Not Such a Festive Ville
For Southern California realtor and single mother Liz McCann (Nicole de Boer) the only thing good about Christmas is that she can sell properties looking all Christmassy. For her son Mason (Gig Morton) Christmas is just another time of the year when his workaholic mum lets him down. But this Christmas Liz miraculously agrees to take Mason to Hollyville as her workaholic father has mysterious left the city and moved to this place which doesn't even appear on a map. When they get there all Liz can think about is getting back to work whilst Mason is more than curious about N.P. Enterprises which has a huge factory there and seems to be staffed by little people. But Mason, Grandpa Jack (Garry Chalk) and cafe owner Kevin (Patrick Muldoon) decide to set about Liz, convincing her to believe.
To cut a long story short "Christmas Town" is about two things; one that Mason discovers that Hollyville and N.P. Enterprises is the home of Santa and his workshop. It is an okay idea but never fully explored with too much tongue in cheek which makes it a little too cringe worthy. The other thing is that of course Liz realises that there is more to life than work, work, work which she eventually does with the help of the laid back Kevin. Simple as that and as a massive fan of Christmas movies I have come across these elements in other Christmas movies so right from the word go "Christmas Town" is familiar.
Now as I say there is nothing wrong with familiar especially when it comes to Christmas movies because during Christmas familiarity seems to work best. The trouble with "Christmas Town" is that everything comes across as too tongue in cheek with every single actor over forcing things to the point it feels a little pantomime like in places. What doesn't help matters is that here we have a movie called "Christmas Town", we are in a place called Hollyville, it is the eve of Christmas Eve and yet people walk around in Santa hats looking like it is in fact the middle of summer. With out that sense of chill in the air and snow on the ground this movie fails to convince.
What this all boils down to is that "Christmas Town" could have been an okay Christmas movie but between the acting and the lack of seasonal atmosphere it ends up a "Ho, Ho, No".
Tags: Christmas Movies
