Christmas Chalet - Holiday Movie Musings

Christmas Chalet —starring nobody and no-one—is a surprise entry for me this year. It has come up zero times in my searches for movies to review this year, but came up as a suggestion after watching another movie for the first time on Amazon Prime. A story of a divorced photographer, her daughter, and her mother all taking a holiday work-vacation to a “chalet” in Vermont, so she can take photos of the town and chalet for an online travel agency. Unfortunately for them, it was accidentally double-booked with a Scrooge of a man who was self-isolating to finish his latest YA novel.

I was surprised because, while starring nobody and no-one, the acting was good, the cinematography didn’t seem completely amateur, and the story—while always a bit predictable in these movies—was sweet. The writing for the grandmother is particularly brilliant. Also, they didn’t write the angsty daughter/granddaughter as irredeemably caustic then suddenly change her to happy-go-lucky, as a lot of these stories do. She has heartbreak from her parents’ divorce and a boy she likes, but she isn’t just a bitch for no reason let alone a bitch every minute of the day. She has some mood swings, like a teenager should, and it made her small arc much more believable. And it passes the Bechdel Test. Low bar, I know, but so few movies these days do, let alone these schmaltzy holiday rackets.

I recommend!

Amazon Prime