Christmas Cupcakes
is the kind of Christmas movie that will appeal to the no doubt growing number
of people that are either disgusted, or becoming so, at all the millions of
holiday romances that come out every year. I mean, it started off modestly,
with Lifetime and Hallmark being the main purveyors of that junk, but now it
seems like every channel (and streaming services like Netflix) are jumping on
the bandwagon—I feel like it’s becoming a bigger market than cocaine. And I
guess it makes sense: People can’t seem to get their fill of them, while others are simply overstuffed on watching the same five stories play out over and over again.
But Christmas Cupcakes
is different. Oh, there’s the haphazard story that seems like it was written
and finalized in under three hours, and there’s also the occasional appearance
of romance, just so it “fits” in with the genre, so all the typical earmarks of
a holiday romance are here…there’s just no romance. It’s almost like the
filmmakers wanted to tell their own story of a family struggling to maintain
their bakery, kept getting their pitch denied, so they threw in a few Christmas
references and a kiss, called it a Christmas movie…bingo! Instant
greenlight!
For many, this idea will probably fall flat; it probably
would have for me if it didn’t bring with it a certain sense of nolstalgia. You
see, my wife and I watched dozens of Food Network shows while we were dating,
and while we ran the gamut from cooking shows, to Guy Fieri’s latest adventure,
we probably spent the most time on baking competitions. The aesthetic of the
competition scenes are stellar for a (presumably) low-budget flick, as they get
everything down from the lighting, camera angles, and even the cheesy jokes. (Unfortunately, that attention doesn't really translate well to the actual competition, which is completely devoid of any drama and doesn't even show any of the other contestants, outside the two main rivals.)
The Remo family is in a tough place: following the untimely
death of the family patriarch, who also ran the bakery, sisters Kim and Gina
are forced to decide whether to sell it, or continue its tradition. For maximum
dramatic value, Gina is hesitant to take it over, because she has a well-paying
job that she completely despises—all it takes is a bad day at work (and it
seems all of them are) to convince her to give it a shot. But of course, it's not because she wants to, it's just because it's her best option.
While Kim has the drive to keep everyone together, she lacks
the baking skills of her late uncle; that’s where Gina steps in. While she
clearly isn't really all that into it, baking comes naturally to her, something
that Kim somewhat resents. For her part, Gina resents the idea that Kim was
always the “successful” one, while she was always seen as a failure and/or
outcast (nothing like siblings bonding over perceived failures!).
Then they learn of the “Grand Prix Dessert Challenge”, or
something along those lines, which is a baking competition that awards the
winner an astonishing $150,000 grand prize. Why, that’s almost exactly how far
behind they are on payments for their bakery! Although Gina is once again reluctant
to partake, she’s nudged ahead when she discovers that Kim went ahead and
signed them up anyway, in a rather douche move. I hope they won't have a big fight that could threaten to derail their chances to win the dessert competition, thus giving them enough money to save the day and live happily ever after! Nah, I doubt that will happen, given their completely opposite demeanors.
Even outside of the overly
clichéd “save the family bakery” story, there’s some good stuff here. The
characters, for the most part, are solid, and there’s some pretty good interplay
and (family) chemistry between them—it really feels like they could actually be
related. Fulvio Cecere is perfect as the stereotypical Italian uncle, and
provides some solid laughs. And of course, the performances are all heightened
by the appearance of Cindy Busby, who is either adept at making poorly-written
characters believable, or is just really good about selecting which holiday
projects she pursues (no offense to her, but I’m thinking it’s the former).
Her character is actually an almost complete piece of shit, throwing
temper tantrums when things don’t go her way, buckling at the first sight of
pressure, and storming off over the stupidest little things. I could see where
people would hate her, but things like that are the fault of the writers—she’s
merely doing what she was hired to do--and she does it about as well as anyone else could do. There aren't too many other actresses I can think of that can almost guarantee a decent holiday movie, but she is certainly one of them.
The guy isn't really even worth mentioning, because he's in it more as a "rival" than a love interest. It's kind of a shame, because he's good-looking enough and also appears to be a decent actor, but there aren't really any sparks or chemistry between them. I'm honestly not sure if it's because they're in romance scenes so little, so their relationship isn't given enough screen time to "grow", or if it's just because they literally don't have the slightest bit of attraction to one another; either way, it will be a disappointment to the old-fashioned crowd that what little romance there is, is marred by two people who really don't seem to care about each other in the slightest.
In the end, if you're one of the few that like your cheesy holiday romances largely "romance free", (and a bonus if you're into televised baking competitions) Christmas Cupcakes is a great way to kill some time. It has funny characters, and a likeable cast, that all do their best to overcome the stale concept.
RATING: 7/10
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