CHRISTMAS TREE LANE
Music store owner Meg spearheads community efforts to save her street from demolition. She's shocked to find out that the man she's falling for is actually working for the company Meg's fighting.
Alicia Witt plays some nice lady named Meg Reilly, owner and proprietor of Reilly's Music Shop, an inviting little storefront on Denver's historic Christmas Tree Lane. Yes, it's not just the title of the movie, but the actual name of the street where the majority of the story's action takes place. And honestly, people say the words "Christmas Tree Lane" so often during the events of Christmas Tree Lane, that by the time the movie was finally over, I was genuinely sick and tired of hearing the words "Christmas", "tree", and "lane" in any combination. These people keep blurting out the name of the movie like a parrot that's just learned a new word and can't shut the fuck up. There is no real Christmas Tree Lane in Denver, Colorado, either. And the movie was shot in Utah. In July. Christmas Tree Lane. Christ, even I can't stop saying it. The words are just bouncing around in my brain, and they won't leave me alone. Is Meg even really the owner of Reilly's Music Shop? I'm pretty sure her father still technically owns the place, but he lets her run things because he's old and doesn't really give a damn about all that day-to-day administrative bullshit.
Meg's dad is played by Drake Hogestyn, by the way. He's probably best known for playing John Black on the daytime soap opera Days Of Our Lives for the past 34 years. That was my grandmother's favorite soap, and as such I became well acquainted with its characters throughout my youth. Watching Christmas Tree Lane this morning, I couldn't help but realize I'd never seen Drake Hogestyn in literally anything else aside from that damned soap opera, so I looked him up online, and as it turns out, the man hasn't really done much of anything else since he joined Days Of Our Lives in 1986. Since joining the Days cast, he's acted in precisely three television movies (including Christmas Tree Lane) and he's guest-starred in one episode of police procedural Criminal Minds in 2018. But he's acted in nearly 3,000 episodes (and counting) of Days Of Our Lives, which is, against all odds, still on the air. I guess there's something to be said about a steady gig.
But does it really matter who owns Reilly's Music Shop, since the place is gonna be blown to smithereens along with every other adorable little shop on Christmas Tree Lane come January to make way for a fancy new office park? That's the plan, anyway. Some big-time construction firm is just itching to evict all of the current tenants on this historic street and demolish their livelihoods before their very eyes because nothing dares stand in the way of progress.
Enter Nate Williams (Andrew Walker), an idealistic young-ish architect who's only just moved back to his hometown of Denver in recent weeks, having spent the past several years working out of his firm's satellite office in sunny Los Angeles. Nate loves Christmas a whole lot. He's the kind of guy who asks the barista to bury his lattee in whipped cream and colored sprinkles when he stops for coffee in the morning, because he thinks plain coffee tastes like sadness. There's a meet-cute with Meg as they order coffee one morning, and they share an instant attraction. You've heard of love at first sight? This is lust at first sight. I'm kidding, of course. There's no place for lust in a Hallmark Channel original movie.
You know what's happening, though. You're not idiots.
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| You're not blind. You see what's going on here. |
Nate and Meg fall pretty hard for each other, because that's what's in the damned script. Then Nate learns that Meg's music shop, as well as all the other small businesses on Christmas Tree Lane are all set to be evicted come January due to the machinations of some greedy corporate assholes downtown, so he volunteers to help Meg get the word out in the community, building a grassroots effort to save Christmas Tree Lane from demolition this holiday season. There's a bake sale, a Christmas Tree decorating contest, and even a big concert scheduled for Christmas Eve, all designed to raise awareness and convince these soulless motherfuckers to make the right decision and preserve Christmas Tree Lane for future generations to enjoy.
Of course Nate eventually learns that his father's firm, the one he works for, is the company behind the imminent destruction of his future girlfriend's family business, and when he finds out... he kinda just keeps doing what he's already been doing, namely trying to save the shops on Christmas Tree Lane. It's fine. It's all perfectly fine. The whole community rallies in support of Christmas Tree Lane, Nate's dad realizes he's not a heartless asshole and changes his mind about the whole business, and Meg sings an original song at the big Christmas Eve concert, then she and Nate kiss, and that's the end of the movie.
I don't know what I'm supposed to say about Christmas Tree Lane. I enjoyed it. It was a fine way to waste a pair of morning hours. Alicia Witt and Andrew Walker made a cute couple. I liked how neither character had any big hang-ups regarding Christmas that they had to overcome in order to become better people. Nate and Meg both just really like the holiday, and that's pretty much all there is to it. They spend time reminiscing about their respective cherished Christmas memories, they build several new ones together as they get to know each other while working to save Meg's business, and it all comes across as rather natural, not at all forced or awkward.
When Nate reveals to Meg that his company is behind the troubles on Christmas Tree Lane, there's no overblown scene where Nate stumbles over his words trying to explain his position and Meg storms out, telling Nate that she never wants to see him again. Rather, they simply have a conversation about what's been going on, Meg hears Nate out, and they come up with a new plan to convince his father to spare Christmas Tree Lane. It's all very refreshing and adult, without the exhausting histrionics.
Meg splits a townhome with her father, and there's an adorable scene when we see daddy drying some dishes in his kitchen when he faintly hears Meg playing piano through the thin walls, and he smiles sweetly to himself for a moment before stepping out to visit his daughter. This simple, quiet moment was more than enough to sell me on the entire movie, no matter how potentially bad the next hour or so may be. It felt so genuine and warm, and I'm thankful that this scene stayed in the movie. This is the kind of stuff that rarely gets included in products such as these, because the small moments are usually the first to get axed during pre-production.
Alicia Witt produced Christmas Tree Lane, even dreaming up the story upon which the screenplay was based, and she contributed a new song to the production, so it's clear that this movie was particularly dear to her, and it shows. I had a good time watching Christmas Tree Lane. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it doesn't need to. This is a movie that tells a simple story very well, never really stumbling at all before reaching the finishing line. Good job, everybody!
But Drake Hogestyn needs to be in more things. I think he's actually a pretty good actor. And my late grandmother would have agreed.
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