Christmas Comes Twice
"Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, and today is the gift, which is why we call it... the Present." That's some sage stuff that came out of the mouth of Cheryl (Tamera Mowry-Housley) in this movie. I mean that's some Obi-Wan, Kwai Chang Caine, Morgan Freeman in every movie he's ever done type wisdom right there. Next time somebody you know starts whining about something bad that happened to them a while ago, or complaining about something coming down the road, just hit them with that little nugget of wisdom and walk away. You don't want to be there for the blowback from you saying this to them.
Cheryl is an astrophysicist, with a specialization in astronomy, working an important administrative job in the city which requires her to do stuff that is important. It's not exactly the path she wanted for her career, but here she is and it does pay the bills very well. It is Christmas so it's time to head back to Snowy Small Town to spend some time with the fam and hang out at the snow festival for a couple of weeks. While there Cheryl interacts with her lovely sister Trish (Zarrin Darnell-Martin), who seems like a nice lady, but Cheryl finds her dream to open her own restaurant stupid. She also notices that Terence the Hottie (Brendon Zub) is the mayor of Snow Town now, and recalls the one disastrous date they had a few years ago which kept them from actually being a thing. Then she bumps into her arch enemy George (Michael Xavier) with whom she's been competing with on every level on everything since high school. Gosh that man annoys her. More importantly she remembers that five years ago, at the snow festival, this is where she literally bumps into her future boss, gets an interview, and gets the current job she has which will alter the course her life forever. If only that hadn't happened.
Then comes the magic carousel. There's a reason carousel's with those demonic looking horses and out of tune calliope music are a staple of horror movies, because they are terrifying. Ignoring my screams from behind the screen not to get on that thing that just appeared out of thin air, she gets on it, and when she gets off she is thrust magically five years into the past. After coming to grips that this actually did happen, it's time for Cheryl to set some things right. First, spend some time with her mentor Miss Nelson (Sheryl Lee Ralph) who died of a sudden heart attack a year earlier, who will be providing all the old people knowledge for this movie while drinking merlot. Somebody over here hasn't seen the movie Sideways. Then she tries to set her sister on a path other than the culinary arts, because apparently Cheryl knows better. Then it's time to fix that date with Terrence the hottie so they can finalize whatever it is they were supposed to do back in 2015. Most importantly, avoid her future boss so she won't take that job so she can chart the path she should've taken instead of the path she did take.
Ah, then there's George her enemy. Turns out George really wasn't her enemy, but her spark. They didn't compete, but challenged each other. Neither of them would've achieved what they have achieved without the other pushing them each step of the way. Maybe they even loved each other? Maybe? Regardless of all of that, nothing works out the way Cheryl wanted. Terrence the hottie is a bust, her sister doesn't like being controlled, and despite her best efforts she keeps running into her future boss and realizes that the job she has in 2020 is super important and necessary for the future of humanity. Or something. The only change that 2015 provided that was necessary was true love, and even that might not be there because the evil carousel has showed back up and like a damn fool she got back on that thing. But true love did somehow survive those five years, Cheryl learned that wise lesson we spoke of earlier, and there was a magical kiss. At Christmas.
Time Travel. Even in a simple, 82-minute, Hallmark Romantic Holiday movie, it's messy. Cheryl actually went back in time and didn't just dream all of this. Her actions in this past actually affected the future. In 2015, before departing for her correct time, she declared her love for George and George for her, and while that was a few minutes ago for Cheryl when she got back to 2020, it was five years for George who apparently put his entire life on hold because he knew Cheryl would not love him back until she got off that Magic Carousel five years from the point he told her he loved her. I wonder what those five years were like for poor George.
Then there's the sad case of Miss Nelson. I understand the future has to happen, but Cheryl has proven she can alter some things, so how hard would it have been to say to Miss Nelson 'girlfriend, on May 14th 2019 (my guess), you gonna have a heart attack. Go see a doctor'. Cheryl didn't do that. She just let her die. I'm not saying it would've worked, but at least try. Oh well. The most important thing is she got a man at the end, and I'm sure Miss Nelson would've gladly sacrificed her life so that this could happen.
I also have a random question about actress Zarrin Darnell-Martin who played Cheryl's sister. Last year she was the lead in UPTV's Snowbound for Christmas, this year she's in support of Hallmark's Christmas Comes Twice. Is this a step up? Is it better to support under Hallmark than lead under UPTV? Or as Noonien Singh Khan would query, is it better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven? We are loosely applying Hell to UPTV and Heaven to Hallmark in this treatise. Very loosely. I wonder?
Anyway, the movie was typical as expected just with messy time travel bits. We had lots of snow, decent background Christmas music, hot cocoa drinking, some cookie baking, and Christmas Caroling though the movie could've used a snowball fight or two considering how much time we spent outside in the snow in this movie. Our leads had good chemistry together, which seems appropriate since this movie is very sciency, with Michael Xavier's easy going nature meshing well with Tamera Morwy's intensity. Note that just a day prior I saw her sister Tia in the movie A Christmas Miracle which prompted my son, who has been watching these two since their Sister Sister and Twitches days, to break down their differing acting styles to me, detailed information which I did not request to hear.
While traveling five years into the past doesn't seem like much of a journey, personally I would find myself exactly where I am right now, burdened with the curse having to live the next five years over again, this one does make the five year journey reasonably entertaining with some Newtonian Physics shout outs to boot. And who among us doesn't like a little Newtonian Physics in their Hallmark Romantic Holiday movie?
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