Today we bring you another installment of Christmas-Movies-You-Just-Can't-Not-Watch. Today we are talking about Christmas in the Smokies. This one should really be called Christmas in the Hokies (guys, I am really funny).
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I was excited when I saw that this movie starred Sarah Lancaster because she's a little more mainstream than a lot of the actors that star in these low-budget cheese fests (you'll recognize her from Chuck). I actually liked her performance in Christmas in the Smokes although I don't think the writing gave her the chance to shine.
Our story begins on Christmas Eve, Shelby Haygood is a teenager, watching out the front door of her family's home for someone to show up. Smash cut to many years later and Shelby is still reeling from whatever disappointment occurred on that fateful night. She seems to be somewhere in her early 30's now and lives on the family berry farm with her elderly parents who are a pair of crack ups. I swear, they are duplicates of my grandparent. Well, aside from their refusal to take their financial worries seriously. Although Shelby's dad isn't played by Wilford Brimley, he looks a lot like him and all I can think of when I see him on the screen is, "Diabeetus!" Does anyone else remember those commercials? Just me?
As I started in on this film, a stack of questions began piling up:
- Who is the little girl Shelby visits in the hospital? Is she related? Does Shelby work at the hospital? What is with this hospital and the sick little girl??
- How did her family's farm get more than $60,000 underwater without them noticing?
- When do they find time to make twelve different types of jam every day?
- Why does the whole town turn up at the local theater to watch a TV dance contest?
- Is this a Christian Christmas movie? Are the characters going to address that at all or is the local radio station just reading the Bible on the radio all the time?
- Why is there a painting of the old man who bullies all of the townspeople hanging in the bank officer's office?
The biggest question I have is why Shelby is so relentlessly mad at Mason Wyatt (played by the very hunky Alan Powell). He's the local boy who made it big as a singer but has lost touch with his roots. After making a fool of himself on the dance show mentioned above he decides he needs to reconnect with his past and comes back to his hometown in the Smokies. Somehow he doesn't have any family or friends there and apparently his lucrative singing career hasn't paid him enough to get a hotel. Mason ends up crashing with Shelby's family at the invitation of her dad which of course Shelby has an unreasonably negative reaction to. She ends up making him sleep in the barn. Rude.
I feel like Shelby's distaste for Mason doesn't quite add up. It has to have been at least 15 years since the opening scene when Mason disappointed her and didn't show up for whatever was going on that Christmas Eve. Maybe they were incredibly in love at 17 years old but I think she should have gotten over it, at least to some to some degree, in the interim decade and a half. This is Olympic-level grudge holding here, folks!
Of course we all know how this is going to go- Mason will eventually wear Shelby down and soften her heart by helping her save the farm. This starts when they do a local radio show together in what looks like someone's basement and somehow Mason listing his favorite Christmas songs make Shelby not want to set him on fire and roll him down a hill. Mason ends up having to choose between his career and love which I guess you could call a twist since it's usually the female lead who has to do that in these movies.
I don't want to spoil the ending too much, you'll have to watch and see exactly how it turns out but I will tell you this- it is one heck of an awkward hug/dance/non-kiss.
My favorite line of the film: Shelby's dad exclaims "I'm gonna change my Facebook status!"
I would give this movie a 5 out of 10 for it's genre but only because it actually made me laugh out loud at one point. There were just too many plot holes, lots of unnecessary guitar playing, it moved slowly and there wasn't good chemistry between the main characters. It's a solid "meh" for me.
Christmas in the Smokies is available to stream on Netflix.
What do you want us to review next? What movies are on your watch list this holiday season?
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