The Library Around the Corner
Christmas is coming and librarian Cheri Jameson (Lindy Booth) is full of the Christmas spirit until she learns that after Christmas the library won't be re-opening as the owners of the building want to demolish it and redevelop the land. Determined to save the library Cheri tries to persuade the Shaughnessy family to stop their plans and whilst Rosaleen Shaughnessy (Dawn Greenhalgh) has some emotional connection to the buildings which her husband built her grandson Tony (Robin Dunne) who works for ruthless developer Charles Harris (Casper Van Dien) can't wait to see the back of them. To try and prove the library is needed and is the heart and soul of the community Cheri arranges for a Christmas tree decorating competition which Tony gets wind of and hires top designer Cordelia (Melanie Brown) to design and dress his entry.
I don't know whether it is just my current mood or whether it is Christmas movie overkill but the last few Christmas movies I have watched have failed to do anything other than fill up 90 minutes of an afternoon. Now that doesn't mean these movies were bad but they did fail to bring anything new to the table or give me characters and performances which made me want to watch the movie again. And that all brings me to "Twelve Trees of Christmas", a grade A typical TV Christmas movie with all the standard elements including cute looking people.
Now "Twelve Trees of Christmas" is yet another movie which throws us into the constant battle between the way things are and progress, you know the thing small business has to make way for mega store, a small town is threatened by a greedy land developer looking to build a mall nearby. In this case it is a greedy developer played by Casper Van Dien, and who is barely in the movie, wanting to demolish a library to build a new development. Of course in Cheri's battle to save the library there is conflict of the romantic variety as after a less than great start she gets close to Tony who is torn between the family foundation and working for the demanding Charles Harris.
As such whilst we have this strange set up of a Christmas Tree Contest everything which happens is pretty obvious as "Twelve Trees of Christmas" is by the book. That sense of obvious extends to the casting and characters with Lindy Booth and Robin Dunne being both easy on the eye. What is less obvious and more amusing is the casting of Melanie Brown, aka Scary Spice, as a high class interior designer. Brown's deviating accent which goes from Leeds to high class is what makes the character, the movie's villain, entertaining.
What this all boils down to is that "Twelve Trees of Christmas" is just another made for TV Christmas movie which is not terrible but offers up nothing new and so ends up background entertainment. Although with Melanie Brown in the cast there is a bit of a surprise.
Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies
