A Ring For Christmas
We're in a bit of a conundrum about Angelica (Liliana Tandon) in this movie A Ring for Christmas. The synopsis calls her a Spoiled Rich Girl, which I guess she is because she lives in New York and buys a lot of stuff, which is something I guess only Spoiled Rich People do. She also drives a Mini Cooper, or a Fiat 500, I can't tell the dif between the two, which is also only a car a spoiled rich girl would drive, BUT she also gives away most of her money to charities which is something I don't think Spoiled Rich Girls would ever do. Admittedly she didn't work for a dime of this money, but still. Regardless, her mom Margaret (Lorraine Bracco) has had enough of her spoiledness and is cutting her off, unless she can get her act together by Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas baby. What's a spoiled rich kid to do? Plot Device leads to Angie learning that if she gets married by Christmas, she will receive a sizable trust. Her bestie Paulette (Kate McGarrigle) who is that little devil that sits on your shoulder, down to the red hair, and a true agent of chaos thinks this a gift from above, and all we need now is a man.
Sadly, despite the fact Angie is a cute kid with a nice a figure and soon to be flush with cash, nobody wants to marry her. A quick perusal of a Facebook page brings up a dude from back home in Tyler (Charles Hittinger), the hottest guy in high school and who Angie has been thirsting over since Freshman year. This page also brings up Gabe (Dean Geyer) NOT the hottest guy in school, which means there were a lot of beautiful men walking around this high school back in the day, but Gabe was Angie's best buddy, no way that's gonna happen. Right? No way. Anyway, time to head back to Greenville or wherever and put some shenanigans in motion. Set forth by her devilish best friend.
We should mention Michael Gross is in this movie, playing the very rare Dead Dad in a romantic Christmas Movie. We love Michael Gross, I mean he is America's dad… okay, so he's actually the runner up to America's dad, but the dude that used to hold that title totally lost that title because he's on a chain gang breaking rocks right now, and Mr. Gross has now assumed the title. Or was that guy from Seventh Heaven the runner up? Anyway, Michael Gross is in this movie just a little bit more than you and me were in this movie, unless you're reading this and you were actually in this movie, then YOU were in this movie way more than Michael Gross. My point being that they probably could've saved a few bucks and hired just any old white haired guy, like an uncle of a crew member or somebody, to do what Mr. Gross did. None of this has nothing to do with anything in regards to this movie by the way.
So Angelica lands back in Greenland or wherever, first person she sees is her old bestie Gabe who makes her some awesome pancakes, then Tyler walks in the café to soaring music looking like brand new money, then it's off to see mom who is Greentown's mayor and main power broker, then it's off to have a conversation with her extremely disapproving older sister Sophia (Kate Avallone) and now it's time to hatch the plan to Marry Tyler and get that long green.
Lots of stuff happens but eventually the plan comes together perfectly, largely due to the agent of chaos which is Angie's best friend, and the marriage is on! But it's that old best friend who is always there to lend a hand, help her out, and lend an ear. And she's being extremely helpful to Gabe as well in his efforts to further his culinary career. Maybe she's making a mistake? Nonsense says the Agent of Chaos! Eyes on the Prize! Note that her friend is not a bad person, she's just making terrible decisions in what she thinks is in the best interest of her buddy. Besides, dress bought, date sent, venue secured… this thing happening. Too late to turn back now. Unless Dead Dad shows back up for another two minutes or so to talk some sense into his little girl. Which he kind of does, I guess, which results in a last minute saving of the real love, at Christmas in Greencove or wherever.
Cute little movie, which I should point out was written by the films star, Liliana Tandon, who in her limited time on the Planet Earth at least knows what's required to pull off an effective Romantic Christmas Movie. Cookie decorating? Got it. Hot cocoa drinking. In there. Tree decorating. Totally. Christmas Caroling? We have some A Capella, Hypersonix styled group doing the caroling at a tree lighting ceremony, which by itself checks off a few boxes. I know that groups name isn't Hypersonix, but I can't remember it and I don't want to look it up, even though I'm on a computer right now. Mrs. B (Livia Trevino) was on board kicking the old people wisdom and we all kinds of cute orphan kids that Angie was helping out with math problems. I'm assuming they were orphans because I didn't see their parents. We even had a mistletoe sighting. My cousin asked me the other day, sardonically, 'when was the last time you saw mistletoe'? Well she had me there. I'm thinking '74 maybe? That poison plant could very well be extinct. Sadly there was no snow ball fight which is an oversight we really can't excuse. Gotta do better next time young lady! And I was thinking that after Tyler got left at the alter he was going to profess love to Raj the Bartender, because it looked like they had a little something going on, but I guess UPTV wasn't trying to get THAT progressive with this little film.
Otherwise I enjoyed the movie. I laughed a lot, even though I'm not sure if I was supposed to be laughing, our star was winsome, our main dude was handsome, the kids were cute, Lorraine Bracco was plenty intimidating as the oppressive power broker mom, Michael Gross was stealing money and the movie followed convention to a fault. For those who like the Hallmarky Holiday Romance Movie, they should like this one just dandy.
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