A Ring for Christmas (2020 UPtv)
Cast: Liliana Tandon, Dean Geyer, Charles Hittinger, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Gross
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Synopsis (via UPtv)
Spoiled single girl Angie Moore gets cut off 25 days before Christmas. When she discovers the existence of a sizable trust fund that she will inherit once she gets married, Angie decides to find a man to marry – by Christmas.
Thoughts
Angie is in NYC at Christmas time; she is really living her best life, giving a Salvation Army Santa hundreds of dollars and taking selfies with strangers. Her dream life and bank account come up short when her mother, Margaret (Lorraine Bracco.), cuts her off financially. Angie learns about a marriage trust from the family lawyer. Angie and her BFF Paulette plan to find her a husband before Christmas. It turns out to be more challenging than they think. They find an old classmate of Angie’s named Tyler on social media and head to her hometown to seal the deal.
Back in the suburbs, Angie has some car trouble, and a dorky (now hunky) classmate named Gabe helps her. Gabe takes her to his diner and gives her coffee and pancakes. Then Tyler shows up and is super hot. So is Angie when she spills her coffee on herself while swooning. (Haha!)
The whole town is shipping for Gabe and Angie. Mrs. B, a childhood teacher, asks Angie to help after school with tutoring but is set up with Gabe. Angie is still focused on Tyler. She buys a hot dress and attempts to seduce him at a local bar. Tyler talks about opening a gym for kids after school, and Angie is impressed with his ambition. Then she literally falls into Gabe’s arms. When Angie leaves to collect herself, Tyler randomly answers her phone, and Paulette tells him about the plan. It scares him off OR allows him to take advantage of Angie.
At the afterschool program, Angie and Tyler run into one another, and she comes onto him again, and he is very awkward. After thinking about it, Tyler takes her up on her offer for the money. Angie helps Gabe turn his diner around and focus on making a profit. She helps him organize a charity event in town for the less fortunate on Christmas Eve. They decorate a tree for the event, and Angie puts on a sentimental ornament that her father gave her on the tree. (Tyler breaks it. What an asshole!)
At a Christmas tree lighting, an acapella group sings. (Which shows just how out of touch UPtv is.) Tyler proposes to Angelica in front of the crowd, and she hesitates when she sees Gabe, but then she says yes!
Angie and Tyler have an engagement party, and rudely has Gabe cater to the event. She arranges for an NYC friend who is also a food critic to come and taste his food. The NYC friend is impressed. Gabe tells his father about the opportunity but gets shut down. Gabe tells Angie that he will just run the diner and thanks her for thinking of him.
Tyler meets Angie’s family, and they make gingerbread houses together. Then he goes out for drinks with his boys Raj and Gabe. Gabe learns about the terms behind the proposal and confronts Angie about the trust fund. Gabe tells her that she changed and has no goals in life. She vows to show him and applies for some jobs.
It is finally the day of the wedding. Gabe shows up with a necklace of the broken ornament, but Paulette intercepts it and gives it to Angie, saying it was a gift from Tyler. She thanks him for the necklace at the altar, and he doesn’t know what she is talking about. They break up at the Alter, and Tyler tells Angie that she is in love with Gabe. Angie runs out of the wedding to get her man.
While in her wedding dress, Angie admits her feelings for Gabe. They kiss and say the love one another. He offers to marry her, but she says no. She wants to marry for love, not money. Then they run the Christmas Eve charity event. Angie’s mother is impressed and gives her seem money to start Tyler’s business.
Side Note
I like that the lead actress is also the director—Yay for female directors. (Update! She is the writer, not the director. Sentiment is still the same. I’m sure Liliana Tandon could have directed this movie because she is a badass.)
Minority Report: Chef Richie, Customer, Raj, Julia,
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Overall Rating
🎄🎄🎄(3 Christmas Trees)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2020 UPtv
She’s not the director though. The director is man
Damn! I misread that. She is the writer not the director. Thank you for the correction. Happy Holidays.