WINDOW WONDERLAND
Two store employees compete for the window dressing job and find they have a lot in common.
So an uptight lady and a free spirited dude find themselves competing for the same job vacated by an older mentor figure, corporate shenanigans threaten their careers and personal lives, then they combine their creative powers like a Christmas-themed Captain Planet and save the day, falling in love in the process. Sound familiar?
It should, because the plot of Window Wonderland is almost identical to Best Christmas Party Ever. So why do I actually like Window Wonderland? For starters, the cast is a whole hell of a lot better. The film is populated with actors who are engaged with the material, folks talented enough to elevate the standard story, making it something charming and memorable. And I remember the names of the lead characters!
Sloan (Chyler Leigh) is a young woman who is living a lie. She publicly presents herself as a woman of means, wearing far too much makeup (this is seriously a plot point), dating a rich asshole who seemingly lives in a stretch limo, trying to avoid her brash mother Rita (Naomi Judd), who is a bathroom attendant at McGuire's, the prestigious department store where she works as an assistant window decorator or something.
Her coworker Jake (Paul Campbell) is an easygoing, unashamed creative type who prefers not to make plans, instead flying by the seat of his pants and letting the chips fall where they may. He is also a window decorator or something, and he's good friends with Rita (though he doesn't know she's Sloan's mother) and the store's omnipresent window washer, a kindly old man named Mac, who is recently widowed.
Jake moonlights as an artist's model because the gallery owner allows him to use the art supplies after hours, giving the aspiring artist ample opportunity to paint trite Thomas Kinkade knock-offs that everybody pretends are actually beautiful works of art as to not hurt Jake's feelings. And he lives in the department store, using the boss's executive bathroom and sleeping in a bedroom display.
This may sound like a plot hole of sorts, because department stores have surveillance cameras and security guards, making it nearly impossible for somebody to dwell within such a place, but I'll get back to that.
The big-time Grand Poobah window dresser extraordinaire, the suspiciously never seen Mrs. Jeffers, has recently retired from the hustle and bustle of the window dressing game, forcing the store manager (a weaselly fellow with a snooty moustache who looks and acts so similar to Joe Lo Truglio that it simply can't be a coincidence) to turn to Sloan and Jake to make the store's annual all-important Christmas window displays the best Christmas window displays anybody in the world has ever seen. Im talking face-meltingly awesome window displays.
You know how the story plays out. Everybody knows how the story plays out. It's the same damned story that all of these damned movies rely upon. Is there any point in telling you what happens next? Tension. Acceptance. Success. Love. End. The story isn't important. It's how the story is told that truly matters, and Window Wonderland tells its story very well.
The actors bring a series of tired scenarios to life, making viewers forget they're watching essentially the same movie they've seen hundreds of times before, which is actually quite a difficult feat in the made-for-television family movie industry (which is a very real and very lucrative industry). The cast and crew, all television veterans, were all clearly trying to entertain with this movie, which doesn't feel anything like a cynical excuse to sell awkwardly placed products provided by corporate sponsors.
My god, it's almost like these people were trying to make a *gasp* real movie with Window Wonderland!
And there's even a mild twist on the formula in the story's third act, where it's revealed that Mac, the friendly window washer who recently started dating lovely Rita thanks to matchmaker Jake, is actually the legendary Mr. McGuire, owner of McGuire's department store. Yes, the final ten minutes of the movie become an episode of Undercover Boss, because Mac always wanted his employees to see him as an average guy, and his life has become infinitely richer due to the friendship of people like Sloan and Jake. That explains how Jake got away with squatting in the department store for so long, so it's not a plot hole after all! The movie actually bothered to explain itself instead of just ignoring this, which is a rarity of the genre.
So Mac gives both the lovebirds Mrs. Jeffers' old job, they kiss under the mistletoe (Jake and Sloan, not Jake and Mac), and that's it. That's the end of Window Wonderland, and I really enjoyed it.
The movie's not going to win any awards or anything, but it's good. It's surprisingly funny and endearing, and The Hallmark Channel really needs to try making more movies like this. Window Wonderland doesn't just shrug and accept mediocrity. It actually strives to be something better, and it mostly succeeds.
VERDICT: NICE
FUCK YOU
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