Christmas on the Vine

This holiday movie was fun to watch from the winery point of view. There is always some enchantment in films about that exotic life that is so unknown to most viewers. However, aside from the fairly predictable plot and the charm of seeing how wine country life is not all that easy and glamorous, this film left a great deal to be desired. Julianna Guill is a really talented actress, with a welcome range of emotions, with great energy for her character, and with a sadly empty script to work with. She does her best in this film. Meredith Baxter is always a welcome joy in any movie. But oh, my goodness, the leading man was so hard to like! He was portrayed as an angry, reluctant headstrong fellow. One wonders how the leading lady could find him appealing and lovable. The quickly resolved ending seemed to come out of nowhere and made very little sense. But most distracting throughout was Jon Cor's hair. Was there no hairdresser on the set to comb his hair back out of his forehead? He is a handsome man and a competent actor. But one wonders why he was presented in such an unattractive manner, one that kept interfering with the viewer's wish to find him likable and appealing. His appearance took a great deal of attention away from the enjoyment of this film.

Christmas films can go either way, which has been my experience watching overtime the festive output of Lifetime and Hallmark. They can either be well-meaning, charming, warm-hearted and don't feel too heavy. Or they can be too over-sentimental, cheesy, contrived and bland. There have been many films of theirs that have fallen in both camps and in the camp where there is a bit of both. And 'Christmas on the Vine' did have the sort of premise where the execution could have gone either way.

Lifetime's 2020 Christmas film batch, like all their previous years, was pretty hit and miss which was not unexpected. 'Christmas on the Vine' is somewhere in the middle. If one was to judge it from its early portions, it could have easily passed for being one of the worst if it didn't get better. Luckily 'Christmas on the Vine' did get better though still stayed uneven, providing that one is willing to stick with it. Was really umming and erring at first whether to but generally don't regret my decision to stick with it.

The film is a long way from perfect. It starts off terribly, with some truly laughable dialogue that makes one cringe at its awkwardness and cheesiness, lifeless pacing and characters that one dislikes quickly. Also thought that the film ended underwhelmingly too, too abrupt and rushed with a truly implausible out of character 180.

Jon Cor was rather iffy as the male lead, he comes over as rather stiff and dull and also slightly creepy. His chemistry with Julianna Guill (who acquits herself well) isn't there at first.

Guill however is truly beguiling and easy to like from the get go. Meredith Baxter is a lively presence and the rest of the supporting turns are very good, only Cor doesn't work. The chemistry between Guill and Cor took time to settle but when it did settle it was quite charming. Luckily there is a lot seen of the relationship and it moves at a relatively realistic rate and grows. Didn't care for the characters at first, but they grew on me throughout the film.

A great job is done with the Christmas atmosphere, where it does feel like Christmas and in an affectionate way. Some lovely Christmas touches and there are some very sweet, but not sickly, scenes. The script is poor to begin with but gets better once one gets past the terrible first quarter or so, where there are a fair share of funny and poignant lines. The story is very predictable with pretty much everything being what one expects, but also has a lot of heart and charm. It doesn't take itself too seriously while not taking things as too much of a joke.

In conclusion, doesn't start off well at all and runs out of steam at the end, but much of what happens in between is pleasant if nothing mind-blowing. 6/10.

Brooke (Julianna Guill) goes back to her hometown on a job. She's rebranding a small struggling family-run winery. Tyler (Jon Cor) is the son of the owner and two school years ahead of her. She remembers him but he's not sure. Carla Kilgore (Meredith Baxter) is their powerful competitor who is looking to buy up all the businesses.

It's Lifetime Television doing Christmas. This genre is dominated by Hallmark. This is no better or worst. It's all pretty much the same level of background TV. You put it on in the background while you do other stuff. The one outstanding aspect is the snowy outdoor locations. It looks wintery and Christmasy. It's mostly fine.

This movie rigidly checks all the Christmas Movie (must have) boxes one after the other but on the strength of Julianna Guill's performance alone, it's still enjoyable. Jon Cor's performance here was good, and the two leads do have believable chemistry, but due to the writing, you just feel like smackin the male lead most of the time. Perhaps Cor's hair styling was done intentionally to distract from how badly his part was written (moley, moley, moley). The ending had a couple of WTH? moments in it leading to an inexplicable happy ending and achieves the (feel-good) conclusion, even if you don't actually understand it.

The marketing exec is delightful and fun throughout, really trying her best to save a small business in her home town. Male lead has hair that looks like the only styling was dunking him in water. Writing was bad. Why hire a marketing firm to bring in business if you're uninterested in change? He kind of hated all her ideas until she convinced him that they were worth a shot. The love aspect was very forced and honestly I didn't like it. The movie itself is super formulaic and follows exactly the template you'd expect it to, which is for better or for worse depending on what you're looking for.