Director: Michael A. Nickles
Writer: Nickles
Starring: Katlyn Carlson, Brian Muller, Teya Patt, and Pamela Chabora
It’s only the second movie we’ve watched this holiday season, but it’s hard to imagine anything that follows topping Holly Star—this might just be the quintessential cheesy holiday movie; a near-perfect romp through formulaic territory that’s genuinely funny, legitimately charming, and that somehow feels fresh.
The plot is mostly typical: Sloan is a puppeteer (?) who is
fired from her job; without a place to stay, she travels to her parents’
home—only to discover they’re out of town on a trip. No worries, though,
because her old stomping grounds feature a large cast of characters that she
grew up with, like best friend (and paintball aficionado) Kay K; her “young at
heart and mind and body” grandmother, who lives in a senior care facility that
she also apparently runs; and Andy, her childhood friend who returns home once
a year to help his parent’s run a Christmas tree farm. Honestly, it’s my
nightmare collection of characters (there aren’t many things I hate more in
movies than the grandma character with boundless energy who acts like a young
person for comedic effect; that’s up there with “fat person dancing” as the
cheapest, laziest, and unfunniest of all clichés), but somehow they never
become annoying; I think it also helps that—with the exception of Teya Patt’s
Kay K—the overacting is kept to a bare minimum, which at least helps to ground
it more in “reality”.
But there’s also another piece to Sloan’s puzzle: Every time
she gets close to death (and it oddly happens more than once), she has flashbacks
to her childhood, when she witnessed Santa Claus burying a bag full of money. She
becomes virtually obsessed with finding the location of that bag, even going so
far as to planning out her own near-death experience (with the help of Kay K),
in an effort to stir up further memories. But is it the treasure that she’s
really after? Or is Santa leading her to something that’s worth far more than
money?
We all know how it’s going to end up: the refreshing part is
how it goes about getting there. The story weaves its way through drunken Santa
pub crawls, nursing home tango nights, and dickish impound lot managers, but
never once loses its footing. It approaches—and perhaps even
surpasses—“over-the-top” territory, but it never feels forced; it never feels like
the material is getting out of control, the way it often does with these kind
of movies, which seem to be quickly-produced in an effort to maximize earning
potential.
The disparate, mismatched plot elements sound like they
would be a certifiable mess (and they technically should be), but somehow, like
most everything else, it just works: this is one of those ultra-rare holiday
movies that isn’t just enjoyable for “what it is”; it’s enjoyable, period. The
casting is spot-on, the writing is almost pitch-perfect, and the use of puppets
(courtesy of Figures of Speech) is an inspiring, artsy gamble that will no
doubt turn off as many as it impresses. Maybe most importantly: it’s actually
funny, and with a unanimously likable cast.
It also doesn’t hurt that Katlyn Carlson’s Sloan is
absolutely adorable. It can’t be easy hiring the leads for a holiday romance,
because I’m finding in order for them to “work” the best, they have to be
attractive, but not overly so; they must also balance the looks with a certain
level of “girl (or boy) next door” innocence. Again, it can’t be too much (I loathe the movies where the
filmmakers go out of their way to make the main character too perfect, and too
oblivious to everything), which is why it’s actually tougher than it would
seem, and why a large portion of these movies disappoint upon execution. There
needs to be something good to look at, almost as a distraction while you
swallow the same plot lines and one-dimensional characters for the millionth
time.
Sloan strikes that perfect balance: she’s attractive by
looks alone, but not in a way that I would consider “conventional”: she’s not a
supermodel, but nor is she “plain”. She has a look that’s all…her. Factor in
her laid-back attitude, and she becomes a woman that even I would marry; that
certainly makes it a lot easier to root for characters when you actually feel
some kind of connection.
If I had to pick the “weakest link” of the story, I would
say this probably isn’t one that will cater to true fans of Christmas romances; there are so many plot devices that
the romantic element feels like a recurring theme, moreso than the focus. There
aren’t really true “sparks” between the characters, either, because they are
given shockingly little screentime together; there were more than a couple
parts where I legitimately forgot I was watching a romance, simply because that
part of the story frequently seems to be on the backburner. That being said,
though, the romantic elements don’t feel “forced”, and the two leads are cute
together—while there might not be mind-blowing chemistry, their personalities
fit well, and they seem like they would be a good match.
I guess that’s why this movie worked for me: I’m certainly
not the main demographic for these movies, because I often find the romance
parts to be the least compelling. Holly
Star has enough plot for two or three typical romance movies, and because
of that, the “love” story seems to be put on the backburner more often than
not. I’d assume this viewpoint was just limited to me if my wife—who
legitimately does find excitement in the “romantic” aspects of these movies—loved
it just as much as I did.
So why the lower-than-average rating on IMDb? I’m not quite
sure, but it leads me to believe you have to have an open-mind, and a tolerance
for a movie that’s willing to mess around with the straightforward linear
formula expected of these movies. It doesn’t tweak it much, but enough that it
might turn off diehard fans of the gag-inducing straightforwardness of the
romance movies of old. And in its wake, it leaves a refreshing holiday romance
that might be light on “romance”, but that makes up for it with loads of charm,
humor, and puppets.
Who knew that combination could ever combine to form the
best cheesy holiday romance movie we’ve ever seen?
RATING: 9/10
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