins with an ad for the Harmony Home Network featuring a series of holiday movies starring a magical woman named Sugarplum who helps everyone have wonderful Christmases. Emily, a lawyer, desperately wants her family to have a perfect Christmas and makes a wish that she could live in a Sugarplum movie. Voila, Sugarplum herself appears, complete with a thick book of Christmas movie rules (snow makes everything better, as does a beautifully decorated house, etc.), and sets out to help Emily make her wish come true. Sugarplum does work some Christmas magic, including making it snow inside Emily's son’s high school and getting the perfect gift at the last minute, but we catch on early that Emily's perfect holiday is not really what her family wants. For example, her daughter wants to talk to her about applying to a small arts college instead of a local university, but Mom is deaf to her arguments. When Sugarplum's efforts start going wrong (the school presses charges of vandalism for the snowfall), she must find more realistic ways to help Emily and her family. This is a cute and fun movie. Janel Parrish has a perky and slightly otherworldly bearing as Sugarplum, Maggie Lawson is fine as the beleaguered Emily whom we know will eventually come to her senses about her family's needs, and discover that perfection is not necessarily a desired goal. Avan Stewart and Kyra Leroux are quite good as the kids. Brendon Zub is OK as the husband but he doesn't have a lot to do. There are fun cameos from handsome Hallmark leading men Victor Webster and Carlo Marks. The self-referential satire is welcome, as is the fact that a romance is not at the center of the story. Pictured are Parrish, Lawson and Zub.
THE CHRISTMAS QUEST has two of the best Hallmark actors as leads: Kristoffer Polaha and Lacey Chabert. It's shot largely on location in Iceland. It starts out in an unusual manner, setting up an Indiana Jones-type adventure story involving an archeologist (Chabert) approached by a mysterious wealthy man to find the legendary treasure of the Yule Lads, Icelandic prankster figures from folklore. Her late mother had spent years on the same search so she agrees to help, and ropes in her ex-husband (Polaha) who is an expert on ancient Norse languages. Unfortunately after a promising opening, things go downhill as the search turns into a treasure hunt complete with ridiculous clues, cartoon villains who turn out to be good guys and vice versa, and a ludicrous climax which leaves almost everything unexplained. Polaha and Chabert are in good form, but their talents are used in the service of a story that promises to be something different but ends up being disappointingly familiar. If they had stuck to the idea of an adventurous quest, it might have worked, but it doesn't. Derek Riddel is good as the wealthy man, and the very nice looking Joel Saemundsson has a couple of fun scenes as an old friend of Chabert's who helps out. I give this one points for trying something different but subtract points for backing out of that promise. [Hallmark]
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