A Cape Cod Christmas

You might feel, as I do, that the art of making a movie is not in the value of its themes, but in the way they are developed, expressed, and conveyed. Some movies may have a strong content of intents or values, yet they are rendered awkwardly or flatly. Great expectations are turned into an irritating waste of everybody's time. In other productions, like the present one, the plot is unoriginal, the story is simple and has no great ambitions. Yet, it works, being presented with the proper tones, a gentle touch, and care for details. Here we have the story of young woman, Margot, who is opposed to selling her family house, in contrast with her siblings, and reunites with her childhood best friend and first crush. Far from an innovating idea! Katie Leclerc manages to express all her conflicting emotions, the attachment to her memories, the disagreement with and love for her family, her growing feeling for Christian, with poise and grace, very convincingly. The rest of the cast supports her performance with equal restraint and subtlety. The result is a movie that highlights family values, real sentiments, and .. a touch of Christmas spirit. The beautiful scenery of the surrounding nature visually adds to the narrative.

This is how to create uplifting, family-friendly and engaging entertainment. As for Katie Leclerc, she shines in her role and seems to become more beautiful and charming with the going years.

The movie itself is pretty good - definitely better than most. Nicely developed characters and a believable plot. There are often so many complications and disagreements when family members have to make a decision regarding the disposition of family property. So the plot may actually feel all too real and push some buttons and strike a nerve for come people.

But my biggest and most pleasant surprise was the scenery. The movie that takes place on Cape Cod, MA was actually filmed on Cape Cod. I live on the Cape, though not in Falmouth. I've gotten so sick of watching movies purportedly taking place on the Cape and the scenery always includes dense forests, high mountains and sheer rock faces on the mountainsides. Lovely scenery but couldn't be less like Cape Cod, which is basically a giant sandbar sticking out into the North Atlantic. It was so nice to see the characters walking Main St in Falmouth and visiting Eight Cousins Books, Coffee Obsession, Nobska Light, the many shops and galleries along Main, participating in the Main Street Christmas Stroll and I believe in the first establishing shots, seeing the dike road to Mashnee Island, where I think the family home - the crux of the plot - was located. It's a better than average movie and the authentic scenery is the frosting on the cake... or is it Christmas Pudding?

One reviewer talked about presentation making a movie implying I think that the plot is not as important. I did think that the presentation was excellent. The snippets of remembering were a nice touch and contributed to an otherwise quiet pace.

Katie Leclerc and Brent Bailey have excellent chemistry and I look to relationship development in a movie to pick up where a plot is thin. In this case that relationship was nice, but the plot was still glaringly thin. Then the climax where the conflict is resolved just struck me as wrong. It was a surprise but only because it too was bland.

The acting was good enough but the dialog lacked any spark.

A New England Christmas/A Cape Cod Christmas (2021) -

I liked the new guy, he was cute. This was the first film I've seen Brent Bailey in and I liked his character Christian the artist. However, what really bugs me with these films that have a lower budget, is that these "Amazing" painters aren't ever actually that good. I mean, admittedly I couldn't produce the picture that's painted, but I can recognise good art and the gift he gives her was like something from the 1930's and completely lacking style.

The leading lady, Katie Leclerc as Margot was okay and their connection was at least believable.

There were a few too many flashbacks used, that really weren't that necessary and because of the sepia tones it made them look positively ancient, which felt out of sync with the time period.

It got very twee too and a bit cheesey, certainly once her family arrived, but I did like the fact that the ending didn't go as it would normally.

The nephew, Ace (Jake Ryan Flynn) was very weird and quite clearly the progeny of his own uncle, The Sherminator, Chris Owen as Tom, who seemed an odd choice to bring in and so late on.

I did quite like the soundtrack, the folksy country style was definitely different, although some of the incidental music was a bit depressing.

I have always liked the films that include artists or writers, so I'm sure that I will come back to this one and I look forward to seeing Brent again in other roles.

6/10.

Being East European, I am very atached by family home. So, I empatize with Margot in each reaction of her attitude about this delicate subject. And, no doubts, I love the end.

I liked the Christian painting, reminding me the atmosphere of Somewhere in Time by Jeannot Szwark.

And I appreciated the fine performances of Katie Leclerc and Brent Bailey. Maybe, the supporting actors are not in their most optim acting but the childhood flashbacks are nice and a clever idea for define the main characters.

The problem - maybe the very egoistic pressure on poor Christian for the illustrations of future book. Not asked, not informed, front a sort of sentimental blackmail . But it is only a detail from a real nice film.