Mystic Christmas

Overall, I thought the storyline was fine. It was very slightly different from the usual hallmark set ups. It was nice that the leads had social anxiety, though I don't always know that it was played true. For example, would a socially anxious person willingly draw attention to themselves at a costume-optional event by coming in costume? I also thought the mother was contributing to her problems. If a daughter calls looking for advice, I don't think it's healthy that the only advice that is offered is to not give up what you want for another person (I'm paraphrasing here, but that was the gist.). Sometimes what someone wants is that other person and deciding to want that doesn't always mean they're giving up everything. Her situation, as she points out, is not just about a guy. It's about her friends, her interns, and the offer of a great job doing what she loved and her mother should have heard all of those pieces before giving her any advice. I thought her father's advice was much healthier - figure out what it is that your gut/heart is telling you. What I liked about this storyline, however, is that it differed from the usual storyline of girl goes to some town, meets guy, falls in love in 5 days, and decides to give up a successful career in the city to stay with small town man not knowing whether they're compatible, where she'd live, or what she'd do for a living. That is a toxic message, the one in this movie wasn't. Lastly, the thing that bothered me the most is that a big message of the movie is that seals shouldn't be kept in captivity and that humans ruin everything for seals but the movie delivered this message by using multiple captive seals that had been highly trained to do tricks for human enjoyment.

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I'm not quite sure why "Mystic Christmas" isn't rated more highly. I had no illusions going in. I expected another standard Hallmark Christmas rom-com, but I was very pleasantly surprised! This one is a little different. The main character Juniper Jones (Jessy Schram) is an introvert. We're not talking "a little shy" like some of Hallmark's blushing maidens. We're talking full-on avoidance of human interaction whenever possible. Finally! A character I can relate to! The writing includes some very rapid-fire, very funny dialogue. I often had to back up my recording to make sure I heard what I thought I did: "How come everyone had a better time at my wedding than I did?!?" "Because you had a terrible date." "Oooh!" "Sorry." At this point, I knew I was onto a winner! If you have a sense of humor, give "Mystic Christmas" a shot. It had me laughing out loud in less than 5 minutes!

Having seen and enjoyed Jessy Schram in several other Hallmark movies, I was looking forward to this. However, I just couldn't get into this one at all. Her character wasn't particularly bad, but pretty much everyone in every scene talks so fast and frantically that virtual no interactions seemed natural. That was done by basically the whole cast which makes me think that the director told everybody to read their lines really fast. I assume that was supposed to make them all seem really quirky, but again, it just led to almost every interaction feel very unnatural. Also, the two romantic leads in this acted particularly uncomfortable around each other to the extent it felt like both were back in 6th grade when placed together. There was also one montage in a bookstore that was supposed to be funny and cute but was really painful to watch. Ultimately Jessy Schram was just passable in this and everyone else was basically a drag on this film. She has done much better in previous Hallmark films.