Christmas Encore (2017)

To me, this movie is perfection.

the audience applauded

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I am a big Maggie Lawson fan from Psych and was excited about her being in a Christmas movie. I also love Brennan Elliot. They were both a delight throughout the movie. The first 30 minutes of the movie was pretty good. The movie lacked something in the execution of the story. The story was actually pretty good in which an actress gets her big break by starring in a Christmas play as a female scrooge. Wish they had included more of this play dynamic. The movie was not dull (stayed awake and engaged the whole time). A bit of a disappointment here but I hope Maggie keeps up the Christmas movies.

There is really nothing redeeming about this movie. It just doesn't get it. It really has nothing to do with Christmas. Just doesn't work. Maggie Lawson has got nothing going on. Ugh, Noting works in this movie.

(Minor spoiler only, below.) This movie is a pretty typical Hallmark Christmas romance, but particularly light on Christmas themes. Christmas really is just when it happens to take place, Christmas is set dressing. But given what we do find out about the theater production, I guess that's a good thing. The movie centers around an actress and an off-Broadway NY theater production of A Christmas Carol. The movie is NOT a retelling of the Dickens classic, though, and thank goodness. The minute or so they spend on an audition scene reveals that Scrooge laments the time she spent in the office, now alone with her laptop on Christmas eve, with her name merely on a cubicle where no one will see it. She concludes that she will remember the lessons of the spirits and work to achieve her goal of having her name in lights! Yes, really. Scrooge actually learned to focus her narcissistic selfishness. So it's a great thing that we only see one more brief scene from their "modern take" on the Dickens classic. Now, "work to achieve your dreams" is an OK message, and it mirrors the main message of this movie well enough, but Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men, it ain't. Since they picked A Christmas Carol as their production, it would have been nice to have a message concerning Christmas. Christmas movies often miss the true message of Christmas, but this one doesn't even find the generic non-spiritual ones, like the joy of giving or getting cool presents. But nonetheless, there are reasons to watch. Maggie Lawson was great. She's always enjoyable to watch, and did the best job here of anyone, although all of the performances were very solid. I did feel like they could have focused more on relationships with her character's mother or friends, though. Or maybe the theater folks, who were under-utilized and seemed interesting.

There's nothing wrong with this movie, but there is also nothing really great about it. The story revolves around putting on a production of A Christmas Carol, which is pretty well used. (But the story itself is not patterned after Christmas Carol.) There is the additional plot device of they're-going-to-close-our-theater-we-have-to-save-it. That's also well used. It picks up some sentimental points with an underdog-makes-it-big story. And of course the romance. There aren't any really exciting plot twists.The acting was good. Maggie Lawson is charming and optimistic and energetic. Brennan Elliott is his usual being a regular in the Hallmark romance stable. He's maybe a tad old for Agostino. The rest of the cast was also decent.It's pretty typical Hallmark, so if that's what you like, you should like it well enough. If that's not your cup of tea, this one is probably not for you.