'Countdown to Christmas' movie review: 'A Cheerful Christmas'
At their best, Hallmark Channel movies tap into the best, most meaningful parts of the Christmas season - usually by wrapping the sentiment with compelling characters in engaging stories. "A Cheerful Christmas" (premiering Dec. 15 as part of the Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas) is the opposite of all that.
In short: Lauren (Erica Deutschman) and her best friend Colleen (Tianna Nori) run a business as "Christmas coaches" - giving people the best and most magical Christmas ever - and they are hired to decorate the mansion of uptight wealthy businessman James (Chad Connell).
There's "spirited," then there's Lauren. Plenty of Hallmark movies follow a Christmas-loving protagonist helping some stodgy character rediscover the magic of the holidays - but "Cheerful" takes this to an aggressive level. Quite frankly, Lauren's take on spreading Christmas cheer borders on overzealous. Lauren practically smothers James into loving Christmas again. This would be fine, except her passion has no origin or purposes that serves the story.
Usually in these Hallmark movies, the love interest is the least interesting character -- but the poorly developed love interest in “Cheerful” is not offset by a great protagonist. Lauren is defined only by two traits: her love for Christmas and her growing infatuation with James. She ... doesn't have a lot of character trajectory. As the story progresses, Lauren's mood and actions are almost completely dictated by how she perceives her relationship with James. Colleen (the requisite "bestie" character) is a non-character - she has no definable traits and just tells Lauren what she wants to hear. Colleen has so little bearing on the movie that she could have been written out completely - and if the movie had some crazy twist where Colleen was a ghost that only Lauren could see, that would almost make some sense. James is the most compelling character purely by default.
This movie is so poorly written that the idea of renting a snow machine to make snow is considered a "great idea!" At one point Colleen notes "Looks like your (task) was successful" - to which Lauren replies with "It was." Near the beginning of the movie, Lauren repeats time and again how important it is for them to make this the best Christmas ever for their clients. This is one of a hundred instances where bad writing just wastes time and repeats information, while adding little to nothing.
Perhaps worst of all - "Cheerful" is a desperately shallow movie. Better Hallmark movies find ways to take this basic premise - re-learning to love Christmas - and make them more robust stories. Some character has something at stake. Maybe someone's job or livelihood is at stake, or maybe the reason why a person lost interest in Christmas in the first place has some meaning. This movie has none of that, to any degree. "Cheerful" is literally just "cloying Christmas expert teaches workaholic to LOVE Christmas."
Final verdict: "Cheerful" simultaneously tries way too hard and doing way too little. Yet, despite all its effort, this saccharin flick lacks much Christmas cheer or romance - but it is forced and forgettable.
Score: 1 lump of coal (out of 5)
"A Cheerful Christmas" is rated TV-G and has a running time of 90 minutes. The movie premieres on The Hallmark Channel on Dec. 15.