Oh Christmas Tree!

Elise (Sarah Lancaster) grew up with her family's business of selling Christmas trees. So now she's anti-Christmas. Not sure I understand that part of the plot. My dad was a carpenter and I don't hate hammers. Anyway, when Elise's father breaks his foot, she agrees to help out with the business. She's not a happy camper already because she lost her job and was dumped by her boyfriend. So now she has to do her least favorite thing in the world and a struggle with a grinchy CEO out to get rid of her family's Christmas tree lot doesn't help matters. At least she meets a cute guy (Eric Johnson). Soon she's feeling the holiday spirit in spite of herself.

Sarah Lancaster is very pretty and charming. Her smile lights up the screen. She does a lot for the part, which isn't written as very likable in the earliest scenes of the movie. Derek McGrath and Lynne Griffin are her perfect parents. Greg Calderone is the likable cousin that helps her run the lot. It was nice to see Eric Johnson. I remember him from the first season of Smallville way back when. He's got a good chemistry with Sarah. Their first date was pretty cute. Colin Mochrie is great as the Scrooge-like villain who isn't as bad as he seems. This is an upbeat and surprisingly funny TV movie. There are many other likable characters throughout, such as the happy married couple she meets or the little kids, one of whom says "Maybe you have relationship issues." Seasonal romcoms are pretty much my favorite and this one's good. It's nothing challenging but that's okay with me. It's all about the smiles and this one gives them.

HAPPY Holidays. Tis the season to be JOLLY. It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year. Really? Fully the first 1/3rd of this movie (commercial TV screen time 41 minutes) was a total downer. One bad thing after another. Pile on Elise. And there was more of it later in the movie.

Meanwhile, it really didn't seem like Elise and Darren spent much time together, and certainly not much alone time. Even then I would say the chemistry was just average. A lot of the screen time was either the unhappy corporate world, or grumpy Gary, or the tree lot.

Sarah Lancaster has a nice smile that she showed off plenty, but beyond that, she wasn't charismatic or energetic. Eric Johnson did the best he could with the screen time he had.

My point is this. It's clearly a Christmas movie and a romance one also. So it would be nice if the bulk of the movie was one or both, with a heavy dose leaning toward the romance side. That was not even close to how it worked out.

There is a really sweet scene when Elise delivers the tree to the pregnant couple. The couple describes their happiest Christmas moments and it definitely lightens things up. I found it to be the best scene in the movie.

Sarah Lancaster (as Elise) was the main character, she was in every scene and it was an enjoyable movie. The movie kept me fairly engaged the whole time. My wife did not enjoy the movie as much, but she was tired and to get the full value of the movie you had to stay alert. The best part of the movie was the story of how a couple valued their ornaments which were gotten at gift shops and how they represented times in their relationship. Elise liked this and when she received one such ornament at the end- it was perfect. I enjoyed seeing Derek McGrath as Elise dad (Dr Hebert on DOC) and loved how he would comment when Elise and her mom would talk about him like he wasn't there. Overall they did a good job and the story is taking place in New York City.

Fir Crazy follows the character of Elise, played by Sarah Lockwood, who, through a series of circumstances, is cornered into a job she has hated all her life - selling Christmas trees in Manhattan for her parents' family business.

Soon Sarah encounters a nemesis -an elderly and unlikeable CEO of the nearby store who sees the sale of Christmas trees as a nuisance and wants to shut Sarah's business down. Also circling the tree lot is Darrin (Eric Johnson), a handsome young man who is apparently attracted to Sarah. Add a few colorful supporting characters and you have the basics for a Hallmark Christmas movie - romantic love and people being transformed by the spirit of Christmas!

And Fir Crazy carries off the Hallmark formula reasonably well. Its dialog is better than most movies of this type. It has spots of good acting, a couple of surprises, is well-paced and fun. I enjoyed watching it. But I never once felt choked up at the feel-good emotional climaxes (and I cry easily!) Maybe because the characters themselves never seemed to be very unhappy during the moments of greatest adversity; and if the characters don't seem to care then why should the audience?

Overall, I found Fir Crazy to be "good but not great." But though it fell short of great, I did think it was fun and a movie I would enjoy seeing again during the holiday season.

...or just nice. a film about Christmas trees. and about the people around them. not original, but comfortable. and seductive. and interesting crafted, with the image of young woman involved in the family business , the accepted homeless, the fragile love story and the sketch of Dickens-like Scrooge. without be impressive - it is only a Hallmark holiday film - it works in reasonable manner. and that is the significant good point.