Reviews

Overall this is a slightly above-average Hallmark movies, with likable characters, great scenery (with British Columbia standing in for Northern Oregon), some nice scenes of the camp and its buildings & grounds, and no annoying supporting characters (except for Shoreman, who was supposed to be the heavy).

I only wish they had shown more of the actors who played the younger versions of the adult characters, but alas they are only seen for the first few minutes of the film. A few more scenes of them together, especially of the two leads, would have fleshed things out a little more.

The younger actors did a good job in playing the characters as teenagers. Overall, the film would have been better served by showing the chemistry between the leads was really genuine had they had more screen time.

At a Hallmark-movie level, I thought this would be a fairly entertaining, if somewhat predictable, road picture as two antagonizing characters slowly fall in love with each other while driving across the country to their destination - a friends wedding halfway across the country.

The only problem is they hardly spend any time in the car at all. First of all, the film wavers between our couple and a distracting bachelor party/wedding rehearsal taking place hundreds of miles away. But worse, just a few minutes into the trip, their car is disabled and they spend almost half of the film stranded in some strange small town where all sorts of festivities are taking place and meeting far too many oddball characters.

The lead actors are likeable enough I guess, but there are too many distracting and annoying supporting characters. If the film would have just focused on those two and all their misadventures while driving, then they may have just pulled off a decent road trip picture. But we get almost none of that. Just a lot of tiresome caricatures, predictable dialogue, and preposterous scenarios all around.

I remember when this episode was first broadcast in late 1979. Tensions between the U.S. and the Iranian regime were rising all summer, and the Iran hostage crisis was just weeks away. Gas prices were rising steadily across the country to as much as (gulp!) 90 cents per gallon.

This episode has some interesting plot lines and stories, all to do with gasoline: Big time gas heists, small time gas syphoning, shady station owners, protests over rising prices, fuel shortages, long lines for gas, etc. All this was right on target of what was really going on in the waning days of the 1970.s

You get a couple of well-staged highway car crashes (ever notice that all the cars are beat up 1960s and early 1970s models?) You see a lot of VW bugs, Ford Pintos, and Honda Civics in the background, a subtle reflection of America's move to smaller cars over the latter half of the decade. But it's only the big American cars that get in the wrecks.

The plot is rather thin, with a derivative roller hockey game used as filler. But this is more than made up for with the freeway wrecks, explosions, and general streetscapes of now-extinct 1970s L.A - all topical themes regarding that tumultuous decade.

Anyway, it's been more than 40 years since I last saw this episode and it's amazing how much of it I recall. It was a nice trip down memory lane and remembering just how much the Iran oil crisis did impact the consumer in car-centric Los Angeles.

You may recognize Cindy Sampson - the lead female role in this film - as private investigator Angie Everett from the ION television series "Private Eyes". I certainly like her character in that well-acted series.

But in this film, she is so "out-of-character" it's difficult to fathom that it's really even the same actress.

The story: She's a thirty-something named Addie who is just smitten with her next door neighbor Sam. She has such a crush, she can't think straight. During a conversation with an older female friend one night at her apartment she wishes on a Christmas Star that HE would have a crush on her. But though her wish technically does come true, it's her other next door neighbor Pete - an old high school friend who just moved in - that is suddenly stricken with the spell.

It's an interesting premise, and had it had a little depth and introspection, had better lead male roles, and better supporting characters, they may have just pulled off a decent Christmas love story.

But we're just left with a lot of silliness, emoting, and overall general immaturity all around. Besides Sampson's character being giddy to the point of annoyance, her new neighbor Pete acts even worse; so over the top in his infatuation that it's almost seems that he's a stalker.

The other lead male role of Sam, though more serious, is hardly better. He is not really convincing in his late attempts to finally romantically pursue her and compete with Pete for her affection. Indeed there really seems to be no chemistry between them at all. He just comes across as "half-hearted".

Maybe if I hadn't seen Sampson's character in "Private Eyes", I might have let a few things slide in this film, but she's so silly and immature in this film that it really is hard to believe it's the same actress. I know that actors are supposed to to have a wide range of versatility in preparing for film roles, thus avoiding being a "character actor." But in this case, she just should have looked at the script and given it a pass.

I understand that ION Christmas movies can be a little darker and more adult-themed than the typical G-rated Hallmark fare, but this film was too over the top for me.

My main problem is with the lead role. She comes across as snide, condescending, and spiteful throughout them film. While a few of her comments seem to be on-target at first - with her so-called friends well deserving of her scorn - after a while it just becomes boring with the relentless tirade of insults.

But she isn't the only problem. It was really hard to relate to any of the other supporting characters in this film at all. They all just seemed so trite and phony.

The only good moments are the pitifully few scenes of the puppies being delivered to their new owners. But this takes up hardly any screen time at all. The rest of the film just meanders through relentless scenes of mean-spiritedness and cynicism, where the viewer is jarred by alternating scenes of tenderness and downright hostility.

Eventually, there is some resolution, but it is not convincing and the character remains vindictive almost to the very end. The film just can't seem to overcome the lead character's extreme unpleasantness.

Overall, there is air of cruelty and cynicism that pervades, decidedly not what these Holiday-themed should be all about.