A Starstruck Christmas/ A Show-Stopping Christmas/A Playful Romance (2021) -
As Christmas film efforts go this one was pretty standard without anything to specifically distinguish it from the others. In fact I'm sure I've seen the same "You can't sell the theatre to build condos!" plot before at least twice. That's not to say that it was bad, but it just wasn't anything to write home about, which makes it hard to write a review about.
Firstly I didn't buy Sam (Thomas McDonell) as a Hollywood movie star. He was fairly cute and mostly likeable in his role, although make up needed to fix his beard, but leading Hollywood guy?? Not so much.
The other lead character Jamie Perez was a bit much in her role of Riley though. She never stopped to consider what other people might be going through and she was a bit obsessed with the theatre's threatened closure. And it was all about how it would affect her and her circle.
All she did was rile up Regina (Maureen Keiller) without once thinking about her feelings. And there in lay the crux of the story and why Riley's attempts to save the theatre were repeatedly thwarted.
To be honest though, Reggie really needed to get over it and realise that her late husband Jake would never have wanted her to be that way. Although I know that there's no time limit on grief it might also perhaps have been more believable.
If her loss had been fresher than 7 years before.
While the theatre troop were very competent singers, I personally thought that their performances on stage were pretty bad, especially as they were tackling such a classic play. Sam didn't exactly give an Oscar award winning performance as Bob Cratchit either, which was another example of him not being Hollywood enough.
I could however appreciate the budget spent on extras and the special effects, particularly when you consider it was 80 degree heat when the film was recorded.
So how did Riley save the theatre and find love along the way? It was all fairly obvious to be honest, but it didn't hurt to watch it and it certainly wasn't one of the worst efforts I've seen.
6.34/10.
