Under the Christmas Sky
Reviewed by Lisa Sue
Ok dear reader, after the dozens (are we into the hundreds yet?) of these movies I’ve consumed , I must admit I was feeling the first 2/3 of this movie. There were some things this movie did really well, and that struck a chord. Our heroine Kat (Jessica Parker Kennedy) is a rocket scientist at the National Space Program (apparently NASA didn’t give the green light to let them use their name) She recently had a pretty nasty car accident that left her vision impaired (seeing blind spots) but most depressing to Kat is that her planned trip to the space station, fulfilling a life long goal of being an astronaut who flew in space, is kiboshed by this disability. Sure there’s the fact that Kat has balance issues, the loss of independence as she has moved back home and can’t drive but what really has Kat depressed is watching her dream slip through her fingers. It’s not that the small town paper/bakery/toy store that’s about to be closed down due to some big corporation doesn’t get to me, but Kat’s situation somehow resonated more with me than those other Christmas movie set ups. I guess it is the lack of winter festivals, pj balls, or out right royal balls that I’ve encountered but life giving you lemons? How do you turn such a situation into lemonade? That I do get.
Enter a few people that are there to support Kat. One is her brother, Andy (Andrew Bushell, a staple of these Christmas movies) who serves as her chauffeur, even drops off lunch for her and turns out has a pretty interesting story arc himself. He is currently in between jobs, hence he too is back at the family home. He is taking the month of December off to really think things through. He seems to have had many jobs over the years but things like event planning just aren’t as exciting as he expected. To which the wise Kat replied, well, it’s a job. It isn’t meant to be exciting. Oh Kat, spoken like a corporate stooge. I too don’t think work is meant to be exciting, otherwise I’d be watching Christmas movies year round as a “job” rather than an end of year hobby but I know I’ve been brainwashed and conditioned to toe the company line. Kat on the other hand seems to really enjoy her job, she seems to be good at her job and has been rewarded with some big projects like designing the probe that explored the sun. Her bestie is a fellow astrophysicist Jenna, but she works on comets. Jenna nudges Kat to get out of her funk, instead of focusing on what she can’t do, get her focusing on what Kat can do. Like be a consultant at the planetarium for their Christmas exhibit. That brings in the exhibit curator David into the fold, Christmas movie stalwart Ryan Paevey. And instead of subterfuge, miscommunication, or hidden agendas David let his feelings be known at the very first meeting. Why suddenly is a consultant being brought in? Does his supervisor have an issue with his work? He’s been curating exhibits at the planetarium for years without issue or complaint. All totally valid and a perfectly normal reaction to being forced to team up with an astrophysicist, without being asked first. In the words of his supervisor Renee, she just wants something with a little more pizzazz, something that Kat brings to the table.
So off Kat and David are to work on an exhibit tying the sun to Christmas. It’s a bit of a rocky start, David not really being receptive to Kat’s ideas but not because of any personal issues, he just thinks the scientific facts should speak for themselves. But Kat knows you need more than that to hook people, and David eventually comes around to incorporating the history of celebrating the sun and winter solstice into this Christmas exhibit. There’s even a café with egg nog latte, and even the café gets worked into the story. Turns out the barista is setting up a toy drive (let’s remember this holiday is for the children) and for each toy brought in the kids will get to decorate a Christmas ornament. But because this is the planetarium the ornament has to be space themed, which is a nice twist on trimming the Christmas tree, while also being educational for the children. Not only is the café woven into the plot but so is the barista Celeste, who’s the love interest for the brother Andy. Andy isn’t just dropping Kat off at the planetarium, he is donating toys to the drive, helping Celeste get the materials ready for the ornament making. All for free, as I didn’t see him fill out a W2 form….I mean a grown man doesn’t want to make a space themed Christmas ornament that badly, does he? And this highlights what I really liked about this movie, that it sticks to the formula, but with some appealing twists The changes are incorporated well into the story and well executed, in my humble opinion. The winter sport they choose to highlight is of all things curling (celebrate the Canadian-ness of the movie) which I think this is the first Christmas movie I’ve seen with curling. But curling isn’t just some montage or jammed in to meet the bingo card. The curling was suggested by David to help improve Kat’s eye hand coordination, by doing something other than just her boring doctor prescribed exercises. Plus Celeste and Andy came along as well, so they too could spend some quality time building up that relationship. Cookie baking was prominent in this movie, and kudos to this family for acknowledging the real time that it takes to make and frost cookies. Those movies that make it seem that dozens of cookies are done in a matter of hours don’t appreciate the finer details…like cookie thieves who sneak down in the middle of the night and eat unfrosted cookies, cause even unfrosted they too taste good. All things I liked about the movie.
Now we break down the last act, where the movie peters out to exactly like every other Christmas movie. I probably should state that David has a daughter, Lila, who’s wheelchair bound. Lila looks up to Kat, thinking that being a rocket scientist at NSP is the coolest thing ever. Kat and Lila get along great, and Kat is helping Lila at the ornament making. Lila is making the same sun probe that Kat designed as her ornament, and things are going great until someone accidentally steps on and destroys the ornament. Rather than run and get David, Kat calms Lila down, tells her its ok they will go back in and make an even better ornament! When David catches up with them and sees Lila in tears, he goes into over protective Dad mode and is upset that Kat didn’t immediately come get him. Kat is slightly miffed that David doesn’t trust her enough to handle this (which she clearly did have under control) but they manage to get past this by Kat bringing Lila to NSP where they meet one of Kat’s astrophysicist co workers, who also happens to be in a wheelchair. And here is where we will go all snow flakey on you and make a comment about inclusivity. It isn’t about meeting some quota or some leftist agenda, it is about showing a kid like Lila that working at NSP, being a rocket scientist isn’t impossible despite her difference. That’s the power of seeing someone like yourself out there succeeding; it lets you know you aren’t in this alone and that you too can be all that you can be.
Now onto the second break, picture it. It’s the big Christmas Eve Santa Tracker Party at the planetarium, which was totally David’s idea; he is more creative than his micro manger gives him credit for, he just needs the right person to bring out that spark. David and Kat are the hosts with the mosts, including candy canes and everyone is enjoying themselves. Jenna got a rival corporation to come scout the exhibit on Kat’s behalf, and of course he was blown away and offers Kat a job right then and there. Naturally David hears this; thinks Kat is going to leave NSP, him, and Lila and gets all huffy. To which kudos to Jenna for really working to get Kat literally out of the house…and providing her with options other than NSP. Turns out the planetarium exhibit was all that Kat needed to realize that even though she can’t go into space, she can still contribute at NSP, and that she really does miss her job. Which is kinda of a let down, if there was more time I’m sure the movie would go more into the ins/out of weighing when to change jobs, how to pursue new dreams when your old ones are out of reach…but these existential questions aren’t why we watch Christmas movies. So in the mean time we get Andy going back for design classes as his designs promoting the ornament party as well as the ornament pattens he created were the excitement and joy he had been missing. Along with Celeste. And of course because Kat is staying at NSP and has a new found outlook on life, she’ll have David by her side, to keep her grounded. And thus the movie that started on such a high, finishes like every other Christmas movie. All you need is love, even though themes like dreams, self fulfillment, etc were all there and ripe for the taking no dice. But we applaud the attempt!
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