Rediscovering Christmas
Rediscovering Christmas (2019) - Lifetime
How do I randomly select these Holiday movies I choose to watch? Well, it is a complex algorithm based on whether or not I recognize an actor from some show I saw. Such as this movie called 'Rediscovering Christmas' which has Agent Tripp (B.J. Britt) from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as one its stars. A very complex algorithm which dictated why I watched a Once Upon a Christmas Miracle which starred Agent Grant Ward, and why I will watch Christmas at the Plaza which stars Agent Gemma Simmons. Want me to watch your Christmas movie? As simple as putting an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in it.
Mia (Jessica Lowndes) is the head window designer at the department store of the oppressive Mrs. Barrington (The legendary Jessica Walters), and it being the holiday season, it is up to Mia to make a window design that's going to knock Mrs. Barrington out! Her big promotion depends on it. A promotion to what... Supreme Window Designer? I never quite got what the promotion was going to be for or why anybody would want it. Her adorable assistant Emily (Shannon Tyo) will get her old job of Head Window Designer if Mia gets this plum promotion. Why does a window designer need an assistant? And why doesn't anybody else work in this store except the window designers? Critical questions that will not be answered for us.
Anyway, Mia's dad (The Legendary David Noughton) calls Mia to let her know her sister Sarah (Justine Cotsonas) is swamped with trying to make the annual Christmas Party happen and could use her help. Though Mia is super busy... putting stuff in windows... make that a singular window because there is only one... she rockets down to SmallTown to help baby sis out.
First thing Mia does when she hits town is head to her favorite bistro to down some cocoa and eat a muffin, and this where she runs into the unique combo of bitterness and sadness known as Adam (Britt). This thirty year old curmudgeon reads actual newspapers, has no social media presence, and drinks black coffee. Him and digitally connected Mia do NOT hit it off. Then it's off to see Dad and to help Sarah out, but it turns out Sarah didn't really need help, widowed dad just wanted to see his little girl. Really dad? She's like super busy putting stuff in a window! Jeez. Well, since she's there she might as well put this design skill to use, but then she meets the guy who is actually in charge of this program, which is Adam. Still no sparks, but at least they are a little more cordial now.
Then tragically the school gym, where they hold this event, burns down, and the bitter Adam just wants to cancel everything but Mia finds an alternative in an old barn. Adam hates the idea but comes around, until he actually sees the barn and the amount of work that will need to be done, and now he's sad and bitter and wants to cancel everything again. But know who's good at designing stuff quick? This girl yo. She has new ideas to make it fresh. Adam hates new ideas. See, his family has been running this party for decades and he likes tradition, until he spoke to his Mom (Cheryl Freeman) who told him to chill on his sad bitterness. Now everything is on track... even love? Maybe? The creators behind this really didn't take much time to develop any of that between these two. Not that this is gonna stop them from kissing in the moonlight at the end. Merry Christmas!
I stumbled upon an IMDB commentor on this film, seemingly not happy that B.J. Britt is Black and Jessica Lowndes is white, bemoaning Hallmark's attempts at diversity. This is actually a Lifetime movie, but whatever. I would tell this upset commentor that in the Hallmarky world of Romance films, race is never an issue. Never has been, and I assume it never will be. They're just people in these movies. Did you know that the Africans in the slave ships had no idea that they were black until they arrived in the various 'new worlds' they were shipped to? They honestly thought they were just people too. So I would advise this grumbling commentor to just think of these movies as pre-slavery films set in a modern time. Hopefully that will make these movies easier to digest for this person.
As far the movie goes, this particular style of film, the Holiday Romance Movie, has a relatively thin margin of error. A lot of expected things have to happen in these 80+ minutes, at expected times, such as the tree shopping, cocoa drinking, caroling, snowball fights, older people kicking wise words, cute kids, near miss kisses... while still having time for our principles to spend enough time to realistically believe that they can fall for each other. Additions to the formula tends to involve sacrifices. The additions here would be Jessica Lowndes being a professional singer. She sits at a piano and belts out a bit of one song and then at the end does an entire Christmas number. Now we're not upset at this because we've always said to use the talent of your talent. If your talent can dance, make them dance. If your talent can sing, let them sing. The only issue is that a lot of the other stuff we expect in these formulaic movies was pushed to the side, most notably, the relationship between Mia and Adam.
Now it could be that Mr. Britt and Ms. Lowndes just didn't have that prerequisite chemistry together needed to sell us on their relationship, even though they are both very attractive people. Jessica Lowndes in a pair of jeans might not stop traffic, but traffic would at least slow down. Nah... we think they just didn't give these kids enough time together to make this whole thing work. And it didn't help that Adam was kind of a downer throughout most of the movie anyway. I can't even tell you with any certainty if they actually got together at the end. Mia got her Supreme Window Dresser gig so I don't think she's moving back to SmallTown, and even if she did I didn't see any windows in this town that needed dressing. Adam is a lawyer in this town, probably the only one, and is far too attached to his mom to leave this town. Despite the fact Mia's dad is kind of taking care of certain things for Adam's mom. Which I would imagine would be a little odd and uncomfortable for this potential couple. I'm kind of left to believe that these two kissed, hooked up and then went their separate ways after this movie, which isn't what these are about at all.
In addition to sacrificing relationship time, we also had to sacrifice cookie baking, Christmas Caroling, snow ball fighting and all kinds of stuff. So ultimately, 'Rediscovering Christmas' falls short of what lovers of these movies come to expect from these movies I think.
As a side note, while Jessica Lowndes is a fine singer, only one member of the cast can boast a top ten hit song. That would be David Noughton. She should've let him duet with her.
Mia (Jessica Lowndes) is the head window designer at the department store of the oppressive Mrs. Barrington (The legendary Jessica Walters), and it being the holiday season, it is up to Mia to make a window design that's going to knock Mrs. Barrington out! Her big promotion depends on it. A promotion to what... Supreme Window Designer? I never quite got what the promotion was going to be for or why anybody would want it. Her adorable assistant Emily (Shannon Tyo) will get her old job of Head Window Designer if Mia gets this plum promotion. Why does a window designer need an assistant? And why doesn't anybody else work in this store except the window designers? Critical questions that will not be answered for us.
Anyway, Mia's dad (The Legendary David Noughton) calls Mia to let her know her sister Sarah (Justine Cotsonas) is swamped with trying to make the annual Christmas Party happen and could use her help. Though Mia is super busy... putting stuff in windows... make that a singular window because there is only one... she rockets down to SmallTown to help baby sis out.
First thing Mia does when she hits town is head to her favorite bistro to down some cocoa and eat a muffin, and this where she runs into the unique combo of bitterness and sadness known as Adam (Britt). This thirty year old curmudgeon reads actual newspapers, has no social media presence, and drinks black coffee. Him and digitally connected Mia do NOT hit it off. Then it's off to see Dad and to help Sarah out, but it turns out Sarah didn't really need help, widowed dad just wanted to see his little girl. Really dad? She's like super busy putting stuff in a window! Jeez. Well, since she's there she might as well put this design skill to use, but then she meets the guy who is actually in charge of this program, which is Adam. Still no sparks, but at least they are a little more cordial now.
Then tragically the school gym, where they hold this event, burns down, and the bitter Adam just wants to cancel everything but Mia finds an alternative in an old barn. Adam hates the idea but comes around, until he actually sees the barn and the amount of work that will need to be done, and now he's sad and bitter and wants to cancel everything again. But know who's good at designing stuff quick? This girl yo. She has new ideas to make it fresh. Adam hates new ideas. See, his family has been running this party for decades and he likes tradition, until he spoke to his Mom (Cheryl Freeman) who told him to chill on his sad bitterness. Now everything is on track... even love? Maybe? The creators behind this really didn't take much time to develop any of that between these two. Not that this is gonna stop them from kissing in the moonlight at the end. Merry Christmas!
I stumbled upon an IMDB commentor on this film, seemingly not happy that B.J. Britt is Black and Jessica Lowndes is white, bemoaning Hallmark's attempts at diversity. This is actually a Lifetime movie, but whatever. I would tell this upset commentor that in the Hallmarky world of Romance films, race is never an issue. Never has been, and I assume it never will be. They're just people in these movies. Did you know that the Africans in the slave ships had no idea that they were black until they arrived in the various 'new worlds' they were shipped to? They honestly thought they were just people too. So I would advise this grumbling commentor to just think of these movies as pre-slavery films set in a modern time. Hopefully that will make these movies easier to digest for this person.
As far the movie goes, this particular style of film, the Holiday Romance Movie, has a relatively thin margin of error. A lot of expected things have to happen in these 80+ minutes, at expected times, such as the tree shopping, cocoa drinking, caroling, snowball fights, older people kicking wise words, cute kids, near miss kisses... while still having time for our principles to spend enough time to realistically believe that they can fall for each other. Additions to the formula tends to involve sacrifices. The additions here would be Jessica Lowndes being a professional singer. She sits at a piano and belts out a bit of one song and then at the end does an entire Christmas number. Now we're not upset at this because we've always said to use the talent of your talent. If your talent can dance, make them dance. If your talent can sing, let them sing. The only issue is that a lot of the other stuff we expect in these formulaic movies was pushed to the side, most notably, the relationship between Mia and Adam.
Now it could be that Mr. Britt and Ms. Lowndes just didn't have that prerequisite chemistry together needed to sell us on their relationship, even though they are both very attractive people. Jessica Lowndes in a pair of jeans might not stop traffic, but traffic would at least slow down. Nah... we think they just didn't give these kids enough time together to make this whole thing work. And it didn't help that Adam was kind of a downer throughout most of the movie anyway. I can't even tell you with any certainty if they actually got together at the end. Mia got her Supreme Window Dresser gig so I don't think she's moving back to SmallTown, and even if she did I didn't see any windows in this town that needed dressing. Adam is a lawyer in this town, probably the only one, and is far too attached to his mom to leave this town. Despite the fact Mia's dad is kind of taking care of certain things for Adam's mom. Which I would imagine would be a little odd and uncomfortable for this potential couple. I'm kind of left to believe that these two kissed, hooked up and then went their separate ways after this movie, which isn't what these are about at all.
In addition to sacrificing relationship time, we also had to sacrifice cookie baking, Christmas Caroling, snow ball fighting and all kinds of stuff. So ultimately, 'Rediscovering Christmas' falls short of what lovers of these movies come to expect from these movies I think.
As a side note, while Jessica Lowndes is a fine singer, only one member of the cast can boast a top ten hit song. That would be David Noughton. She should've let him duet with her.
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