That Old Christmas Chestnut
Lou Boyd (Robert Moloney - Storm Cell) works for Mr. Crouch (Garry Chalk - 'Tis the Season for Love) who owns The Great American Store and as Christmas is just 18 days away wants Lou demands everyone work even harder than they are. And if working for Mr. Crouch wasn't bad enough his equally pushy and demanding daughter, Dianne (Kristen Dalton - A Mother's Rage), has started working at the store. When one of Lou's colleagues mistakenly orders 60,000 boxes of Christmas lights they come up with a plan to sell them by staging a contest across the county in order to lure shoppers in to buy the lights. But not only does the Christmas light sale go even better than expected but Dianne wants to make sure the decorating contest is won by Lou, except he lives with his parents in their home. Despite being like chalk n cheese Lou and Dianne end up spending a lot of time together as she insists on doing the decorating.
Playfully obvious is the best way to describe "Christmas on Chestnut Street", which means in my book this is one of those Christmas movies you watch if you are a fan of Christmas movies but not one which is likely to become a fixture in the list of Christmas movies you watch to get you in the festive mood. Now I did say that "Christmas on Chestnut Street" is obvious and I should have added over the top to that as we have various couples decking their homes with bulbs and ornaments with the rivalry between them getting out of control. It is played for laughs with much of the comedy ending up forced to the point the daftness of it might make some grown ups groan.
But there is of course the other side to "Christmas on Chestnut Street", that traditional romantic side as we have the laid back Lou, who returned home when his father started to suffer from dementia, and the career focussed Dianne whose focus on creating the life she wants for herself makes them chalk n cheese. It is as obvious as everything else in the movie yet because both Robert Moloney and Kristen Dalton are very good at playing their characters it ends up entertaining with lots of flirting and comical bickering. Throw in Garry Chalk as a very determined Mr. Crouch, who is proud of his business, and there is plenty of laughs even though most of it is obvious.
What this all boils down to is that "Christmas on Chestnut Street" is again one of those Christmas movies which is nothing new as it recycles some familiar ideas, jokes and of course a romantic storyline. But in a playfully over the top way "Christmas on Chestnut Street" is kind of entertaining.
Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies
