Today's movie is the first to acknowledge and explore another all-important element of the festive experience – the lavish department store Christmas window display. I don’t consider the season has truly begun until I see the eye-catching displays in John Lewis, House of Fraser and the like, and lockdown has cruelly robbed me of that pleasure. Three cheers then for 2013’s Window Wonderland, a fun little tale of warring New York City window-decorators. Chyler Leigh is Sloan, a shop worker who takes her window dressing work very seriously. Paul Campbell is Jake, a fast-talking bohemian motormouth who makes things up as he goes along. They become rivals for a coveted role in a swanky store and naturally annoy the hell out of each other. It’s like they’re total opposites, and yet…could romance be in the air? What do you think?
Michael M. Scott's film offers insight into another interesting profession we don’t tend to see much about on screen, except for maybe in Mannequin. However, the way the Christmas-shopping public are portrayed as being in total gasping awe of the displays is wholly unconvincing and quite funny.
Sloan and Jake share amusing banter as they bicker and quarrel, and Campbell stands out as a Hallmark love interest who for once isn’t simply a handsome do-gooder. Jake is more of a cheeky, smart-talking, oafish rogue in the Vince Vaughn mould and is also homeless and secretly living in the shop, so he’s a nice change from the torrent of implausibly perfect prettyboys.
It's the most fun non-fantasy Hallmark film I’ve watched so far and has a few great comedy moments and some arresting visuals. It’s also the film that introduced to me the concept of ‘Tur-dunkin’ – Turkey fried in Dunkin Donuts batter. I’m not making this up – google it, it looks awesome.
Comments