Christmas Reservations (2019 Lifetime)
Cast: Melissa Joan Hart, Michael Gross, Ricardo Chavira, & Markie Post
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
It’s Christmas at the Treeline Ski Resort, where Holly (Hart) is the event coordinator at her family lodge. She plans every event and keeps all the guests happy. But when her college sweetheart (Chavira), now widowed with two children, checks in, Holly discovers she has her own reservations about life and love.
Thoughts
A voiceover tells us the history of the Treeline Ski Resort, passed down from generation to generation. Holly’s family owns the resort, and she works as an event coordinator. Holly has checked out of the reservation of love and thrown away the key.
Guests begin to arrive. Markie Post and her eccentric sister, Kay, won a stay at the resort. Markie Post and Holly’s dad hit it off and are going to fall in love. Kay falls for an Olympic skier. An Indian grandmother and her daughter are staying at the resort while looking at colleges — a redheaded college boy from Dartmouth helps them carry their bags. And, finally, a single LatinX dad (Kevin) and his two young kids.
Kevin and Holly used to date in college, and they are both very shocked to see one another. Holly moved to the resort after college when her mom died. Kevin tells her that he is a widower and asks if she is dating anyone. (Which she isn’t.) A flirty snowball fight happens between them and his kids that is so unearned.
Christmas Trivia happens, and Kevin knows all the answers, much to the annoyance of Holly. In a rapid-fire question round, Holly slips and asks why Kevin broke up with her. She runs off, embarrassed, and tells her dad that Kevin was the one who got away. Kevin feels the same way. When Kevin addresses the awkward situation with Holly, it gets more embarrassing. He finds an old college yearbook that she was looking at and signs it in Spanish. He also asks if she is still into photography.
The 900 B-storylines are also happening. Kevin’s kids find a dog and dress it up as a reindeer. (They aren’t allowed to have a dog.) Markie Post and Michael Gross decorate a tree together and fall in love. Kay and the Olympian skier do a private skiing lesson. Preena and the red-headed boy make a date for the hot tub. (So does her Grandmother and almost catches them.) All the stories intersect. Less in a Love Actually way and more like this is stupid way. (For example, the Olympic skier is a Santa, and everyone tells him what they wish for.)
Holly and Kevin are falling in love again, for no apparent reason. They kiss on a swing and then hold hands while doing a puzzle. Kevin continually offers suggestions on how to make the resort greener. He suggests wind turbines to run the ski lift and works on a snow-powered heating system. They dance and speak in Spanish. She translated what he wrote in the yearbook, then broke up with him because it could never work.
More B-storyline updates. Markie’s post might have cancer, and she tells Michael Goss. She doesn’t want to put him through the pain of losing another love. Preena makes s’mores with the redhead. She also makes up with her Grandmother. The Olympic skier eats wings and talks to a reindeer dog in the hot tub. (I wish I were making this stuff up.)
Christmas happens, and everyone gets meaningful presents that are what they asked Santa. Except for Markie Post, who wished not to have cancer. Never mind, her doctor calls her later that evening and tells her that she is fine. To celebrate, they sing a Christmas song, and then everyone dances Bollywood style.
B-story lines wrap up. All the guests prepare to leave
Holly cries as Kevin leaves, and her father adds insult to injury by firing her so she can go live her life. Holly and Kevin run around the resort, looking for each other. They agree to move to Buffalo, NY, and she will open a solar-powered photography studio. They kiss as the B-story line actors watch on and cheer. Kevin is also going to make the ski lodge the first sustainable one of its kind.
Side Note
Woof. The writing in this was just awful.
Props to Ricardo Chavira for somehow making this material work for him.
I’m very down for inclusion and representation. This movie felt like white ladies shoehorning POCs into the film without consulting any POCs.
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Overall rating: Put a Cork in it
🎄 (1 Christmas Tree)
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Whlolen will you play christmas reservations again?