Holly Does a Dallas
Whilst Holly Maddux (Claire Coffee) may disagree with her colleague, Milo (Jeff Ward), about advertising making people miserable by portraying the fantasy perfect life that no one can ever have, she loves her job as an advertising exec for Quin + Gunn ad agency. In fact Holly has almost the perfect life and she confides in her friend Deena (Gabrielle Dennis) that the only thing really missing is the perfect man, pointing to a handsome looming mannequin in a shop display. Sometime later when Holly trips and falls outside the shop window where the mannequin is she comes to as Mr. Perfect Bo (Ryan McPartlin - The Flight Before Christmas) appears from nowhere to help her up and ask her out. It seems that Holly has her perfect man to match her perfect life, except she realises that having things perfect is not all its cracked up to be.
"A Perfect Christmas" is also known as "Holly's Holiday" but I reckon a better title would have been "Holly Does a Dallas" and by that I am on about the soap "Dallas". You may be puzzled but for those who grew up watching the escapades of the Ewing family will remember how after being killed off Bobby miraculously stepped out of a shower meaning an entire season was a dream and we get a play on that idea here. But I am jumping ahead as what "A Perfect Christmas" is is another made for TV Christmas romance which is a sort of variation on the fun "Mannequin". It is everything you expect from this sort of movie which means it is totally unrealistic but fun and makes a point not only how perfection is not always perfection.
So I mentioned the 80s movie "Mannequin" already and when you compare "A Perfect Christmas" to it "A Perfect Christmas" is clearly inferior and honestly annoying. The trouble is that what "A Perfect Christmas" wants to be is a fun romance where of course Holly thinks she has found her ideal man but discovers that maybe ideal is not what she really wanted after all but it just ends up corny. In fact it is all 3 C's, that is corny, cheesy and cliche and it is all a little too much, too annoying for being too bubbly, false and full of over the top characters and fantasy false dialogue. Maybe the lack of subtlety is amusing for a young audience but is too much for me as is what I call a "Dallas" moment.
But, and surprisingly there is a but and it is a small but, "A Perfect Christmas" does make a valuable point about expectations. It is only a small scene but Milo points out that advertising makes people miserable because it portrays the perfect life which is impossible for people to get. Aside from that one small redeeming quality "A Perfect Christmas" has all the typical qualities you expect from a made for TV Christmas movie. The cast which includes Claire Coffee, Jeff Ward and Ryan McPartlin are easy on the eye, the humour is obvious and the romance is cute. I suppose it is sort of ironic that in a movie which says the ideal of a perfect life is not realistic that we have good looking people in perfect looking places leading the sort of life that many dream of.
What this all boils down to is that "A Perfect Christmas" isn't anything new and is just another made for TV Christmas movie but it is one which is sadly annoying because it is so corny.
Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies
