30 Days of Horrible Christmas movies... Day Five - The Tree that Saved Christmas
The Tree that Saved Christmas (2014) - UPtv
Little Molly and Little Lucas love hanging out in Vermont on Molly's family Christmas Tree farm talking about their dreams. Dreams which will not come true, because they never do. Molly's going to go to NYC to be a writer, and Lucas is going to follow her to take pictures of the skyscrapers. Sounds like the beginning of a Harry Chapin song. On this day Molly's dad was clearing a path for the trees and accidentally cut down Molly's favorite tree, even though Molly tried to stop him by launching herself in front of an active chainsaw. Molly is dumb. Fortunately though, Molly's dad was able to save the tree... a tree that will eventually save Christmas. Not really... but that's what they named this movie so we gotta roll with it.
Fast forward a few decades where Molly is in NYC, but not as a writer, instead working for an ice cold publisher who makes Molly do all his menial tasks... like raising his two daughters. When Molly was tasked with setting up her bosses home for Christmas, damn if the tree that was delivered wasn't a tree from her parents tree farm... which is about to be foreclosed on... and damn if it isn't the very same tree Molly saved so many years ago. Well that's a sign from Heaven I say, so Molly ditches everything and along with her big brother Ryan (Matt Anderson) they head back home to make things right.
Lucas (Corey Sevier) is back home too, working for his evil dad the banker who is going to transform Molly's family farm into a luxury resort. But just seeing Molly, who left him behind so many years ago, just makes everything right again. Plus the Ice Cold Boss is bringing his two achingly cute daughters to Vermont, mainly because Molly is like the only parent they've known since their mom died some time back.
We must save the farm! Lucas and Holly must find the love again! The Father must reconnect with his daughters! Molly must become a writer! Lucas must take pictures! Will any of this happen? Uh... yeah... Totally.
The Tree that Saved Christmas fights convention for these types of movies. Yes, we have a plucky heroine who is trying to fight an evil banker to save her family farm, that's pretty tired, but what's unique is the relationship setup. Normally in a movie like this, the cold widowed father would be the ultimate love interest, considering our heroine is already the defacto mom to these kids, but the filmmakers chose not to do this, even though we spent way more time getting to know Cold Dad than Depressed Ex Boyfriend. Plus Cold Dad had way more chemistry with Molly than Depressed Ex-Boyfriend. They probably would've been better served making Lucas a woman as Molly's best friend who she left behind, which still retains all the family banker drama and clears the way for Molly to be with Cold Dad who this movie carved a path for her to be with anyway. But they didn't do this and I like it when these tired movies break convention. Plus it didn't have grating, canned Christmas music playing throughout. The cute kids were less annoying than usual, though they still liked to have bedtime stories read to them, despite the fact they seemed close to twenty, and Molly's mom carried the mantle of Wise Old Person, and she was kicking the esoteric wisdom like you would not believe. I'm talking some serious Kung Fu parable type stuff. I had no idea what she was talking about, but doggone... it sure sounded sage.
In the end Lucas is snapping a Christmas picture with everybody who in this movie... except him. Note that in this picture his woman is standing between her two defacto daughters with Cold Dad's arm around his girl. Lucas whispers to himself 'This is the perfect Christmas'. How is that even possible Lucas? Your mom abandoned you and took half the family's money, you just told your dad to f'off and lets not forget he's your boss so you are also unemployed, and in a few months Cold Dad, who just gave Molly a fat publishing contract for her lame Christmas Tree children's stories, is going to be doing your girl. Lucas will look back on this as the worst Christmas of his life.
And this is why 'The Tree that Saved Christmas' is kind of awesome. One Vomit!
Fast forward a few decades where Molly is in NYC, but not as a writer, instead working for an ice cold publisher who makes Molly do all his menial tasks... like raising his two daughters. When Molly was tasked with setting up her bosses home for Christmas, damn if the tree that was delivered wasn't a tree from her parents tree farm... which is about to be foreclosed on... and damn if it isn't the very same tree Molly saved so many years ago. Well that's a sign from Heaven I say, so Molly ditches everything and along with her big brother Ryan (Matt Anderson) they head back home to make things right.
Lucas (Corey Sevier) is back home too, working for his evil dad the banker who is going to transform Molly's family farm into a luxury resort. But just seeing Molly, who left him behind so many years ago, just makes everything right again. Plus the Ice Cold Boss is bringing his two achingly cute daughters to Vermont, mainly because Molly is like the only parent they've known since their mom died some time back.
We must save the farm! Lucas and Holly must find the love again! The Father must reconnect with his daughters! Molly must become a writer! Lucas must take pictures! Will any of this happen? Uh... yeah... Totally.
The Tree that Saved Christmas fights convention for these types of movies. Yes, we have a plucky heroine who is trying to fight an evil banker to save her family farm, that's pretty tired, but what's unique is the relationship setup. Normally in a movie like this, the cold widowed father would be the ultimate love interest, considering our heroine is already the defacto mom to these kids, but the filmmakers chose not to do this, even though we spent way more time getting to know Cold Dad than Depressed Ex Boyfriend. Plus Cold Dad had way more chemistry with Molly than Depressed Ex-Boyfriend. They probably would've been better served making Lucas a woman as Molly's best friend who she left behind, which still retains all the family banker drama and clears the way for Molly to be with Cold Dad who this movie carved a path for her to be with anyway. But they didn't do this and I like it when these tired movies break convention. Plus it didn't have grating, canned Christmas music playing throughout. The cute kids were less annoying than usual, though they still liked to have bedtime stories read to them, despite the fact they seemed close to twenty, and Molly's mom carried the mantle of Wise Old Person, and she was kicking the esoteric wisdom like you would not believe. I'm talking some serious Kung Fu parable type stuff. I had no idea what she was talking about, but doggone... it sure sounded sage.
In the end Lucas is snapping a Christmas picture with everybody who in this movie... except him. Note that in this picture his woman is standing between her two defacto daughters with Cold Dad's arm around his girl. Lucas whispers to himself 'This is the perfect Christmas'. How is that even possible Lucas? Your mom abandoned you and took half the family's money, you just told your dad to f'off and lets not forget he's your boss so you are also unemployed, and in a few months Cold Dad, who just gave Molly a fat publishing contract for her lame Christmas Tree children's stories, is going to be doing your girl. Lucas will look back on this as the worst Christmas of his life.
And this is why 'The Tree that Saved Christmas' is kind of awesome. One Vomit!
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