12 Dates of Christmas

I have pretty low expectations for movies of this genre, but this one really surprised me. The script wasn't cringeworthy, the acting wasn't cringeworthy, and the story, though it's pretty predicable, wasn't littered with clichés. Not only I was able to watch past the first 20 minutes, but I would actually watch this movie again.

Might as well get the "G" word out of the way up front, as this likable Christmas TV movie shamelessly groundhogs its main plot device from a better-known earlier movie, the two twists being that this time it affects a female and that it occurs (or should that be recurs?) on Christmas Eve.

Amy Smart is the girl whose Christmas Day can't get started after a Christmas Eve fall in a department store sees her day rewind every time the clock strikes twelve. From there we see her make the anticipated journey from a truculent self-obsessive who won't accept her new step-mom, creeps out her ex-boyfriend who's obviously moved on from her and finally rudely walks out of a blind date with a handsome young widower to a regular Christmas angel who rights the lives of everyone she bumps into before finally making up with them all, including the guy as she finally gets past her twelve days of Christmas spell.

Smart is amiable in the lead part, a lightweight cross between Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Anniston and the circular time motif is deftly handled even if some of the situations she resolves are more sugary than a cane plantation.

Nicely shot around New York in bright December sun-light, this was an attractive, undemanding, feel-good Christmas movie worth seeing once, but just the once!

No Spoilers:

Before I say these mean things allow me to first point out that the movie was pretty enjoyable and if you are looking for a light easy holiday movie and have already burnt through all the really good ones, then go ahead and watch this. It isn't bad, just not deserving of "really good" or "great". It is actually a little good. 5/10 would be "just okay", which is why I'm giving it a 6/10, because it wasn't boring and did make me smile some.

In the beginning of the film they showed her as being very shallow. They made the mistake of never showing her as having wised up. She continued to be shallow through to the end. Yes she wizened a little, but not enough.

The movie never really gets deep enough to allow Amy Smart to show off her acting skills (she is a proven good actor). Not much of anything very heartfelt happens. No tears shed. No real feeling of caring for the characters.

Some of the plot feels a bit carelessly thrown together as if with a mindset of "yeah this will fill in the basic romcom blueprint good enough".

Felt like another movie training people to think that everyone is mystically fated for "the one" and that marriage is everything. Ironically it actually tries, for a brief moment, to suggest that her obsession with marriage instead of enjoying the day was the cause of some of her past problems.

Anyways. I kind of enjoyed it, but it felt shallow like the main character.

This takes the concept of Bill Murray's movie Groundhog Day and adds a dash of Christmas Spirit... but only a dash.

It is basically a love story... Not just of Kate, but the other people that transect her life, and her coming-to-terms and accepting other people's love interests.

It doesn't have a dark side as Groundhog Day did where Bill Murray went through a few suicide days; Kate has a bad day where she gets grumpy with people, though the director shoots it with humour.

The only thing that concerned and irked me a little was the way Miles would just walk away when things got a little tough or strange. Wouldn't you want the love interest to have a little interest in his supposed love, give her some benefit of the doubt? What would the future be like with this type of man?

That said, I really enjoyed the film, though I wouldn't really call it a "Christmas Movie" as it's only set on Christmas Eve. It is a movie where you can cuddle up close with your loved one and just enjoy the lighthearted script (which made me feel good throughout the movie and made me laugh a few times too) with good acting and decent direction.

This ABC family Christmas movie is better than some of the recent Hallmark holiday movies. The writing is sharper and the cast is likable - more A list for TV than usual. The Groundhog Day formula has been used in TV movies sometimes unsuccessfully, but here they got the right elements of Groundhog. Each repeated day is different enough and builds upon the last with sufficient humor and inventiveness. A young lady pining for her ex is set up on a blind date.

Amy Smart has enough vitality without being annoying and she pulls the role off quite well. Mark Paul Gosselaar is a likable enough romantic lead.

If you have to pick one Christmas movie to watch this one is okay.