ANGELS & ORNAMENTS
During the holidays, a mysterious co-worker tries to play matchmaker for a musician and her childhood friend.
Corrine (Jessalyn Gilsig) is a kindhearted aspiring musician who works at the Manhattan music store owned by her best friend Dave, who has been carrying a torch for her since high school, but has been too timid to step out of the dreaded "friend zone" for nearly twenty years, so he just silently pines for the girl of his dreams while she dates a string of bad boys who inevitably end up breaking her heart, repeating the same mistakes again and again because she considers herself a hopeless romantic.
Enter Harold, a cantankerous angel-in-training with the heart of a poet who's been kicking around this mortal coil since his untimely death in World War II. He's assigned to Corrine this holiday season, tasked with fixing her up with poor wallflower Dave, because the powers-that-be have deemed these two a perfect couple, and he has until midnight on Christmas Eve to accomplish his task, lest he miss his final opportunity to earn his wings and a ticket upstairs. So he's given an assumed earthly identity by his angelic handlers and takes a part-time holiday job at Dave's music store and commences meddling.
Corrine has carried a spark of romance in her heart for as long as she can remember, thanks to her grandmother's own tragic storybook romance with her late husband. Corrine's glassblower grandfather Henry loved dear Emily from afar, too timid to speak up whenever their paths would cross. Until one fateful Christmas Eve, when he gathered the courage to present her with a beautiful ornament, depicting a group of Christmas carolers, that he made especially for her. He told Emily that the carolers represented the way his heart sang every time he looked at her, and that was all it took. These two became inseparable, joined at the hip until the world went to war and Henry was called up to serve his country, leaving his pregnant wife behind with promises of his safe return.
In lieu of writing letters, Henry composed and dispatched sheet music home for his beloved from the front lines, claiming that mere words weren't sufficient to illustrate the depth of his love. Each night she received a new composition in the mail, she would dash to her piano and play the music again and again in an effort to keep her husband close to her heart. Henry's final composition arrived on Christmas Eve, and he was reported K.I.A. several days later, never getting the chance to meet his own newborn daughter.
Corrine is the proud owner of her late grandmother's belongings, including the legendary ornament which she hangs proudly on her Christmas tree every year, her grandfather's sheet music, and a scrap book of old, weathered photographs featuring her grandparents, but unfortunately every photo of her grandfather has been water damaged, obscuring the details of his face. She handles these family heirlooms like true treasures, because she knows that they're artifacts of a true and undying love, the kind of love she's spent her entire adult life searching for without success.
While working to bring Corrine and Dave together, Harold makes a rather startling realization when he stumbles upon Corrine's old scrapbook and sees a photograph of the love of his life within, the woman from whom he's been separated since he died in World War II: his beloved Emily. Harold, his real name being Henry Stockton, has been assigned to find true love for his own granddaughter, and he's not allowed to tell her who and what he really is. But his interference in Corrine's love life eventually pays off as he gets her and Dave to see that they're meant for each other after all, and Dave even uses one of Henry's love-letter compositions as musical accompaniment to a poem he wrote for Corrine, finally realizing one of her fondest dreams when she performs the song before a large audience on Christmas Eve.
His mission accomplished, Henry is given his wings and reunited with his beloved Emily, and one year later, Corrine and Dave, now happily married, discover an undamaged photograph of her grandparents hidden in the old scrapbook, and she finally sees the face of her grandfather, the face of the man who helped her find the love of her life.
Barring the twist, this plot sounds like pretty straight-forward stuff, doesn't it? We all know there has been a torrent of movies made since the dawn of film as a relevant storytelling medium that have told variations of this story. It's nothing new. Just casually browsing through the movies airing on Hallmark Channel over the previous week, I noticed over a dozen similar plots. Hell, I've reviewed no less than five movies thus far this month that have involved supernatural forces bringing people together over Christmas. This is one of the well-established, standard "holiday movie" blueprints in circulation, and it keeps getting used time and time again for one very simple reason: it tends to work.
Yes, the story is an old and very familiar one, but people like it because it seems to speak to something within them, it resonates with us on some fundamental level. We all want to believe that there's somebody out there for each of us, somebody with whom we can share our lives and our hopes and desires, the proverbial "one". And we all want to believe that there's somebody out there looking out for us, a kindly soul who is willing to help us out a little when we need that help the most. Call that "guardian angel" what you will, but we all want to believe that, whether it's true or not. We all need a little help sometimes, even if it's something as simple as a fresh pair of eyes helping you to see the perfect partner who was standing right in front of you all along.
That's not to say the old story always works. Just look through some of the reviews linked above and you'll see that's not always the case. You can't just follow the blueprint and expect the story to work itself out. No, you have to actually make an effort to tell your story with a modicum of finesse, otherwise you're just making a product, something missing that much-needed spark of life that these stories require in order to be taken seriously. And I'm pleasantly surprised to say that Angels & Ornaments doesn't just have that spark; it's on fire.
I wasn't expecting much, to be honest. The title isn't terribly inspired, and the first fifteen minutes or so of the movie were pretty standard stuff, not inspiring a great deal of confidence. But the funniest thing happened: somewhere along the way, the story and characters just grabbed me and wouldn't let go. By the time it was all over, I was fully invested in this goofy movie, and I was actually moved to tears by the perhaps overly-sentimental conclusion.
I don't admit that lightly, and it has nothing to do with living under some draconian misconception of masculinity that precludes showing one's motion in order to project strength. I simply don't get choked up all that often when watching movies, even ones that I really, really like. If something makes me cry, it tends to be for a very specific reason, like a certain song triggering a painful memory, and that rarely happens for me. But this sappy movie actually made me cry, and I kind of love it for that. Although I suppose I've always been kind of a sap at heart, because I actually enjoy movies like this.
I'm not putting myself through this Schlock-Mas thing because I want to torture myself for the amusement of a miniscule readership. I like Christmas movies, and the songs, and the decorations, and the twinkling lights, and all the rest. I remember being a child when I found myself surrounded by all of the trappings of the holiday, and it felt like magic was in the air and all around me. And every year around this time, I feel a little of that magic stirring within. I'm using this blog as an excuse to force myself to watch these movies because I'm a little selfish, and I want to hold on to this feeling for a while longer. Sometimes the movies I watch aren't terribly good, and maybe I get a laugh from taking the piss out of them here. But I'm really looking to be surprised by a good movie, a movie that stirs up some of that magic.
I'm looking for movies like Angels & Ornaments.
VERDICT: NICE
Corrine (Jessalyn Gilsig) is a kindhearted aspiring musician who works at the Manhattan music store owned by her best friend Dave, who has been carrying a torch for her since high school, but has been too timid to step out of the dreaded "friend zone" for nearly twenty years, so he just silently pines for the girl of his dreams while she dates a string of bad boys who inevitably end up breaking her heart, repeating the same mistakes again and again because she considers herself a hopeless romantic.
Enter Harold, a cantankerous angel-in-training with the heart of a poet who's been kicking around this mortal coil since his untimely death in World War II. He's assigned to Corrine this holiday season, tasked with fixing her up with poor wallflower Dave, because the powers-that-be have deemed these two a perfect couple, and he has until midnight on Christmas Eve to accomplish his task, lest he miss his final opportunity to earn his wings and a ticket upstairs. So he's given an assumed earthly identity by his angelic handlers and takes a part-time holiday job at Dave's music store and commences meddling.
Corrine has carried a spark of romance in her heart for as long as she can remember, thanks to her grandmother's own tragic storybook romance with her late husband. Corrine's glassblower grandfather Henry loved dear Emily from afar, too timid to speak up whenever their paths would cross. Until one fateful Christmas Eve, when he gathered the courage to present her with a beautiful ornament, depicting a group of Christmas carolers, that he made especially for her. He told Emily that the carolers represented the way his heart sang every time he looked at her, and that was all it took. These two became inseparable, joined at the hip until the world went to war and Henry was called up to serve his country, leaving his pregnant wife behind with promises of his safe return.
In lieu of writing letters, Henry composed and dispatched sheet music home for his beloved from the front lines, claiming that mere words weren't sufficient to illustrate the depth of his love. Each night she received a new composition in the mail, she would dash to her piano and play the music again and again in an effort to keep her husband close to her heart. Henry's final composition arrived on Christmas Eve, and he was reported K.I.A. several days later, never getting the chance to meet his own newborn daughter.
Corrine is the proud owner of her late grandmother's belongings, including the legendary ornament which she hangs proudly on her Christmas tree every year, her grandfather's sheet music, and a scrap book of old, weathered photographs featuring her grandparents, but unfortunately every photo of her grandfather has been water damaged, obscuring the details of his face. She handles these family heirlooms like true treasures, because she knows that they're artifacts of a true and undying love, the kind of love she's spent her entire adult life searching for without success.
While working to bring Corrine and Dave together, Harold makes a rather startling realization when he stumbles upon Corrine's old scrapbook and sees a photograph of the love of his life within, the woman from whom he's been separated since he died in World War II: his beloved Emily. Harold, his real name being Henry Stockton, has been assigned to find true love for his own granddaughter, and he's not allowed to tell her who and what he really is. But his interference in Corrine's love life eventually pays off as he gets her and Dave to see that they're meant for each other after all, and Dave even uses one of Henry's love-letter compositions as musical accompaniment to a poem he wrote for Corrine, finally realizing one of her fondest dreams when she performs the song before a large audience on Christmas Eve.
His mission accomplished, Henry is given his wings and reunited with his beloved Emily, and one year later, Corrine and Dave, now happily married, discover an undamaged photograph of her grandparents hidden in the old scrapbook, and she finally sees the face of her grandfather, the face of the man who helped her find the love of her life.
Barring the twist, this plot sounds like pretty straight-forward stuff, doesn't it? We all know there has been a torrent of movies made since the dawn of film as a relevant storytelling medium that have told variations of this story. It's nothing new. Just casually browsing through the movies airing on Hallmark Channel over the previous week, I noticed over a dozen similar plots. Hell, I've reviewed no less than five movies thus far this month that have involved supernatural forces bringing people together over Christmas. This is one of the well-established, standard "holiday movie" blueprints in circulation, and it keeps getting used time and time again for one very simple reason: it tends to work.
Yes, the story is an old and very familiar one, but people like it because it seems to speak to something within them, it resonates with us on some fundamental level. We all want to believe that there's somebody out there for each of us, somebody with whom we can share our lives and our hopes and desires, the proverbial "one". And we all want to believe that there's somebody out there looking out for us, a kindly soul who is willing to help us out a little when we need that help the most. Call that "guardian angel" what you will, but we all want to believe that, whether it's true or not. We all need a little help sometimes, even if it's something as simple as a fresh pair of eyes helping you to see the perfect partner who was standing right in front of you all along.
That's not to say the old story always works. Just look through some of the reviews linked above and you'll see that's not always the case. You can't just follow the blueprint and expect the story to work itself out. No, you have to actually make an effort to tell your story with a modicum of finesse, otherwise you're just making a product, something missing that much-needed spark of life that these stories require in order to be taken seriously. And I'm pleasantly surprised to say that Angels & Ornaments doesn't just have that spark; it's on fire.
I wasn't expecting much, to be honest. The title isn't terribly inspired, and the first fifteen minutes or so of the movie were pretty standard stuff, not inspiring a great deal of confidence. But the funniest thing happened: somewhere along the way, the story and characters just grabbed me and wouldn't let go. By the time it was all over, I was fully invested in this goofy movie, and I was actually moved to tears by the perhaps overly-sentimental conclusion.
I don't admit that lightly, and it has nothing to do with living under some draconian misconception of masculinity that precludes showing one's motion in order to project strength. I simply don't get choked up all that often when watching movies, even ones that I really, really like. If something makes me cry, it tends to be for a very specific reason, like a certain song triggering a painful memory, and that rarely happens for me. But this sappy movie actually made me cry, and I kind of love it for that. Although I suppose I've always been kind of a sap at heart, because I actually enjoy movies like this.
I'm not putting myself through this Schlock-Mas thing because I want to torture myself for the amusement of a miniscule readership. I like Christmas movies, and the songs, and the decorations, and the twinkling lights, and all the rest. I remember being a child when I found myself surrounded by all of the trappings of the holiday, and it felt like magic was in the air and all around me. And every year around this time, I feel a little of that magic stirring within. I'm using this blog as an excuse to force myself to watch these movies because I'm a little selfish, and I want to hold on to this feeling for a while longer. Sometimes the movies I watch aren't terribly good, and maybe I get a laugh from taking the piss out of them here. But I'm really looking to be surprised by a good movie, a movie that stirs up some of that magic.
I'm looking for movies like Angels & Ornaments.
VERDICT: NICE
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