For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. This year, such plans will have changed for individuals not living with the people they often spend time with during the holiday season, and curfews and lock-downs have forced movie theaters to close. However, this shouldn’t stop us from enjoying holiday movies with friends and family.
During the month of December, therefore, the Falls Free Press will present “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2020—a year that can do with plenty of spirit. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch it.
As already seen in A Princess Switch: Switched Again, there is rarely a truly original idea in a Christmas movie. While that pair of movies remade The Prince and the Pauper, Dolly Parton’s newest holiday jamboree, Christmas on the Square, takes on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Story, a story that has been used possibly as many times as there have been Christmases since Dickens’ demise. Unfortunately, when there are repeated versions of the same story, some aren’t always the greatest. With 25 songs, all written by star and recent COVID-19 vaccine-funder Dolly Parton, this musical adaptation holds up to neither its source materials nor the herald angel that is Parton.
Christine Baranski plays Regina Fuller, a young, cold hearted entrepreneur who returns to her hometown of Fullerville after the death of her father and her inheritance of the town. This unlikely ownership is the first ridiculous downside to the film’s plot; after all, even the Walton’s didn’t own Walton’s Mountain. Upon gaining the deed to the town, Regina sells it to a giant shopping mall, evicting every citizen and person she once called a friend. Remedying this situation becomes the job of two angels, Dolly Parton and her angel-in-training, Felicity (played by Jeanine Mason). Influencing Regina to change involves many tasks, including directing her to a pub where a young child is bartending, causing a car accident that places that child in a coma, and forcing Regina to recall when she gave birth as a teenager to a child that was given up for adoption, only to later learn the child’s identity as an adult.
Focusing on this plot alone (with several musical numbers sprinkled throughout) would produce a magnificent holiday film. Sadly, there a far too many additional characters and plots scattered about, a majority of which are never concluded, as once Regina returns the town to its residents as the film ends. This is made even more confusing with songs that are hardly memorable and have nothing to do with the story at hand. Considering how quickly the story races through its look at Regina’s life, this is probably for the best; however, aside from her father’s ill temper about her pregnancy, no evidence is ever shown for why she hates his legacy and prefers to sell the town, even though she knows everybody so well that she receives home visits from the town beautician.
It is even more unfortunate that all filming occurred on a sound stage. something that is evident in the opening number in town square, which looks more like a high school theater production than a professionally filmed musical starring Dolly Parton, the queen of country music.
If you are a fan of Parton’s music and hope to hear her harmonious voice throughout the film’s soundtrack, Square might be worth checking out, but only with proper warning to watch in segments to prevent extreme confusion.
Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square is available to watch on Netflix.
