CATCH A CHRISTMAS STAR
A widower reconnects with his high school sweetheart, one of the country's biggest pop stars, with help from his two children.
A long time ago, two crazy kids fell in love. Everybody thought these two were gonna go the distance. They had mad chemistry, and their parts fit together like nobody's business, like a jigsaw puzzle made of sensitive flesh. Their friends just assumed that these lovebirds would tie the knot right out of high school, with the boy going on to become a famous baseball player, and the girl conquering the world of pop music with her angelic voice.
Then the boy busted his arm and his prospects of becoming an MLB legend were dashed, and as the girl's dreams of musical superstardom were on the cusp of becoming reality, he broke off their engagement. She moved out to Los Angeles and became Nikki, the world-renowned pop songstress, and Chris stayed in his hometown, fell in love again, got married, had a couple kids, and took a teaching job at his old high school. Not too long after, his wife died suddenly, leaving him to raise their children alone.
Years later, fate (and Chris' kids) brings Nikki and Chris together again, and will they rekindle their old romance, or will the mountain of complications in their lives prove an insurmountable obstacle to their love? We all know the answer to that question. Any Hallmark Channel original movie with the balls to end on a bittersweet note, with the two romantic leads deciding not to pursue a relationship due to inherent incompatibility or what-have-you, only exists in the Bizarro universe. In this universe, the leads always work it out and live happily ever after. That's non-negotiable.
So of course Nikki (Shannon Elizabeth) and Chris (Steve Byers) get back together before the final fade to black. That's a foregone conclusion, but haven't you ever heard the phrase "it's the journey, not the destination"? And it's the journey that makes Catch A Christmas Star a very effective, and dare I say, good movie.
Yeah. I said it. Catch A Christmas Star is a good movie. Not just "good for Hallmark Channel" good, but actually good good. I'm actually second-guessing myself here, because I never expected this level of quality, both in the script and in the majority of the cast performances, in a film of this ilk. I feel like somebody made a mistake somewhere along the line, like Rickie Castaneda accidentally wrote a good movie, or John Bradshaw accidentally directed one. This guy directed Best Christmas Party Ever, the nightmare I reviewed last year, and it's one of the worst things I've ever seen. And Castaneda wrote Naughty Or Nice, another movie I watched during last year's holiday celebration, and that one has too many problems to actually be considered a worthwhile viewing experience.
So what went right? Beats the hell out of me. Sometimes things happen, and there are no easy explanations. The primary cast member have all been in a few decent things, but their work over the years has been in no way consistently good. Everybody knows Shannon Elizabeth from her memorable role as Nadia in 1999's American Pie, AKA "that naked lady". But one of her earliest roles involved getting raped to death by a snowman in a bathtub in 1997's Christmas classic Jack Frost, not to be confused with 1998's Christmas classic Jack Frost, where the only thing that got raped to death was Michael Keaton's career.
People remember American Pie fondly, right? Do they even remember American Pie? Shannon Elizabeth's performance is probably one of the only things most folks recall. And by "performance", I mean "boobs". Has she been in anything else? Anything good? Honestly, not much. Take a gander at her filmography on IMDB and prepare for disappointment. And it's not because she's a bad actress, because she isn't. Bad luck and a few terrible choices can go a long way in screwing somebody's career. Well, I suppose if she cares more about making money than making art, then her career's going just fine. And I won't begrudge her that, not if it's true. Make your hay while the sun is shining, Shannon Elizabeth. I thought you were quite good in the Night Of The Demons remake.
And I'm not picking on Shannon Elizabeth. What about Steve Byers? This son of a bitch was in Uwe Boll's comic masterpiece House Of The Dead. He was also featured in perhaps the most pointless and unnecessary sequel ever made, Slap Shot 2: Breaking The Ice. But once again, if he's in the biz to break necks and cash checks, he's doing just fine. The plight of the working actor, ladies and gentlemen. They're not all making millions of dollars with every role, kiddies. How much money do you think you're earning with a guest spot in Mutant X? If your answer is "SAG scale", then you're probably right. Why do you think so many actors still flock to soap operas? If your character hits with an audience, you could have a steady gig for decades. That's job security, and it's as big a deal for most actors as it is for folks in any other profession.
My point isn't to embarrass these actors, because they've both done some stuff I really enjoy, and they're both capable of turning in earnest and heartfelt performances when they connect with the material. My point is that they both turn in earnest and heartfelt performances in Catch A Christmas Star, and their on-screen chemistry is the primary reason this movie works. It's just so bizarre to me that this is all captured in a Hallmark Channel original movie.
I've seen enough of these damned movies to recognize all the signs of supposedly talented individuals just going through the motions in service of C-grade mediocrity. That's easily 80% of this industry (and it is an industry). When a movie emerges from this factory that actually manages to rise above this "good enough" assembly line style of product, I'm a little surprised.
The movie obviously isn't perfect, so don't go crazy. There are some glaring instances of poorly-rendered chroma key compositing so head-scratchingly obvious that I can't believe they made it into the final product, and a few of the supporting players are clearly just on set to earn their daily beer money. But I can easily overlook the flaws because I was invested in the movie's story.
There's never any doubt that Nikki and Chris still love each other. The moment they reconnect after many years apart, it's obvious that a lack of love was never the problem with these two. And over the course of the film, it's revealed that Chris walked away from Nikki because he had found himself at a crossroads in his life, with his dreams of becoming a pro ball player thrown out the window due to injury. He didn't know if he would be able to deal with all of the trappings of Nikki's impending fame, and ultimately left because he was worried he would hold her back, not wanting to burden her with his own problems.
And Chris didn't live a life of quiet desperation without Nikki. He wasn't plagued with regret over the life that might have been had he chosen to follow her to Hollywood. He found love again. He raised two children. He lived a good life. Quiet, but good. After his wife died, he lived five years without a partner, focusing on the well-being and happiness of his kids rather than himself. Nikki only comes back into his life because Chris' kids meet her at a CD signing in New York City and convince her to come see him. His daughter Sophie sees that her dad is lonely, and all she wants for Christmas is for him to find somebody to love.
Nikki clearly has been carrying a torch for Chris since their break-up, because it doesn't take much convincing for her to take a car ride out to New Jersey to drop in on her old flame. The two quickly realize that those old feelings never died over the years, and they ultimately choose to move forward with their interrupted romance. There are roadblocks along the way, but they all feel like realistic roadblocks.
Nikki's record label eventually tries to use her rekindled romance with her high school sweetheart to help sell her struggling holiday album to the masses, orchestrating interviews on various media outlets that begin asking Nikki uncomfortable questions, and when Chris becomes a target of the paparazzi, he begins to question his burgeoning relationship for fear of how this exposure will affect his children. And Chris is hesitant to move forward with Nikki not just because he's unsure if he can handle the difficulty that comes with being a pop star's plus-one, but also because a part of him worries that moving on with Nikki means he's somehow betraying his late wife's memory.
Haunted by the ghosts of his past, only after his mother convinces him that following his heart is never a betrayal does Chris begin to seriously consider a future with Nikki. He knows that he still loves her from the very first moment they see each other after over a decade apart, but he doesn't just throw himself back into this relationship. He makes his final decision to pursue Nikki after careful consideration of many variables, including the well-being of his children and his own insecurities, acting like an adult and not a caricature of one. This is heavy stuff, and it's handled in a realistic and straight-forward manner.
And Steve Byers and Shannon Elizabeth sell this material like champions. Their performances never ring false, and by the end I was very invested in their characters, hoping these crazy kids could find a way back to each other at the big Christmas Eve concert in NYC. That's the sign of quality, right there. You know from the very beginning how a story like this is going to end, but if the story itself is well-told, you still get caught up in the story as it unfolds. That's the magic of movies, I tell you! Everybody knows the Titanic sinks, but you're still surprised when the iceberg strikes in Titanic if you're engrossed in the story.
I really, really like Catch A Christmas Star. It's easily the single best movie I've watched so far in two years of my Schlock-Mas feature. That means now there's nowhere to go but down.
VERDICT: NICE
A long time ago, two crazy kids fell in love. Everybody thought these two were gonna go the distance. They had mad chemistry, and their parts fit together like nobody's business, like a jigsaw puzzle made of sensitive flesh. Their friends just assumed that these lovebirds would tie the knot right out of high school, with the boy going on to become a famous baseball player, and the girl conquering the world of pop music with her angelic voice.
Then the boy busted his arm and his prospects of becoming an MLB legend were dashed, and as the girl's dreams of musical superstardom were on the cusp of becoming reality, he broke off their engagement. She moved out to Los Angeles and became Nikki, the world-renowned pop songstress, and Chris stayed in his hometown, fell in love again, got married, had a couple kids, and took a teaching job at his old high school. Not too long after, his wife died suddenly, leaving him to raise their children alone.
Years later, fate (and Chris' kids) brings Nikki and Chris together again, and will they rekindle their old romance, or will the mountain of complications in their lives prove an insurmountable obstacle to their love? We all know the answer to that question. Any Hallmark Channel original movie with the balls to end on a bittersweet note, with the two romantic leads deciding not to pursue a relationship due to inherent incompatibility or what-have-you, only exists in the Bizarro universe. In this universe, the leads always work it out and live happily ever after. That's non-negotiable.
So of course Nikki (Shannon Elizabeth) and Chris (Steve Byers) get back together before the final fade to black. That's a foregone conclusion, but haven't you ever heard the phrase "it's the journey, not the destination"? And it's the journey that makes Catch A Christmas Star a very effective, and dare I say, good movie.
Yeah. I said it. Catch A Christmas Star is a good movie. Not just "good for Hallmark Channel" good, but actually good good. I'm actually second-guessing myself here, because I never expected this level of quality, both in the script and in the majority of the cast performances, in a film of this ilk. I feel like somebody made a mistake somewhere along the line, like Rickie Castaneda accidentally wrote a good movie, or John Bradshaw accidentally directed one. This guy directed Best Christmas Party Ever, the nightmare I reviewed last year, and it's one of the worst things I've ever seen. And Castaneda wrote Naughty Or Nice, another movie I watched during last year's holiday celebration, and that one has too many problems to actually be considered a worthwhile viewing experience.
So what went right? Beats the hell out of me. Sometimes things happen, and there are no easy explanations. The primary cast member have all been in a few decent things, but their work over the years has been in no way consistently good. Everybody knows Shannon Elizabeth from her memorable role as Nadia in 1999's American Pie, AKA "that naked lady". But one of her earliest roles involved getting raped to death by a snowman in a bathtub in 1997's Christmas classic Jack Frost, not to be confused with 1998's Christmas classic Jack Frost, where the only thing that got raped to death was Michael Keaton's career.
 |
| Poor, poor Michael Keaton... |
People remember American Pie fondly, right? Do they even remember American Pie? Shannon Elizabeth's performance is probably one of the only things most folks recall. And by "performance", I mean "boobs". Has she been in anything else? Anything good? Honestly, not much. Take a gander at her filmography on IMDB and prepare for disappointment. And it's not because she's a bad actress, because she isn't. Bad luck and a few terrible choices can go a long way in screwing somebody's career. Well, I suppose if she cares more about making money than making art, then her career's going just fine. And I won't begrudge her that, not if it's true. Make your hay while the sun is shining, Shannon Elizabeth. I thought you were quite good in the Night Of The Demons remake.
And I'm not picking on Shannon Elizabeth. What about Steve Byers? This son of a bitch was in Uwe Boll's comic masterpiece House Of The Dead. He was also featured in perhaps the most pointless and unnecessary sequel ever made, Slap Shot 2: Breaking The Ice. But once again, if he's in the biz to break necks and cash checks, he's doing just fine. The plight of the working actor, ladies and gentlemen. They're not all making millions of dollars with every role, kiddies. How much money do you think you're earning with a guest spot in Mutant X? If your answer is "SAG scale", then you're probably right. Why do you think so many actors still flock to soap operas? If your character hits with an audience, you could have a steady gig for decades. That's job security, and it's as big a deal for most actors as it is for folks in any other profession.
My point isn't to embarrass these actors, because they've both done some stuff I really enjoy, and they're both capable of turning in earnest and heartfelt performances when they connect with the material. My point is that they both turn in earnest and heartfelt performances in Catch A Christmas Star, and their on-screen chemistry is the primary reason this movie works. It's just so bizarre to me that this is all captured in a Hallmark Channel original movie.
I've seen enough of these damned movies to recognize all the signs of supposedly talented individuals just going through the motions in service of C-grade mediocrity. That's easily 80% of this industry (and it is an industry). When a movie emerges from this factory that actually manages to rise above this "good enough" assembly line style of product, I'm a little surprised.
The movie obviously isn't perfect, so don't go crazy. There are some glaring instances of poorly-rendered chroma key compositing so head-scratchingly obvious that I can't believe they made it into the final product, and a few of the supporting players are clearly just on set to earn their daily beer money. But I can easily overlook the flaws because I was invested in the movie's story.
There's never any doubt that Nikki and Chris still love each other. The moment they reconnect after many years apart, it's obvious that a lack of love was never the problem with these two. And over the course of the film, it's revealed that Chris walked away from Nikki because he had found himself at a crossroads in his life, with his dreams of becoming a pro ball player thrown out the window due to injury. He didn't know if he would be able to deal with all of the trappings of Nikki's impending fame, and ultimately left because he was worried he would hold her back, not wanting to burden her with his own problems.
And Chris didn't live a life of quiet desperation without Nikki. He wasn't plagued with regret over the life that might have been had he chosen to follow her to Hollywood. He found love again. He raised two children. He lived a good life. Quiet, but good. After his wife died, he lived five years without a partner, focusing on the well-being and happiness of his kids rather than himself. Nikki only comes back into his life because Chris' kids meet her at a CD signing in New York City and convince her to come see him. His daughter Sophie sees that her dad is lonely, and all she wants for Christmas is for him to find somebody to love.
Nikki clearly has been carrying a torch for Chris since their break-up, because it doesn't take much convincing for her to take a car ride out to New Jersey to drop in on her old flame. The two quickly realize that those old feelings never died over the years, and they ultimately choose to move forward with their interrupted romance. There are roadblocks along the way, but they all feel like realistic roadblocks.
Nikki's record label eventually tries to use her rekindled romance with her high school sweetheart to help sell her struggling holiday album to the masses, orchestrating interviews on various media outlets that begin asking Nikki uncomfortable questions, and when Chris becomes a target of the paparazzi, he begins to question his burgeoning relationship for fear of how this exposure will affect his children. And Chris is hesitant to move forward with Nikki not just because he's unsure if he can handle the difficulty that comes with being a pop star's plus-one, but also because a part of him worries that moving on with Nikki means he's somehow betraying his late wife's memory.
Haunted by the ghosts of his past, only after his mother convinces him that following his heart is never a betrayal does Chris begin to seriously consider a future with Nikki. He knows that he still loves her from the very first moment they see each other after over a decade apart, but he doesn't just throw himself back into this relationship. He makes his final decision to pursue Nikki after careful consideration of many variables, including the well-being of his children and his own insecurities, acting like an adult and not a caricature of one. This is heavy stuff, and it's handled in a realistic and straight-forward manner.
And Steve Byers and Shannon Elizabeth sell this material like champions. Their performances never ring false, and by the end I was very invested in their characters, hoping these crazy kids could find a way back to each other at the big Christmas Eve concert in NYC. That's the sign of quality, right there. You know from the very beginning how a story like this is going to end, but if the story itself is well-told, you still get caught up in the story as it unfolds. That's the magic of movies, I tell you! Everybody knows the Titanic sinks, but you're still surprised when the iceberg strikes in Titanic if you're engrossed in the story.
I really, really like Catch A Christmas Star. It's easily the single best movie I've watched so far in two years of my Schlock-Mas feature. That means now there's nowhere to go but down.
VERDICT: NICE
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