Correcting christmas

Correcting Christmas (2014) - Ion

Now this is more like it.  Unlike the last TV Holiday movie we saw, Hallmark's 'Christmas in Conway' which was actually a pretty good movie, it's good to get back on track with a completely terrible, totally predictable, but yet a somehow baffling and confusing Christmas movie with Correcting Christmas, or as I prefer to call it, 'A Collection of Asssholes at Christmas'


Ali (Kelly Overton) is an angry, hard working executive, with no man, who doesn't care for Christmas too much.  On Christmas Eve, instead of heading up north to spend time with her family, she decides she will spend it alone and sulk.  That's when she meets the magical Ginny (Jennifer Elise Cox) at a diner who asks her if she could change one thing, what would that be?  For Ali, that's an easy one.  Apparently last Christmas her boyfriend Cameron (Michael Muhney) gave her a small box for Christmas which Ali thought was going to be an engagement ring, but instead was a pair of earrings, to which Ali went ballistic and broke up with poor Cameron.  Kind of an asshole move on Ali's part.  Given a second chance, she wouldn't react that way.

The next morning Ali wakes up in her old bedroom up north with her folks, just like last year, and she now realizes that the magic has kicked in and she has a second chance to make things right.  We learn that last years version of Ali was a FREAK for Christmas.  Loved everything about the holiday.  We also get to spend some quality time Cameron who we have to admit, has a level of assholery that is damn near immeasurable.  Still, Ali loves this asshole and is really looking forward to spending the rest of her life with him.  The problem is that the way things that are happening in the reboot are markedly different from what happened in the original timeline.  Ginny explains that this is because of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which is a completely incorrect application of the theory.  But hey, since time travel isn't really a thing, then I suppose we will just have to deal with a gross misinterpretation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Then we meet HIM, because there has to be another dude because we know Ali can't seriously spend her life with Cam the asshole.   This dude would be Nick (Jonathan Patrick Moore) who is has been Ali's neighbor in longing for the entirety of both of their lives.  Never dated or anything these two, Nick being firmly stuck in the friend zone since day one, but still his mere presence lifts Cameron's assholery to the level of 11, resulting in one of the dumbest arguments I've ever heard.  Ali's wayward brother is also in town for visit, and he too is an asshole, but basically only to Cameron.  And his dad.  And occasionally to Ali.  Ali's mom (Gloria Loring) seems nice enough, but she is responsible for some major asshole decisions which has had a major impact on poor Ali's life.

The thing is, despite the reboot, Ali is unsure about Cameron more than ever, and thinks maybe Nick is her future guy, but then he does he does some asshole stuff too.  What's a dedicated working girl surrounded by assholes to do?  And what will she face when she returns back to the present?

So let's start off examining the vomit worthiness of this movie which fair is to middling.  The narrative, while tired and sloppy, still managed to stay true to a Christmas theme, there were lots of decorations, a repetitive Christmas-ish score, some carolers and even a present wrapping scene.  Since it was a California based movie there was no snow, there was the sighting of cute kids but they had no real impact to the story and while there were old people, they weren't dispensing wise information.  In fact, Ali's mom was straight up kicking out terrible life suggestions.

As far as the movie itself, it's kind of erratic and nonsensical.  Even for this genre.  How can you date somebody for five years and only learn on this one day that this person hates kids, kids that you really want to have, and also doesn't believe in marriage, which has been your dream since you were a little girl.  What did these two talk about?  And since they broke up last year, why wasn't Nick around to swoop that up, since we sure as hell couldn't shake him in this new time line.  There's more banal non-connective tissue in this movie we could talk about, but to be honest that's giving Correcting Christmas too much thought.  Just know that once a TV Holiday Christmas movie mentions the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, chances are they are trying too hard.  But on the plus side Michael Muhney is GREAT at playing a smug asshole, and we like Kelly Overton.  When she's on that Van Helsing show senselessly slaughtering hordes of vampires, where the inherent crazy look in her eye and the fact she seems terminally pissed off works very well.  Not so much in this.  Not a very good movie and middle of the road in its vomit worthiness, this 'Correcting Christmas'.