dconrad-49108 Review of Coming Home for Christmas

Coming Home for Christmas (2017 TV Movie)

A mushy collection of platitudes

[3/10 · 26 November 2017]

One of the worst Xmas movies ever. A trite, but common, plot: girl, a bit down in life, falls into a delicious situation that includes young men, a task, and a crotchety matriarch that must be won over (and is, of course). Some dark secret lurks in the background: WHY is this family so Xmas-dysfunctional?? Why don't they understand, as sweet goofy Danica does, that Xmas is all family, sweetness and light, and Yule logs for dessert? The staging is right out of Dickens with charming quasi-English street scenes. The acting is flat and predictable. Stern, unemotional Robert, always wearing a suit; his rascally UNpredictable brother, Kip, the foil (except his antics are totally predictable), and their upper-class raised sister Sloane, with two adorable toddlers, who is suffering a situation that just a small donation from Grandma's coffers would easily fix. And so it yawningly goes. Of course, every time Robert and Lizzie almost get close to each other, that rascal Kip bursts onto the scene and ruins everything. Hence many puppy-eyed over-the-shoulder looks from Lizzie as Kip drags her away. The tree cutting scene is laughable and only provides an "outdoor" venue for more anguished questioning by Lizzie about why this family is so un-xmasy! Don't they know it's all about family and Yule logs?? Another laughable occasion designed to provide more of the same platitudinous conversation occurs when Lizzie enters the bedroom she has been given at Ashford (and a pretty unimpressive bedroom it is for such a grand estate) and finds Robert in there, it having been his old room from childhood. Of course, oddly, Lizzie has not left ONE SInGLE thing anywhere in the room to indicate the fact she is residing there! How was poor Robert to know?? But, hey, they get to talk in the middle of the night! I could go on and list many more plot contrivances because thus movie is all contrivances and trite-isms. At the end, it's the usual overheard partial conversation which threatens to throw all asunder but fortunately reformed-grandma saves the day, the Xmas, and the romance. Wooden Robert suddenly turns into a dancing Lothario( not a very convincing one) and even a bend-her-backwards kisser. All is well. Except the movie is soooo bad; Holiday Inn for the millionth time would be a better Xmas watch.