Who’s eager for summer to begin? The days are getting longer and Memorial Day is upon us. It’s time for barbecues, fireworks, shorts and for me to switch from vodka to tequila.
(I don’t know why but I associate vodka with winter and tequila with summer. Go figure).
But we’re going to put on our favorite Christmas sweater, pour some hot chocolate and munch on a candy cane – at least in our minds – as we look at this month’s Christmas movie review, The Knight Before Christmas.
Through the years, we all will be together/if the fates SPOILERS!
We open in Camelot your local Medieval Times England. Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse) is preparing for his brother’s knighting ceremony and is watching as he finishes his tasks to prove himself worthy of the knighthood. He is riding through the woods when he meets an Old Crone (Ella Kenion). She tells him he won’t be a great knight until he finds that which he lacks and says he needs to find it. He’s confused and then things get a little weird as he ends up caught in her magic.
Cut to modern day America.
Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens) takes her niece, Claire (Isabella Franca), to the local Christmas festival and Claire gets to see Santa. She asks Santa to bring her aunt a boyfriend and Brooke is mortified, though she appreciates that Claire just wants her to be happy. They go to enjoy the rest of the festival before Brooke has to get Claire home.
Meanwhile, Sir Cole arrives in the Christmas festival and is very confused. He races away, trying to adjust to modern times as a snowstorm starts to blanket the town in snow.
He ends up almost getting run over by Brooke, who is concerned by his get up and his insistence that his a medieval knight who has somehow time traveled. She wisely calls the sheriff, Officer Stevens (Arnold Pinnock), but then offers to let the knight stay with her since the storm is getting worse. Girl, are you out of your mind? Even the sheriff thinks that’s a bad idea but she wins out, taking Sir Cole home with her.
You’re lucky this is a Christmas movie, Brooke, or you’d probably be dead.
But it also turns out that Brooke has inherited a house that comes with a guest house from her parents, who have died prior to the start of the movie. So she puts Sir Cole into the guest house and shows him some of our modern devices. Brooke tells him to have a good night before heading back to her house for the night.
Sir Cole then spends the night talking with Alexa and watching shows on TV. He seems to fit in to the 21st century pretty quickly.
Brooke’s sister Madison (Emmanuelle Chriqui) stops by with Claire. Madison also is uncomfortable with Brooke taking in a strange man but Brooke is pretty sure he’s harmless. Sir Cole then meets Madison and Claire, who are surprised and a bit taken with him. It seems that he gets a pass for now.
Alright then.
Cole continues to get to know Brooke better and learns about celebrating Christmas in the modern era. She tries to help him figure out a way to prove he is a true knight and they figure out that he needs to help someone in need. Brooke happens to be running a special Christmas Eve dinner for those in need and she asks him to help her. All the while, they keep getting closer and it’s pretty clear that they are developing feelings for each other.
Madison’s husband, Evan (Scott Ryan Yamamura), returns home and gets to meet Cole. And he likes him too. Everyone then heads to the party, where they give special gifts to a family who just lost their mother and the children were facing a Christmas without many gifts. Everyone is touched and happy. It seems Cole has succeeded in his quest.
But that’s not as joyful as Cole thought it would be.
He and Brooke return to where he first arrived into our time. They say their goodbyes and he heads back to the 14th century. Saddened, Brooke returns home to celebrate Christmas with a broken heart.
Cole returns to England in time to see his brother get knighted. But he realizes that he doesn’t belong there anymore and that his quest wasn’t to do a heroic deed. It was to find someone else to love and he found it in Brooke. He realizes he needs to go back to her and his brother gives him his blessing. They their goodbyes and Cole goes searching for the Old Crone, hoping she can send him back to the future.
It’s Christmas morning and everyone is ready to celebrate. Except for Claire, who goes missing. Ryan, Madison and Brooke search frantically for her and eventually find her at the carnival where they first met Cole. Claire is waiting for Santa to bring the present she asked him to bring for Brooke – a boyfriend – and is certain Sir Cole will come back. The adults are not as sure…until Sir Cole does indeed come back.
Cole and Brooke reunite. He reveals that his quest was really to fall in love with her and he did that. She admits that she loves him too and they share a kiss before everyone goes to celebrate Christmas together.
And I assume they live happily ever after since there hasn’t been a sequel.
Yet.
Yes, yes, it took me over a year to watch this movie. It’s not like I was going anywhere since the pandemic trapped us all indoors this past Christmas so I had plenty of time.
And while I don’t feel like I missed out, I still thought it was a pretty cute Christmas movie. It had a cute premise and I must say that while I like Outlander-esque plots, I do wish we got more ones where the person from past ends up in the future and then decides to stay in the future. (Kate and Leopold is cute and all but girl really gave up the 20th century for the 19th century. He wasn’t worth it).
Hudgens is always delightful in her roles and I wish she got more mainstream ones so we could see her talent more. And I did enjoy Whitehouse’s performance as well. Hallmark needs to snap him up for a few years. I think he’ll do great in some of their movies, Christmas or otherwise.
So should you watch? I say, yes, go for it. It’s a cute movie to unwind with after a day of Christmas festivities.
Next time, we mark the halfway point to Christmas!
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