Dashing Home For Christmas (2020 UPtv)
Cast: Paniz Zade, Adrian Spencer, Andrew Bushell
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Synopsis (via UPtv)
Emily Nichols, a successful business consultant, has missed every family gathering this year, so getting home for Christmas is very important to her. But when a series of mishaps – from delayed public transport to diverted flights and broken-down trains and finally, a lost wallet – put her holiday plans in jeopardy, she’s forced to find a way home with a fellow road warrior, Simon Allein. While Emily is more a Type A planner who hates disruptions and inconveniences, Simon is a go-with-the-flow type who sees the bright side to any misfortune. So, having to rely upon one another to get to their final destination tests their will and provides ample opportunity to get to know each other and, perhaps even, fall in love.
Thoughts
Emily and her business partner, Bryan, make a pitch to the company’s CEO. They buy some time over the holidays for him to think over their proposal. What Emily doesn’t have time for is getting to the airport. She is heading home for the holidays to visit her very pregnant sister, Grace.
Emily galavants around the “snowy” streets (see white felt on the ground) with an adorable rolling suitcase. Emily runs into a man in Clark Kent glasses named Simon and misses her “Amigo” rideshare. Simon offers to share his amigo with Emily and makes small talk during the ride, but she ignores him.
In the empty airport, a TSA agent rifles through Emily’s luggage, making her the last person to reach the gate. The gate agent informs Emily that she gave away her seat and that only an exit-row seat is available. Simon is boarding on the same flight and offers her his seat. (What is so wrong with an exit row?) The flight gets diverted to Montana.
While waiting for another flight, Simon talks Emily’s ear off. They are sent to a hotel for the night, and Emily doesn’t have her wallet (lost at TSA) and can’t book a room. The hotel staff member is VERY rude to Emily — what the hell! The hotel staff gives Simon the room because he is cute. He offers to share. It is a honeymoon suite and only has one bed. Emily freaks out, but Simon, being a gentleman, sleeps on the couch. (Or in Canadia Cow-ouch.) Emily calls her sister, who tells her to give him a chance and check for a ring.
No ring on his finger. Simon then randomly takes a bubble bath in the middle of the suite while Emily is showering. I appreciate the shirtless hunk, but this was so random. Then they eat Hershey’s Kisses #Ad. Emily decides to reintroduce herself to Simon and get to know him. He shares that his parents are dead, and he spends the holidays with college buddies. They toast to being single with water. (That is bad luck.) Emily goes to bed, and it seems they are on the same page until Simon reads a book and giggles like a child, keeping her up at night.
The next morning they exchange numbers, and Emily rushes off to catch the first flight to see her sister. (Who might be in labor?) Surprise, surprise, the ticket agent is a total bitch and doesn’t even look at flights for her; she sends her to rent a car without a wallet or ID. The rental car guy, Spencer, is also annoyed with customers and isn’t extremely helpful. I know Emily is asking a lot, but could the people in customer service at least be kind when they tell her she is stupid? Haha!
Emily rents the car and lets Simon drive the car. She even permits him to listen to whatever he wants on the drive. The movie veers into the road trip genre a bit. Emily and Simon argue about the radio, take selfies at a scenic mountain view, and stop in a diner for lunch.
As they are grooving to Deck the Halls and singing way off-key, they get a flat tire. Emily surprisingly knows how to change a tire, proving she is good for something. (Simon has been footing the bill for everything so far.) They drive to a local town and get stuck because they miss the train. Emily and Simon stay in separate rooms at a motel this time. Cue a sad, alone-in-my-room-but-wanting-to-be-together montage.
Emily makes Simon a hot chocolate, and they walk around town in Santa hats. Simon stops in a local store and buys some wine and cheese sandwiches to make their Christmas Eve a little more special. It is adorable and would totally work for me as a Christmas feast. They have a nice patio date, drink wine from paper cups, and talk about The Muppet Movie.
Christmas Eve, they end up taking a bus instead of a train. Emily tells Simon that it was good getting to know him. Then they sing the 12 days of Christmas on the bus, which is truly psychotic. They get into an argument when Emily takes a work call on a holiday. He tells her that she isn’t who she thought she was because she can’t leave work behind her. They say their goodbyes.
Emily goes home, and her sister tells her to fight for love. Emily rushes back to the bus station and sees Simon carrying bags of teddy bears. TEDDY BEARS?!? Emily learns that Simon is spending the holiday alone; his college friends weren’t real. He didn’t want to seem pathetic. Emily apologizes for putting her work first and is ready to reprioritize her life. She invites him to stay with her and her family for Christmas. Emily calls Simon her Christmas gift, and they kiss. (Awwww!)
The movie doesn’t end there. We actually get to see what happens after the kiss. Simon joins the family at the table and is so thankful to be spending the holidays with family. It is very touching.
Side Note
I know UPtv is way lower budget than the other TV movie makers, but I thought these leads were charming enough to overlook the cheap set decor and blatant product-placement advertisements.
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Overall Rating: Pour it Up
🎄🎄🎄🎄 (4 Christmas Trees)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2020 UPtv
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Nice review except for one thing. When you said that Simon sees the true Emily “can’t leave work alone even for the holidays”, while his true reason his far more telling…he discovers that her true job is looking for people the company needs to fire, and she seems to this without batting an eyelash, or the slightest reckoning of the heart she seems to have misplaced along her way. Simon sees this as a far worse loss than losing her wallet. He lives his life by following his heart, and he is by all accounts a truly good soul. Because of this he instinctively knows that this is a road that can he desperately needs to not go any further down.
Thank you, you are correct! Merry Christmas!
Your rating here is more confusing than in 2022 reviews: 3 glasses of wine required. — this means 3 glasses rating is bad/medium/ it’s required to drink 3 or just 3 glasses is the level of enjoyment??
I changed the wine rating meaning because I stopped drinking while writing, since my typos were getting out of control!
So, pre 2022 higher wine means less enjoyable because I had to drink to get through it, haha
Thanks for reading happy holidays!