Baxter (David Blue) is a photographer struggling to both keep his car running and earn a living. While at the mall with his brother he enters a contest and wins a new Corvette. Not wanting to give up his unreliable car due to sentimental reasons (it was given to him by his father) he decides to take cash value instead of the new Vette. His fiancé, Audrey (Melanie Recker), is ecstatic as they can now afford a nice honeymoon and better wedding. They go out to dinner to celebrate. While at dinner Audrey discusses expanding the wedding with the extra money until the waitress accidentally spills steak sauce on her new dress. Audrey is furious and the evening ends. Before leaving Baxter finds the waitress crying and in an act of kindness leaves her a large tip.
The next day at the Mall he overhears a grandmother bemoaning the fact that she can’t afford to pay for her grandchildren’s toys and the store won’t allow partial payments (I’m not sure I even understand what a partial payment is and how it differs from layaway.). Feeling generous Baxter decides to pay off the remaining amount on not just her but all the toys being held by the store for people (A total of over $4,400). When asked who they should say paid off the toys, Baxter does it under the pseudo name Lucky the Elf. Still high on the spirit of giving he decides to take a homeless man he finds sitting outside the mall to lunch. He finds out that he is living in a storage facility and is hiding that fact from his family. Baxter decides to buy the man a mattress and some bedding to make his life more comfortable. Baxter’s only request is that he takes a photo of the man holding a picture of him and his late wife. He again goes by the name Lucky the Elf.
He goes home and tells Audrey about his interaction with the homeless man and the toys. Audrey expresses disappointment that he is spending so much money without even discussing it with her. As she leaves to drop off gifts at her brother’s, Baxter sees a news piece on “Lucky the Elf”. While doing a photo shoot at the ice rink for some figure skaters, Baxter spots Westin (Jax Connolly) at the rink sitting by himself and learns that he loves hockey and has asked Santa for skates and gear because his mother can’t afford to buy it herself. That night Baxter makes a “Lucky the Elf” visit and drops off hockey gear for Westin. Westin’s mom, Pamela (Ashley Jones) finds the gifts and they open them in the living room with Baxter taking pictures from his car (Yeah, it does sound a bit creepy but let’s ignore that). Suddenly, Baxter realizes his car won’t start (It’s 14 years old, it costs more to fix than a new car would cost . . . there is a fine line before sentimentality becomes stubborn idiocy and I think he’s already crossed it.) and has to be picked up by his brother (again).
The next day Baxter arranges for a tow truck to pick up his car when he notices Westin wearing his new hockey gear walking out of the house. Baxter follows the boy and takes pictures of him on a nearby lake (Again, sounds creepier than it is) when Westin falls, hits his head and loses consciousness. As Baxter attends to the boy and calls 911 the ice begins to crack so he pulls him to the shore. Later Pamela arrives and thanks Baxter for saving Westin. Baxter feels guilty that his gift led to the incident. Later that night Pamela tucks in Westin, who has been released from the hospital and is fine, when she learns that Westin had previously seen Baxter at the skating rink (Wes calls him the 'camera guy'). While you might think she would start to put together the connection between the rink, the gifts, Baxtor just happening to be around . . . nope, instead she only wants to reach out to Baxter to thank him for saving Westin.
While at the mall with his brother (yet again), Baxter receives a call from Pamela asking him to come to dinner to thank him for saving Westin. Baxter agrees. Later the homeless man accuses a guy who is pretending to be Lucky the Elf as being a fake. That night Audrey gives him a gift which turns out to be a camera lens that Baxter has been wanting. She then comments that everyone needs a hobby (kind of an interesting comment since photography is his primary and ONLY job). Baxter then gives her his gift which is a replacement dress for the one she had ruined at their recent dinner. He also gives her a photo of a bird that is just like the one they saw on their walk before he proposed to her. He is disappointed that she doesn’t remember the bird, even though it seems like an incidental note to the more important event of that walk (Remember that walk when we saw that bird? I think it might have been the one I proposed on, I'm not really sure. But the Bird!!!). Audrey seems saddened that there is nothing else for her but Baxter reminds her they decided not to exchange gifts this year. He seems to conveniently ignore the fact that the decision was made because they were cash strapped before their wedding and it was prior to his prize winnings. Not to mention that he’s constantly telling her about all the thousands of dollars he is dropping on complete strangers and then gets her a new, clean version of a dress she already owned and a photo that only has sentimental value to him (Plus, you are a photographer for cripes sake!!! It’s like a pastry chef giving a pie to his wife for her birthday.).
Baxter goes to Pamela’s for dinner with her and Westin. They talk about Westin’s love of hockey and Pamela’s jewelry making hobby. Baxter takes some photos of Westin wearing his hockey gear. This ends up leading Westin to discover the other photos on his camera that show Baxter is Lucky the Elf. Westin then blackmails Baxter to teach him how to skate and play hockey or he will expose his secret (I guess it proves that you can do morally and ethically questionable things as long as you are young and cute). After practicing with Westin the next day, he again blackmails Baxter to take him to the mall and see Santa (but he’s sooooooo cute!!!). His trip to see Santa is to change his Christmas wish from hockey gear (which he already has) to craft materials Pamela can use to make her jewelry. Also to let Santa know where to leave their gifts since they won’t have a tree.
When Baxter drops off Westin be brings a new Christmas tree and stays to help decorate it. He and Westin bond over making decorations while Pam makes cookies. When tucking in Westin, Baxter gets a hug and promises to help Westin find a gift for one of the young figure skaters at the rink. Then talking to Pamela, he finds out that Westin’s father died 5 years prior (Okay wait, how does your girlfriend not care that you are gone all these evenings hanging out at another woman’s house with her and her kid?). The next day, Baxter brings Westin a gift ornament to give to Kyra, the figure skater. Westin then tells Baxter to date his mom because he makes her happy (Awww . . . the little homewrecker is soooooo cute!) but Baxter admits he can’t because he’s already engaged.
The next day Baxter drops off a special ornament for Pamela’s tree to replace one that she found broken when they were decorating a few days ago. While putting it up she moves in for a kiss but Baxter tells her that he’s engaged. Pamela is embarrassed (I guess the fact Baxter kept coming around her house all the time gave her the mistaken impression that he didn’t have a girlfriend, let alone a fiance. Who would have thought it?). At the rink Westin gives Kyra the gift and she accepts it happily. When Baxter arrives home he finds an angry Audrey who has discovered that Baxter has spent over $22,000 on his charitable gifts (Holy, crap . . . $22K??? How many people is he giving gifts to?). Audrey says that he cares more about giving money to other people than using it for them and their new life (and she has an excellent point, bird photo Christmas gift aside.). She gives the engagement ring back to him and storms out. Baxter is then at a bar with his brother where he is told that Audrey and him were never a good match and sometimes money just shows people their true nature (I ain’t saying she’s a Golddigger, but she ain’t messing with no broke . . . .). The next day at the mall the homeless man outs Baxter as Lucky the Elf (thanks homeless Joe!). Which exposes him to Pamela and everyone else. The next day at the rink, Pamela dresses Baxter down for making her and her son one of his charity cases. Baxter wants to explain over dinner but Pamela will not have it (I’m sure the whole dinner date invitation sounds shady considering the last thing he told her was that he was engaged.). Unable to have dinner with Pamela he does the next best thing . . . . a pizza dinner with homeless Joe in his storage unit. Homeless Joe tells Baxter he needs to fight for what he loves.
The next morning while leaving for work, Audrey stops by and says she wanted to see him and talk. She says she was angry and upset but was thinking about all the people he had helped with those gifts and shouldn’t have reacted the way she did. In response, Baxter says she was right and he doesn’t want to marry her anymore. He smiles in relief and then brushes her off as he goes to work. **Ummm . . . excuse me, writers, is Baxter supposed to be a likeable character in this movie?** He goes to his photo shoot at the Church play where Westin is performing in. Westin confronts him, angry that everyone knows his secret about being Lucky. Baxter then tells Westin it wasn’t his fault and he’d like to date Pamela (Does it seem a bit inappropriate to discuss your intentions about a woman with her a 8-10 year son? Even if he did make the original suggestion that you two date.). Baxter sees Pamela and goes to talk to her. She asks him what he is doing there (he told you he was shooting this show 4 days ago. You told him you were very excited because Westin would be in it. How is it a surprise to see him here?) and refuses to have a conversation with him.
The play begins and Westin notices that Baxter is not with his mother. Westin decides to take things into his own hands and grabs the microphone from another girl (So this kid who was too scared to give a gift to an 8 year old figure skater now has the courage to talk in front of a crowded audience.). This forces Baxter to address the crowd and tell everyone that he really is 'Lucky' and he didn’t mean to hurt Pamela. He says he found happiness as Lucky in making others happy but then found happiness as Baxter with Pam and Westin. He then hands Pam a gift of a ceramic wise man for her nativity display at home (hers was missing). Then he tells her that he’s not engaged anymore. Suddenly Pamela jumps up and asks, “because of me???”. They quickly profess their love and all is well. So, essentially, can I assume that if he had just led off with, “I broke off my engagement.” that they could have had this conversation at any time? Even back at the skating rink? The next scene is Westin waking up on Christmas. Wes goes downstairs to see his mother and Baxter there with cinnamon rolls. In the last scene of the film they are all at another gallery showing where Baxter is displaying photos of the gift recipients from 'Lucky' in his collection. The End.
This is one of the more gritty and realistic holiday movies they make these days. It doesn't follow the Hallmark movie formula. The budget is lower (hell, almost every other scene was either at his house, her house, the skating rink or the mall). David Blue does a serviceable job as Baxter but his character was written in a way to make him too unlikable. They tried to make Audrey’s character unsympathetic, but it wasn’t enough to change the bottom line of the plot – Baxter was engaged, found someone better, built an emotional connection to another woman behind his fiancé’s back and then, after a justified overreaction on her part from his spending their savings, ditched her. Are we supposed to believe that if Pamela hadn’t shown any romantic interest in Baxter, if it was simply platonic from her or she was already happily in another relationship, that he still would have dumped Audrey? And this is supposed to be the film’s hero? Ashley does was good as Pamela and Melanie Recker did a fine job playing a selfish Audrey who was still appealing enough that we could see why Baxter was attracted to her. I feel like this film would have been so much better without all the conflicts created by the sloppy plot. I give it a 2.5 out of 5.
0 comments:
Post a Comment