Displaying items by tag: Trevor Donovan

A LITTLE WOMEN’S CHRISTMAS

US, 2024, 84 minutes, Colour.

Jillian Murray, Trevor Donovan, Jen Lilley, Laura Osnes, Julia Reilly, Kyle Kupecky, Jesse Hutch, Brandon Clark, Gladys Knight.

Directed by Brandon Clark.

Louisa May Alcott’s 19th century story, Little Women, was a very American story, filmed many times since the 1930s. Here is an updated, 21^st-century, version of the Little Women as adults. And, it is very American. This is a film for what is called Middle America, ordinary citizens and families in their millions between the two coasts, living in small towns. It joins the very many films and telemovies with Christmas themes.

We know that Jo March had literary talent. In this version, she has published many children’s books and is trying to move into the YA, Young Adult market. The editor wants her to do a rethink about her writing. But, she goes home to the town of Alcott, Tennessee, to join with her sisters and friends in celebrating Christmas.

We see the older sisters, Meg married with a daughter, her husband on overseas service. Beth is a music teacher but has been laid off because of restrictions on arts teachers. Amy has applied for a scholarship for an arts course in Chicago. Laurie is working locally and is attracted to Amy. So, happy Christmas together – though, there are some difficulties but sadness will be overcome.

And there is Fritz, an editor with the publishing company, told by the editors go to help Jo rediscover her talents and guide her. He does not reveal himself at first, Jo obviously, falling in love, then disillusioned, and then all kinds of possibilities, literary and romantic.

The American audience tends to have a very sweet tooth as regards their romances and Christmas films, where Australians might take one lump of sugar for tea or coffee, the Americans take two. And the sweetness of this Christmas film, tears and smiles, is very much two – which means that it might be too much for audiences who are wary of sentiment, let alone sentimentality.

The film has a religious dimension, the family churchgoers, emphasis on the Nativity story, Christmas carols – and a guest appearance by Gladys Knight in her late 70s, the famous singer from Gladys Knight and the Pips.

TWAS THE TEXT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

US, 2023, 83 minutes, Colour.

Merritt Patterson, Trevor Donovan, Jayne Eastwood, Eric Peterson, Rob Stewart.

Directed by TJ Peacocke.

The title plays on the famous Twas The Night Before Christmas. A social media variation – where the leading lady, Addie, Merritt Patterson, a chiropractor in New York City, receives a mistaken text from a grandmother in Vermont, Nana. But, that\ey begin talking, friendship, and Addie going to Vermont for Christmas.

This is one of the many popular films for television with Christmas themes – and they are there in abundance. This film has the distinction of being G rated and so available without reserve to the widest audience.

It is all very familiar material with the variation on the texting. Those who make continual pleas for original material, not for them. For those who enjoy the conventions and the variations, the atmosphere of Christmas celebrations, romance, younger generations, older generations, this is the kind of film that is popular.

There are the romance themes, Adie and her being left by her longtime boyfriend and his getting engaged quickly, her friendship with Traci, fellow chiropractor, happily married, holidaying in Florida, always inviting Addie. The complication is that her mother has died, her brother works in Australia, her father, genial, spends one Christmas in Australia and the next with Addie in New York. Complications in Australia, and he accepting the invitation to Vermont, her going to Vermont and meeting the family, especially James, Trevor Donovan, who is a doctor in service throughout the year in South America.

Lots of family cheer, a very delayed romance and no really explicit acknowledgement of it until the last five minutes! But Nana, the grandmother, a bright Jayne Eastwood, is attracted to the widower who runs the local bed-and-breakfast.

While we can see what is coming all the time, the enjoyment is the looking forward to it and seeing how it all works out.

Very American Christmas, some carols in the background, the generic grace before meals, not a religious Christmas but a very humane one.