Though yesterday's festive flick was a bit of a letdown, much better is 2017's A Rose for Christmas , largely due to another smashing performance from Rachel Boston. This time it’s the world of Christmas parade float building that we’re given an all access pass to, in director Kevin Fair’s breezy, unchallenging effort. Boston is Andy, a California native whose family has built specially commissioned floats for the annual Rose Parade for generations. When her dad gets sick, she’s forced to dig deep and supervise the construction of this year’s float without him, while dealing with the bothersome but attractive businessman whose company commissioned it. Marc Bendavid is dry, sulky number cruncher Cliff, who can’t be bothered with all this float making business, but who will surely have his soul charmed by the spunky, can-do attitude of never-say-die Andy.
This has a few neat moments, like Andy and Cliff’s Flashdance-esque meet-cute when he barges into her warehouse expecting to meet a guy and she takes off her welder’s helmet with a little hair-swish sexy reveal flourish. It's made all the better when she quizzes him, “did your parents name you Cliff because they wanted to push you off one?” Miaow! Boston is more of a ballbuster in this one and it makes for some spicy chemistry.
This film makes me think though that it’s a bit sad that, even when presenting us with fiery, attractive independent women like Andy, Hallmark still constantly hammer home the message that women need men to be happy. Andy is full of piss and vinegar, armed with pithy put-downs, but at the end of the day she is still a lonely girl who “needs to get back out there,” with a hunky but pretty square bloke waiting in the wings to ever-so-gently sweep her off her feet. Cliff is, of course, shown to have an innate sweetness, but he also says naff stuff like “Christmas for me is the day the stock markets close.” You feel Andy could do better.
We get some reasonable laughs as the volunteers drafted in to design and decorate the flower-enfolded float are a diverse, motley bunch. One is colourblind and, more humorously, another is allergic to flowers, but the point of the whole thing is that everyone is passionate about doing a good job against all the odds.
It's unintentionally hilarious then, that the team’s finished float is a bit crap-looking. It’s interesting to see the effort that goes into making these things and a lot is made of all the hydraulics, mechanics and swivelly science involved in making the float’s huge centrepiece’s head turn. So, it’s pretty funny too that at the film’s finale, the head doesn’t seem to move at all. Ah well.
That’s hardly the point though. This is a story about plucky underdogs pulling together to achieve something I’ve never seen in a film before, so respect to them for that. There are loads of fascinating float-crafting montages and an inspired part where, in snowless California, the gang have a ‘flower-petal fight.’ Stuffy Cliff gets in touch with his artistic side and learns to loosen up and live, while Andy learns to lead and be more confident without the guidance of her dad. Oh, and they fall in love.
But you already knew that.
Commentaires