Yule Love It: The Christmas List (1997)

Mimi Rogers plays Melody Parris in this wonderful little festive TV movie that mixes in all of the expected story beats with something just different enough to make it all feel a bit less tired than other examples I could point to.

Melody has a decidedly average life. She is passed over for promotion at her work (she sells fragrances in a department store, and has a gift for being able to pick someone the perfect scent once they have answered some simple questions), her boyfriend won't make any major commitment, and she knows that her Christmas will be another time during which she settles for less than she really wants, partly due to the fact that her mother never really goes all out with the Christmas dinner traditions. But things start to change for Melody when she helps out a young boy (Danny, played by Bill Switzer). It's the season for those who have been on the nice list to be rewarded, which may explain the change in Melody's fortunes.

Directed by Charles Jarrott, a sure hand who had a lengthy filmography spanning work for cinema and TV over six decades, The Christmas List feels more like a fun film that is making use of the trappings of Christmas, as opposed to a Christmas movie with a plot shoehorned in there. This may not seem like a big difference, and I cannot speak to how writer Marie Weiss (who gave us both this and The Ref) worked out the storyline, but it's enough to make it stand out from a (over-)crowded field. There are still limitations in place, and no surprises, but there are plenty of moments that prove to be far more rewarding than, for example, the standard scene we have seen so many times featuring the leading lady saving a festive event at the last minute with her sheer love of Christmas. I may be exaggerating, but you know I am close enough to the truth.

Rogers is also giving a performance that doesn't feel like it's constrained by the usual TV movie boundaries. That's not a polite way of saying that everyone else who acts in these specific types of TV movies is doing a bad job. It's just refreshing to see someone not having to act as ignorant of the magic starting to happen around them, which is what happens most of the time. Melody starts to notice the strangeness early on, and it is up to her to try to turn things in her favour or let the opportunity pass her by, which allows Rogers to play her character very naturally, with a building sense of optimism as more things begin to fall into place for her. Switzer is also very good in his role, managing to be the kind of kid who befriends a random adult without being too annoying, and Rob Stewart works hard to make his character more appealing after making an unflattering first impression.

There are also good turns from Stella Stevens (Melody's mother), Enuka Okuma (Naomi, a colleague and friend), and Madison Graie as April May, the woman who gets a promotion ahead of Melody, despite having nowhere near her knack for actually selling the customers the right product.

Despite my praise, however, and despite the fact that I have mentioned the ways in which this doesn't feel like a Christmas TV movie, there are a number of ways in which it decidedly DOES feel like one. That's no bad thing. It is what it is supposed to be, after all. It just means that it falls short when compared to most movies that are not created to that remit. You'll still know most of the story beats, you can see the ending coming a mile away, and an oft-repeated magical "vision" of people wearing Santa hats when Melody realises she is being blessed with good fortune again is a bit too cheesy for it's own good.

One worth tracking down though, and I would happily watch it again.

6/10

Here is a DIFFERENT movie with the same title. Might be fun.
That different movie is also available here, but with the same region coding.

Lost In Space (1998)

When I was a young lad I became a big fan of Lost In Space, a TV show that was given a Sunday morning/afternoon timeslot on British TV and made for perfect viewing on a lazy day. The show may have been from a previous generation but when it was repeated in the 1980s it was just as entertaining and enjoyable (I always did prefer it to the other show that usurped its timeslot, Land Of The Giants). So when I heard that they were making a movie version of the show in the late 1990s, with a cast including Gary Oldman, William Hurt and Heather Graham, I was pretty damn excited.

I'm not sure if the movie was considered a flop when it was released in cinemas but it certainly didn't live up to expectations, in both a financial sense and in the treatment of the material that the fans wanted to see. I didn't get to see the movie in the cinema but I bought it on video and enjoyed it for what it was. In fact, I spent years defending the movie against those who claimed it was complete rubbish. Sadly, after a gap of many years, I have now revisited the film and found that I was wrong for many years. It IS rubbish. It's dull, it's cheesy and it takes a great TV show and makes it into nothing more than a visual FX showcase with numerous videogame moments taking up time that could have been given over to the few really interesting aspects of the plot.

The plot is summed up by the title and is, essentially, the same as it was in the TV show. The Robinson family (William Hurt as the father, Mimi Rogers as the mother, Lacey Chabert and Heather Graham as the daughters and Jack Johnson as young Will) head off into space and get a bit lost. They also have a stowaway on board in the shape of the devious and cowardly Dr. Zachary Smith (Gary Oldman), a large robot that could be a major asset or a major threat and a brave pilot (Matt LeBlanc) who isn't at all happy about being given what he sees as a babysitting gig. There are some decent special effects throughout, some dangerous space spiders and a third act that has the potential to be exciting and interesting before throwing away all potential in a mess of dull cliches that we've seen a hundred times before.

But when the end credits roll we get this fantastic tune from Apollo Four Forty. Which turns out to be one of the few highlights of the movie.

It's frustratingly easy to see the many small ways in which Lost In Space flounders and becomes a big mess. William Hurt does very well, as usual, and Gary Oldman is a delight whenever he's onscreen (playing the best character of the lot, so wonderfully played by Jonathan Harris in the TV show) but most of the other cast members are ill-served by the script. Heather Graham shines as she usually does, though even she is stuck with a number of super-lame moments, and Jared Harris does quite well with his small amount of screentime but Lacey Chabert is just annoying 95% of the time, Mimi Rogers is pretty much just there for the sake of being there and young Jack Johnson tries his best but is stuck with playing Will Robinson, who always struck me as a bit too much of a smartass to be a likeable kid. The least said about Matt LeBlanc the better, sadly, as he gets all of the worst lines and delivers them with no conviction or gusto.

Director Stephen Hopkins tries to distract you with pretty visuals but it's not enough when none of the action sequences excite, the chemistry between the characters fails to fizz and the whole thing starts to feel more and more pointless as it goes on. Akiva Goldsman, given the scripting duties, can get a lot of the blame but he's not left on his own. So many wrong decisions are made here - from the choice of plot to go with to the casting to the lack of intelligence or wit or style - that it's only fair to blame everyone equally. Apart from maybe Hurt and Goldman.

There are a few moments that entertain, and it's nice to see cameos from some of the original cast members and to hear that familiar robotic voice exclaiming "danger, Will Robinson", but there's just no way that this film does enough to warrant even an average rating in the grand scheme of things.

4/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Space-Blu-ray-Region-Free/dp/B003IHVKRE