I’m sure you can figure out why I decided to review/recap this movie this month. And I don’t care how cliché it is.
This was another movie I enjoyed late at night this past holiday season. I hope you all give it a try and get to enjoy it too.
It’s Christmas in Killarney/With all of the folks at SPOILERS!
As a child, Darcy (Ella Boyd) loves Christmas and especially the Christmas village in her house. But she doesn’t love her parents’ disintegrating marriage and all their fighting. She escapes and finds solace with her best friend Brandon (Ely Solan) and the idea of going to her mother’s native Ireland. All she wants is the perfect Christmas and hopes one day to get it.
Now grown up, Darcy (Caitlin Thompson) obsesses over having the perfect holiday experiences. She micromanages everyone at her gatherings, including her now divorced parents Sylvia (Norma Sheahan) and Bill (Gary Hetzler), as well as her coworker Carmen (Rachel-Mae Brady) and Brandon (James Henri-Thomas), who is still her best friend. At the start, Thanksgiving goes awry with a burnt turkey and Darcy angry that her mother did not make a dish she wanted but brought something from a store.
She’s still annoyed later that night when Brandon returns to help her set up her Christmas decorations. He tries to tell her that she needs to relax and just enjoy her holidays. If she keeps looking for perfection, she’s never going to be happy. But she refuses to believe it. They argue and in the process, one of the buildings in her Christmas village gets broken. She throws Brandon out and then goes for a walk.
Despite it being late or maybe because it was Black Friday, Darcy finds a little store that’s open. It has several toys and other knick-knacks, including buildings for a Christmas village. She finds the building she broke and the store’s owner gives her a special figure that looks just like her. Darcy thanks her and heads home, putting everything together and placing her little figure in the village before heading to bed.
When Darcy wakes up, she is decidedly not in her room. She is surprised and alarmed, especially when her parents appear in her doorway. They wish her a Merry Christmas and she realizes that her father now has an Irish accent. They tell her breakfast is ready and to come on downstairs. She’s even more confused but follows them downstairs.
Downstairs, she finds that everything is decorated for Christmas and there’s a pile of presents under the tree. She steps out of the house and looks around, realizing she is in her Christmas village. Darcy handles the revelation pretty well and decides to roll with it, feeling she can finally get her perfect Christmas.
She enjoys a big breakfast with her parents, who are now happily married. They then open presents – all of which, though, are for her. She then dons some clothes from the closet and decides to go for a walk through her little Irish village and soak up the feeling. Darcy passes a girl holding cookies and takes one while everyone greets her. It’s a beautiful sunny day and doesn’t seem to be too cold.
She then encounters who coworker Tom (Robbie Silverman), who she has a crush on. Except he’s now also Irish and apparently her boyfriend. He takes her a magical Christmas date that includes creating her own Christmas sweater at a special factory and then a meal at a pub. There’s even dancing! Darcy absolutely loves it all.
Tom joins her and her parents for Christmas dinner before they head to a local gathering spot. The entire town is there and that’s when Darcy learns that Carmen is the mayor. She leads everyone in singing Christmas carols and Darcy enjoys every moment of it.
Once the carols are over, Darcy tries to talk with Carmen but they aren’t friends in this place. Carmen is just the mayor and Darcy is just her constituent and is distant with her. Darcy feels a little lost but then Tom takes her out for a ride in a horse-drawn carriage and gives her a necklace as it softly snows.
It’s the perfect end to Darcy’s perfect Christmas.
When her alarm clock goes off the next morning, she finds she is still in her perfect house in her Irish village and gets to experience Christmas all over again. She throws herself into it and eagerly repeats the same day all over again. And again. And again.
Meanwhile, Brandon feels bad after his fight with Darcy and for breaking one of her houses. He stumbles into the same store Darcy found and purchases a gift to make it up to her. The woman gives him a little figuring that looks like him and he heads off to Darcy’s. When he gets there, she doesn’t answer so he lets himself in. He’s not sure where Darcy went –and this seems to show that time moves differently in the village than the real world since it seems to be the day after Thanksgiving still – and he places his figurine into her village, deciding he will talk to her later.
Darcy does finally change something up when she feels bad that all the presents are for her. She goes to the local store to buy presents for her parents and is thrilled to discover she has all the money she could ever need or want in her pocket. After buying a big stack of presents for them, she then realizes the woman who sold her the figurine is there. She asks what’s going on but the woman is all vague and it’s clear that Darcy is there to learn something. For now, though, she doesn’t care.
She leaves the store and encounters Tom. He helps her with the gifts and as they walk, she encounters a very confused Brandon. She asks him what he’s doing there and he explains about his figurine. Darcy figures out that allowed him to come into her village and she takes him with her and Tom back to her house.
Brandon shakes things up in her perfect Christmas and Tom is not pleased with it. But Darcy has a lot of fun with Brandon around and it’s clear that she absolutely lights up around him. They have a deeper connection and her feelings for Tom are just infatuation. It’s clear she belongs with Brandon.
But she hasn’t realized yet, especially as we’re only at the halfway point.
We’ve got a few more Christmases to get through.
Brandon doesn’t do anything perfectly – for example, his snowman looks pathetic – but he puts his all into what he does. Darcy has a lot more fun with him, especially with how spontaneous he is, over living the same day over and over. After all, the specialness and novelty has worn off though she still tries to cling to it. Brandon tries to convince her to let go of this idea of perfection and Tom’s jealousy continues to rise until she and Brandon get into a fight. Brandon says he’d rather live in reality than deal with perfection and he is booted from the village, though Darcy is still trapped.
The fight puts Darcy into a funk and not even Christmas can lift her spirits. Tom is lost now that she’s not following the script and there aren’t many people she can talk to, though her parents try. Darcy also starts to tire of the repetition and plots to get out of the village like Brandon.
However, she can’t leave because she hasn’t learned her lesson yet. But she still attempts to leave, riding a horse all the way to the edge of town or trying to drive to the edge of town. She even tries to scale the wall to get out but each time, she’s pushed back and wakes up back in her bed. Nothing works and she falls deeper into her funk as everyone grows more and more disgruntled with her.
Finally, Darcy has an epiphany and asks for help from her mother and Carmen. She has a Merry Christmas and lets them dress her up, crowning her Miss Holiday at the usual carol singing portion of the holiday. Tom then proposes but she turns him down. She realizes that she doesn’t want perfect – she wants something feels real. And with that, she falls through the floor.
She then finds herself in her real bedroom, still wearing the dress. Overjoyed to be back in the real, imperfect world, she quickly heads for the door. Darcy does stop to remove the figurines from her village before leaving. She heads all the way to Brandon’s and knocks until he lets her in. He is confused by what she’s wearing but she’s soon confessing her love for him. Brandon reciprocates and they share a kiss.
We then jump to Christmas, where Darcy is far more relaxed and not so hung up on everything being perfected. And everyone else is pretty relaxed as well. Her parents are getting along, Carmen is happy and she and Brandon are in love. Tom also shows up but he’s just there as Darcy’s friend. And because she realizes Tom and Carmen may actually have feelings for each other. Together, they enjoy a rather imperfect Christmas together.
So how was it?
It was a cute thing to watch late at night that didn’t require much thought on my part. And if you just want something Christmassy to put on the background, this will do.
Is it filled with almost every Irish stereotype possible? Pretty much but I think that’s the point. Darcy has romanticized Ireland and has never been there. And if this is supposed to give her her perfect Irish Christmas, then it would play up the stereotypes she’s familiar with. So I can forgive that.
I’m not sure I can forgive most of the “Irish” accents of the main cast.
The movie is pretty predictable, especially if you’ve seen either Groundhog’s Day or any variant on that theme. But it’s still cute and Caitlin Thompson carries the movie well. She also has some great chemistry with James Henri-Thomas, which also helps. In fact, when the part of the movie where she’s stuck in the village and he’s in the real world is the part that drags the most.
If you’re looking for a movie to have on while doing something else, I recommend this. If you’re looking for a movie to seriously watch, I recommend something else.
No comments:
Post a Comment