You know the film. It’s a film you have never heard of. The cast might be composed of actors you know and love or complete unknowns. A documentary that sounds interesting about a topic you might like. You stumble across it on streaming and wonder if it will be worth two hours of your time. This series will be devoted to reviewing films like these, the strange items that pop up when you are looking for a flick on the streaming service of your choice. This is “We Found It On Streaming”
In the month of December, during our celebration of Saturday Night Live‘s 50th anniversary, we will be devoting this feature to holiday films found on streaming with some ties to the sketch program. This installment covers a film with an appearance by Chevy Chase.
FILM: A Christmas in Vermont
Release Date: December 4, 2018
Run Time: 86 Minutes.
Streaming Service(s): Tubi, Amazon Prime, Peacock.
Rating: Rated TV-PG
When I was researching possible films for this feature and came across this one, I almost passed on it. Judging from the description, it looked like a Hallmark Holiday Movie, and those might be a little bit too well known to be featured here. But, no fear, this isn’t a Hallmark movie. It is an Ion Network movie, which apparently is a lower level of Made-for TV Movie Hell.
The film does follow the Hallmark Holiday Movie template, though. Riley (Abigail Hawk) is a high-powered New York City businesswoman who is looking to impress her boss, Preston Bullock (Chevy Chase). When Bullock gives her the chance to close down one of its underperforming companies, OutWear, she jumps at the opportunity. However, Bullock wants her to close the shop in person, which means travelling to Vermont.
On the advice of her boyfriend, David (Zack Ward), Riley agrees not to lower the boom until just before she leaves on Christmas Eve. Instead, she will pretend to be sent from the corporate office to give the local manager, Wyatt (David O’Donnell), advice on how to run his business, advice he doesn’t want or feel he needs. This leads to an adversarial relationship between the two, one that it takes the power of Christmas and wonder of sweaters to turn around.
A Christmas in Vermont is not a good movie. But movies of this genre seldom are. I’m not what you’d call and expert on “Hallmark” movies. This is the first of its kind that I’ve watched, but I have Internet access and was a fan of The Soup so I know the reputation they have. They are cookie-cutter, boilerplate romances that don’t really have to be good to please their fans. As long as the two leads get together in the end, there is no need for a quality way to get them there.
But even by those low standards, A Christmas in Vermont fails. The plot is formulaic. It gets the job done, but you will know what is coming before it arrives. The script is insipid. One of the characters describes her sweater as such: “Keeps me warm on a cold day.” Isn’t that what all sweaters do? Or is this a universe where they give you the power of flight or allow you to breathe underwater?
But my main complaint is the directing of Fred Olen Ray. I was going to say the directing and the acting, but I think most of the problems with the acting comes from the directing. Let me explain.
This film is directed by Ray from line of dialog to line of dialog instead of a cohesive whole. There are no slow burns here, no builds in tone. Characters either keep the same emotional resonance through the whole film (more on this later) or shift from happy to angry to sad with little connective tissue between. This doesn’t lend itself to believable characters or good acting performances. And in a romance, that is fatal. We don’t really get a “falling in love” moment between the leads, and the only reason they seemingly get together is because the convention of the genre demands it.
There are three “big names” in the cast. We get a mixed bag of performances from them. While most of the lesser-known names in the cast give adequate to good performances, these three deserve a little discussion.
The rise and fall of Chevy Chase’s career is fascinating, He was the breakout star of the first cast of SNL. He is now doing supporting roles in store-brand Hallmark Movies, As the say, lo, how the mighty have fallen. I would say that Chase is phoning it in with his performance here, but that would be an insult to people who phone it in. He reads it in. If you were to bet me that he read all of his dialog from cue cards, I would have to agree with you. Whether that is true or not, what results is a flat performance that isn’t worth whatever the producers paid for it.
A more problematic performance comes from Howard Hessman. Hessman acts in this movie like he is submerged in a vat of molasses. He plays Nick, the original founder of OutWear who is still mourning his wife’s passing from two years ago. It is a monotone performance that makes me think Ray gave him the director’s note of “be more Eeeyore” and Hessman just ran with it. It is such a low energy performance that it makes me wonder how his health was when he filmed the movie. Because he has been much better in other films and TV shows in the past.
In contrast to those two, Morgan Fairchild comes off like a new version of Meryl Streep. Fairchild plays Wyatt’s mom, and it’s a stereotypical mother role, the kind where she harangues Wyatt to not skip meals, but she plays the role with such a spark and consistency that she rises above the material and provides a believable performance.
The film does work in a “so bad it’s good” aspect. There are dozens of mock-worthy things to notice once you give up on the movie. Like, for instance, that David is always alone in a bar every time Riley calls him from Vermont. Or, that the sketchbook full of Nick’s designs, the one that Riley flips through and complements, is nothing but blank pages. So, in that sense, it might be good to watch it with the sarcastic person you love.
However, if you are looking for a movie that is actually good, you should stay far away from this film as you possibly can,
Have you found a film on streaming that you’d like us to look at? Leave it in the comments and it might appear in a future installment of this feature.
