CHRISTMAS ON HONEYSUCKLE LANE
Returning home for the holidays, Emma discovers a hidden surprise in her mother's antique desk.
Emma Reynolds (Alicia Witt), her older sister Andie, and her younger brother David are mourning the passing of their beloved parents, both of whom died within the past year. Now that the big family house on Honeysuckle Lane stands empty, the Reynolds siblings have decided to celebrate one more Christmas in the old place before putting it up for sale in the new year, and this proves a particularly difficult task for Emma, who hadn't come home for Christmas in years, not since she graduated from law school and got into a big fight with her parents over her future.
Emma's father wanted his daughter to work with him at the family law firm, but Emma wanted to move out of the small town of Oliver's Well and make her own way in the world, eventually finding herself a rising star in a large firm in New York City. She argued with both of her parents over this matter, and they all said some things they would come to regret. Emma even accidentally broke one of her mother's favorite Christmas decorations, an old, handmade nutcracker, as she angrily stormed out of the house that cold December evening. Emma's been holding this guilt in her heart ever since, so she's kept mostly to herself over the ensuing years, only coming back to Oliver's Well when absolutely necessary, and never over her Christmas holiday.
But now both of her parents are gone, and she finds herself regretting all of those Christmases away from them, and away from that big house on Honeysuckle Lane. Emma finds herself haunted by bittersweet memories of Christmases past around every corner of the old family home, and begins to find that letting go of her past may be harder than she had initially anticipated.
Shortly after returning to Oliver's Well, Emma pays a visit to an old family friend, Rachel Jenkins, who has owned and operated the town's famous Christmas pop-up shop for as long as Emma can remember, and she's delighted to see that Mrs. Jenkins still sells the darling holiday wreaths originally designed by her own mother, adorned with festive blue ribbons and beloved by all of the citizens of this close-knit small town. Well, almost all of the citizens.
A recent transplant, former Harvard professor and current local antiques dealer Morgan Shelby (Colin Ferguson), isn't such a big fan of the blue ribbons, claiming they don't represent a "real" Christmas color. He innocently proclaims as much to perfect stranger Emma, not knowing the storied family history behind the town's beloved "Reynolds Wreath", and, well, let's just say the pair's relationship doesn't start off on the right foot because of this little faux pas. But Emma needs somebody knowledgeable to appraise the many antiques in the family home before it goes up for sale, and Morgan happens to be the only game in town, so they're sort of stuck with each other until Emma returns to New York the day after Christmas.
But these two quickly bury the hatchet, finding themselves enjoying each other's company more and more as they spend time together over the holidays. Morgan even informs Emma that her mother's beloved antique desk, the place where she used to hide special little gifts for her daughter each Christmas, has a few secrets of its own in the form of a few hidden compartments built into its design. He shows her how to access one of these compartments, and much to Emma's surprise, a cache of old love letters tumbles out onto the floor.
Initially delighted by this discovery, Emma quickly realizes that these letters are all addressed to her mother, but were not written by her father. These love letters predate her mother and father's storybook marriage, and all seem to be written by a mysterious character known only as "R.J.", and Emma and Morgan work together to uncover the identity of the man who wrote these letters over fifty years ago. And along the way, the pair begin to grow a little closer, and all the happy memories of growing up in Oliver's Well cause Emma to rethink her own priorities in life. After all, her godfather Joe, who took over stewardship of her late father's law firm after his untimely death, is looking to retire himself, and knows for a fact that Emma would make his perfect successor...
After five days in a row of mediocre pablum, watching Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane was such a delightful change of pace. It's the same essential story I've seen too many times before, and will see again too many times in the future, but there's nothing wrong with this story. It's got good bones, and its ultimate success or failure is entirely dependent upon how it's brought to life by its cast and crew, and Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane absolutely excels in this regard. There's a certain energy found in many scenes, from the camera set-ups to the enthusiasm of the background players, that is just palpable, and this makes the fictional town of Oliver's Well come to life in a way that has been simply missing from the last handful of movies I've watched.
And the cast is pretty damned solid, from top to bottom. The primary story is a burgeoning romance between Emma and Morgan, but the film takes the time to build up Emma's siblings Andie and David, fleshing them out with their own internal lives, preventing them both from simply fading into the background whenever Emma and Morgan are onscreen.
Andie's dealing with her grown daughter Rumi's hectic college life, as she has decided to change her major from fine arts to pre-med without first discussing this big adjustment with her mother, having to hear this news from her brother David, with whom her daughter has chosen to confide. This upsets Andie, who has shared a very close relationship with her daughter throughout her life, especially since she and Rumi's father divorced several years back. But mother and daughter have a chance during their holiday on Honeysuckle Lane to share their feelings and reconnect, with Andie realizing that despite Rumi moving away from home to go to medical school next year, her daughter will never be far from her heart.
And David, who has taken on the burden of making the perfect Christmas for not only his entire family, but also for the town of Oliver's Well, taking over the family tradition of the town's annual holiday gathering, comes to understand that living up to the impossible ideal of the "perfect" Christmas he has held in his memory since childhood is impossible, since, being a child, he never knew all of the hardship and strife his parents had to deal with to bring those holidays to life for their children. David realizes that these splendid holidays he remembers were only ever as good as they were because he was surrounded by his loving family, and he finally chooses to stop trying to make everything around him perfect, because he's spending Christmas in his childhood home with his siblings and his own young son and daughter, and as far as those adorable tykes are concerned, their Christmas already is perfect.
Emma's siblings aren't treated like props that exist solely to support Emma's own holiday awakening, which is unfortunately a rarity in movies such as these. Andie and David have their own complicated lives that don't revolve entirely around Emma and her personal drama, and I'm not sure why this is such an impossible task for so many similar movies. Is it really that hard to spend a little time working on your supporting characters while writing a script? Apparently so, and kudos to Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane writer Caitlin D. Fryers for going that extra mile to make the story's characters not named Emma and Morgan feel like more than mere set dressing.
I know I've already praised Alicia Witt in the past for seemingly being born to perform in Hallmark Channel movies, but she turns in another fantastic performance in Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane, bringing a real quality of wounded humanity to her portrayal of estranged daughter Emma Reynolds, often seeming on the verge of tears as she finds herself reliving old memories of life in her family home, both good and bad, as she wanders the hallways perusing old photos hanging on the walls and unpacks treasured holiday decorations with her brother and sister in front of a roaring fireplace.
And Colin Ferguson, a charming actor whose fine work has flown under the radar of the mainstream for quite a while now, may have finally found his niche with Hallmark Channel original movies. Between Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane, 2016's Every Christmas Has A Story (in which Ferguson delivered an excellent performance despite my misgivings with the movie itself) and the ongoing series of Fixer Upper Mysteries in which he acts opposite pop star Jewel, Colin Ferguson is building a respectable enough home for himself in the Hallmark family, and bully for him.
After watching Colin Ferguson and Alicia Witt perform together in Christmas On Honeysuckle Lane, it is now my wish that this pair find some way to reunite on a regular basis, because these two are a perfect onscreen romantic pair. The two actors bring out the best qualities in each other as they perform together, and they have romantic chemistry to spare. There's just something about the combination of Ferguson's natural, easygoing charm and Witt's innate likability and vulnerability that work together beautifully in this story, and if they never find a project on which to work together again, that will be a real shame.
In the film's third act, Emma and Morgan discover the identity of her mother's one-time suitor "R.J.", and are surprised to learn that this mystery man was Robert Jenkins, the late husband of old family friend Rachel Jenkins. It seemed that Robert Jenkins and Emma's mother had fallen in love at one point early in their lives, but eventually came to the mutual realization that they just weren't meant for each other, as she found the love of her life in Mr. Reynolds, and later introduced Robert to Rachel, who turned out to be perfect for each other, with each couple spending over fifty blissful years together. In the end, two legendary romances were born out of the dissolution of one ill-fated love affair so long ago, and Emma finds inspiration both in her mother's brave decision to follow her heart to happiness over half a century ago, as well as Morgan's touching gift of a nutcracker he restored to replace the one she had broken years ago, finally telling Morgan that she's fallen in love with the affable antiques dealer, choosing to take over her father's law firm and build a new life for herself at the house on Honeysuckle Lane.
The same story told again and again with a new façade, but as far as façades go, this is a pretty damned good one.
Mommy's Dead - Emma's mother and father have both recently died, their deaths acting as the catalyst that brings Emma to a crossroads in her life over the Christmas holiday she spends reconnecting with her childhood home and community.
I Hate You! Kiss Me! - Emma and Morgan don't get along very well at the beginning, not after he insults her late mother's design choices regarding the wreath that has become something of an icon in Oliver's Well. But the two patch things up quickly, and near the end of the movie it's revealed that Morgan actually has one of his late mother's wreaths hanging in his own home, having come to appreciate the bold choice of a regal blue ribbon on a festive Christmas wreath.
Small Town Salvation - Emma's homecoming opens her eyes to a new world of possibilities away from life in New York City as she falls in love again with the wonders and charms of Oliver's Well. Morgan had his own bout with this trope before the events of the movie began, leaving a well-paying career as a history professor at Harvard to follow his own heart to Oliver's Well, indulging in his true passion for antiques and the stories they can tell in the town he fell in love with as a child while visiting his grandparents each Christmas holiday.
VERDICT: VERY NICE
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