Christmas Inheritance (2017)

Yes, it's time for another bright and breezy Netflix Christmas movie. This time it's the tale of a young heiress (Ellen, played by Eliza Taylor) who, desperate to prove to her father that she can do more than just be photographed partying and being sociable, ends up in a small town, with no credit cards, only $100 to her name, and forbidden to reveal her true identity. She finds herself most often in the company of a young man named Jake (Jake Lacy) and ends up helping him, in return for her room and board, while she sees how he tries to help others.

Written by Dinah Eng, who currently only has this and Reluctant Nanny in her list of credits, and directed by Ernie Barbarash (who has a much more varied background in his filmography), Christmas Inheritance checks a lot of the boxes that you want checked in this kind of thing. It's also, like most of these movies, simple enough to watch with one eye as you wrap presents, yet also fairly engaging and enjoyable.

The leads help immensely. Lacy was already familiar to me, after his stint on The Office, and he does just fine here, being the typical Christmas movie male lead who has an appeal that starts to show under a thawing exterior, appropriately enough. I don't think I have seen Taylor in anything before this. She's a lot of fun in a role that you can easily picture being given to someone like Reese Witherspoon or Emma Roberts, for two very different interpretations. Taylor falls in between the two nicely, not as cloyingly sweet and nice as the former and nowhere near as cool and potentially scathing as the latter. And you have Andie MacDowell not being too annoying in a supporting role, as well as Neil Crone (playing Ellen's father) and Michael Xavier (Ellen's shallow boyfriend).

The comedy isn't ever hilarious, but it's more gently amusing than some other examples I could name, and the plot hinges on a conceit that never feels entirely believable, but when has that ever been an issue when it comes to Christmas movies? If I can put up with films that have Santa, elves, annd magic sprinkled throughout them then I can put up with a little stretching of plausibility.

I realise that a lot of these reviews will feel like I am just saying the same thing over and over again. That's the downside of watching so many Christmas movies. They operate on familiarity and predictability. They often work with the exact same set of tropes (even if they try to disguise things with the framing narrative). So if you ever get fed up of reading similar sentences in my December reviews . . . imagine having to sit through all of the actual films.

6/10

Here is a large selection of Christmas movies to enjoy.
And American elves can pick the same set up here.

One Starry Christmas (2014)

I just don't understand it. I'm easily pleased, I'm often about as easily pleased as you can get, and yet there are still movies that come along that get my rage rising from almost the very first scene, despite having the resources available to do better. The worst thing for a movie to do is be dull, but it's also terrible when a film feels lazy, and gives the sense that viewers aren't being treated with anything other than disdain. As is the case with One Starry Christmas.

Sarah Carter plays Holly Jensen, a young woman (and astronomer, hence the title) who heads back to visit her folks for Christmas, also hoping to surprise her potential fiance (Paul Popowich). She ends up sitting on a bus alongside a genuine cowboy type (Damon Runyan), which proves fortunate when the bus breaks down and Mr. Gentleman Cowboy helps her out. To repay the favour, she ends up inviting him for a bite to eat with her folks, who then end up inviting him to Christmas dinner, insisting that he also brings along his brother. The potential fiance isn't too happy about this, but that's okay because he's a bit of a douchebag anyway. Sort of. Well, the movie needs to paint him that way to lead everyone to a predictable final act.

Rickie Castaneda is the man responsible for this weak script, one that alternates between Christmas cliches and cowboy cliches (of course he has great manners, and of course he opts to show everyone how to line dance when the opportunity arises). Director John Bradshaw does nothing to distract from the horrible material, presenting everything in a flat, plain manner that seems to show a complete lack of imagination/interest.

Carter, Popowich and Runyan all try to do something decent, I suppose, with what they're given, but none of them make a great impression. Actually, I'm telling a small lie there because I spent a lot of the movie considering just how much time Popowich spent bemoaning the fact that he would always be "the guy who looks like Paul Rudd, but isn't Paul Rudd". Kathleen Laskey and Neil Crone do better, however, in the role of Holly's parents. Both believe in a very romantic idea of love, although the former is more open and vocal about it while the latter sometimes hides behind humour to tease more of a reaction from his wife. George Canyon gets to join Runyan in the "who can be stuck playing a more cliched cowboy?" performance stakes, and Daniel Karasik is a dot com millionaire who hosts a party that lets gentleman cowboy shine (yes, the line dancing occurs there).

Not JUST lazy and careless, One Starry Christmas also has one or two moments that will make you cringe with embarrassment. I feel sorry for everyone involved, who will all either go on to build a CV that this will be omitted from or end up stuck in permanent TV movie hell.*

*Not that all TV movies are bad. But the bad ones are . . . . . . . . . . BAD.

2/10

Not available on shiny disc at the moment, so go for this pack instead - http://www.amazon.com/Holiday-Romance-Collection-Movie-Pack/dp/B00DNLZRLU/ref=sr_1_7?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1418332695&sr=1-7&keywords=christmas+movies