Under the Christmas Tree

This movie is a little like Miss Christams except both the romantic leads are women. Charlie represents the Governor looking for a Christmas tree for the big event. Alma runs a Christmas business and the tree is on her parents' land. Much of the movie is Charlie trying to convince Alma to give up the tree, but for Alma the tree is all about her family history. The company logo is even a representation of that tree.

Elise Bauman and Tattiawna Jones are great together and their relationship is the hook of the movie.

I'm giving Under the Christmas Tree a positive review. With all its faults, its still a step in the right direction in the largely ignored world of gay, or in this case lesbian romance films for the general public.

The story: Charlie is a "tree whisperer" scouting for the perfect tree for the state's holiday display. Alma is a local businesswoman running a struggling Christmas shop with her parents, who are about to retire.

Charlie finds a tree on Alma's property that would be perfect, but it has been cherished by the family and is in fact the logo for the shop.

While Alma says no, at the same time sparks fly between Charlie and her. From there, the story follows Charlie's attempt to change Alma's mind and the gentle flirtation between them.

The flaw here is there is very little romance in this rom-com. I know there were constraints. This is a TV movie after all, but there weren't even many longing looks between the two, making it a bit sterile. Apparently, this was the director's first film. Perhaps a more experienced hand might have been able to get something on screen not on the printed page.

Still, I'm giving this a great grade. I've watched it several times and enjoyed it. The ending definitely leaves open the possibility of a sequel. That would be a very good thing.

Substantial holiday flourishes, immediate meeting of the main characters and obvious mutual attraction, and a contrived conflict precipitating the eventual inevitable pairing: This is a Christmas movie, and a Lifetime original movie. We get all the expected themes and notions - unending charm and pleasantness, small towns, professional clashes and personal interest, cute character idiosyncrasies, and so on and so on. There aren't any major surprises here, save perhaps for one: This is, accordingly, Lifetime's first Christmas lesbian romance. Though characterized by the same ham-handed silliness as any other Lifetime production - if the sharp writing and earnest attentiveness we see here is any indication of what we might expect from future sapphic holiday TV romances, I'm totally on board for many, many more. I may be a tad biased, but I adore 'Under the Christmas tree.'

Michael J. Murray's screenplay is a true blessing, steadying the substantial kitsch of the genre with rich, clever dialogue (including no few thinly veiled slips that are all but Freudian), and robust, relatable, likable characters. Though the narrative as a whole is ultimately, expectedly predictable, it feels more balanced than what we get in other TV movies, and the scene writing is a legitimate gem - fun, funny, heartwarming, cheerful, and lovely. I lost count of how many times I squealed with joy! I appreciate Lisa Rose Snow's direction - clearly just as impassioned and heartfelt as all others' contributions, orchestrating fine scenes and guiding her cast into able performances, and capturing all available details. Why, there are some really fetching shots here, too. And, importantly, I genuinely like the acting. Again, of course everything here bears the same slant toward gauche cheese. At that, however, everyone involved leans into the campy good spirit. Elise Bauman and Tattiawna Jones are of course most noteworthy as joint protagonists Alma and Charlie, delightfully beautiful and bewitching with welcome range and nuance. But the supporting cast shouldn't be counted out either, as among others Enrico Colantoni, Wendy Crewson, and Ricki Lake give their parts great personality and warmth.

The filming locations, set design and decoration, and costume design are careful and precise, and there's strong consideration for rounding details like hair, makeup, lighting, and so on. Cinematography and sound design is crisp and clear, and like so much else here, Michael Richard Plowman's score - bent toward the same design - seems to still avoid the utmost heavy-handedness most Christmas film sounddtracks offer. In every meaningful way, I honestly think 'Under the Christmas tree' takes a familiar tack in a more dynamic, capable trajectory.

In fairness, any viewer who can't abide the type of broadly straightforward, blunt, endlessly feel-good feature this represents probably won't see anything here to change their mind. As enjoyable as it is, this picture still fits within a very particular niche genre. Yet the fact remains that especially with 'Under the Christmas tree' being a little bit of a landmark for Lifetime, obvious care went into making this the best it could be within their mold. And the effort paid off: I rather believe this might be the best movie of this style that I've seen. I get a definite sense of more stable equilibrium here between wholehearted sincerity and requisite artificiality than in almost any other TV movie, of any variety, that I've watched, and the result is a wonderful, entertaining good time. Leave it to the lesbians to handily succeed where many years of heteronormative small screen production can't: as far as I'm concerned, 'Under the Christmas tree' is a new high water mark for holiday romances, and well worth checking out if one has the opportunity!

Alma's (Elise) bangs were quite distracting lmaooo i felt like they had a life of their own.

Movie was fine and very sweet. Surprised to see lesbians on a Lifetime TV prod.

Under The Christmas Tree (2021) -

Lesbians!!!! And not just in bit parts as the best friend! They even used the actual word "Gay!". I've never come across that before in one of these films. Well done to the producers for finally delivering that.

The characters were all very typically lesbian too, they were so stubborn and they couldn't see any grey areas, which fit with what I know from the lesbians I've met in my life. They also had a strong desire to love and couple quickly, because they easily found the beauty in each other, which once again felt typical.

And I could easily see that they were attracted to each other right from the start! They were proper flirty and highly sexed like they were on heat almost, but not in a "Get a room" way, at least mostly.

I actually really liked how the romance blossomed, because it was as a normal one would and not some forced story or silly situation where someone else is trying to pull the strings of it or enemies to friends to lovers.

The story had similarities to 'The National Tree' (2009) and 'Miss Christmas' (2017) with hints of 'You, Me & The Christmas Trees' (2021) too. Tattiawna Jones, playing Charlie, needed a tree for the governor and she wouldn't let the crush she had on the tree's owner get in the way. And Elise Bauman, as Alma wasn't going to give up her tree that easily, despite her immediate attraction to Charlie.

We all knew what would happen, but the journey and the delivery was sweet.

As a raving homosexual, I would like them to deliver something similar with two men, instead of the silly comedies that they always tend to make, with overly outrageous characters that are used for laughs, but this was a nice one that I'm sure that the girls would enjoy too.

6.5/10.