We are quickly introduced to Poppy, played by Nicky Whelan, the
owner of a struggling floral shop (I know, a florist named Poppy? How prescient of her mother.). Through a
chance collision she meets Garrett, played by Miles Fisher, the number two employee at Covington
Designs. Covington is the pre-eminent
flower shop in all of greater Santa Mesa and Poppy’s chief business competition. The attraction between the
two is obvious even as they go their separate ways (foreshadowing????). It turns out that Poppy inherited her shop from her
grandmother who actually named the shop, Poppy’s Petals, after her granddaughter. Unfortunately, the shop is underperforming and
Poppy giving away free flowers to the elderly (awwwww) isn't helping their bottom
line. They need clients and need them quickly!
Meanwhile at Covington Designs, Garrett is telling his boss
and business owner Blaire (Daphne Zuniga) that he expects to be given some stake
in the company or he’s leaving.
Eventually Garrett convinces Blaire to let him run the Covington entry
into this year’s world famous Santa Mesa Holiday Floral Show. If he wins, he becomes a partner and if he
loses, he does whatever Blaire wants for the next 5 years. Because of her financial woes, Poppy also
enters the competition hoping to earn the incredible grand prize award of $5000
to keep Poppy’s Petals afloat ($5K???
What is that, a few months rent?
Hell, her delivery van breaks down 9 times in this movie. I’m not seeing it).
Thus begins our adventure.
Guess who just happen to bump into to each other (literally) at the
Flower Competition? No, it’s not Woody
and Buzz Lightyear . . . Poppy and Garrett.
Of course, the sparks start right back up from their previous encounter. Poppy then makes the embarrassing mistake of talking
about Blaire Covington TO Blaire Covington (Despite the best efforts of Poppy’s
cute and loyal assistant Natalie – played by Julie McNiven). She also comes to find out that the handsome
stranger she talks about to Natalie and herself (i.e. the viewers) is the
floral arranger for the Covington Design entry.
We are also introduced to another one of the competition entrants. It’s a good rule of thumb that if the script
bothers to introduce any competitors it’s for a reason. Sure enough, after the initial judging Poppy,
Garrett and the Flower shop owners we met advance to the next round.
At the competition, Garrett finds out about Poppy’s
financial troubles and asks his best friend to throw some work her way. Poppy and Natalie are thrilled about landing a
big job from Garrett’s friend. At the
next level of the competition Garrett mentions the referral came from him. It was subtle and modest and didn’t come
across as, “Hey, I just wanted to get my due credit for sending you that work.”
but the end result was pretty much “I
just wanted you to know it was I who sent you that work.” Poppy is touched and appreciative for Garrett’s
assistance so . . . who says you can’t buy love anymore? Garrett convinces Poppy to go out to dinner
with him to celebrate making the finals should they both win. They do, so on to dinner they go.
Garrett arrives at Poppy’s house and is interrogated by
Poppy’s father while he waits (Ummm, quick mental note Garrett: your girlfriend
still lives at home and she’s probably . . . 30ish?). He handles the questioning pretty well and
exudes just the right amount of charm.
They talk at the house giving us more background on Poppy and her family
and then head to dinner. As prophesied by
the Christmas Movie Gods, the dinner is super romantic. The two leads have very good chemistry and
they end the night as all legendary floral couples do, making a flower arrangement
(How . . . quaint???). We also find out Garrett’s
background and how his degree is actually in Architecture (are there even degrees
in floral design?) and he has been Blaire right hand man for a dozen years.
So, things are going great right? Not so fast!!! All this smiling and prancing around the
office by Garrett has drawn the attention of Evil Queen Blaire who admonishes
Garrett for his lack of attention on the true goal . . . winning the Flower
Competition. I will now interject that I
don’t think ANY flower show outside of the one held at Disney World is a big
deal. And take the alcohol away from the
Epcot Flower and Garden Festival and you might as well replace it with the
North American Barn Painting Championships because no one is showing up. So, after Blaire lays down her concerns to
Garrett he responds essentially with, “Don’t sweat it Mom, it’s all good!!!”. As you
expect, this does not allay Blaire’s concerns.
Two things I learned from this movie is that Flower Show judges
aren’t that hard to read. If they are smiling
and nodding at you and each other when they look at your display, you are good to
go! If they are scowling, looking at
each other shaking their head . . . all the future flower competition dates you
reserved on your personal calendar have just freed up. The other thing I learned is no matter how
confident you are (pay attention Garrett) if your boss is anal and somewhat
sour in temperament, being dismissive is simply pulling a pin on a hand grenade
– Something bad is bound to happen.
Blaire responds by convincing Poppy that Garrett is secretly in love
with and destined to end up with his long-time friend who is her new big client. Poppy hears this at the client’s event and,
to make matters worse, the Grandmother who is the center of the event is
allergic to one of the plants she used in her place settings. Poppy then lashes out at Garrett for not
warning her about the allergy.
Poppy refocuses on winning the competition (remember, we’re
talking 5 THOUSAND big ones here). Car
trouble causes her to be late and nearly disqualified at the Flower
Finals. Garrett goes to look for her,
despite risking his own disqualification, and runs into her (AGAIN) as she
enters the setup area. Garrett professes
his innocence, Poppy believes him, he helps her carry in her supplies and they
both just reach the contest in time.
During the display creation, Garrett suffers a malfunction that can’t be
fixed because all of Covington’s craft materials have been packed up and returned
to their vehicles (just go with it).
Despite being his direct competition, Poppy runs over with the required
item in just the nick of time for Garrett to complete his arrangement. This display of good sportsmanship greatly impresses
Blaire and her small heart grew 3 sizes that day.
The winners are announced: Poppy wins (SURPRISE!), Blaire
fires Garrett (more on that later) and our two leads finally kiss. The new, kindler, gentler Blaire actually
fired Garrett to release him from their agreement (allowing him to go out on
his own). A final scene shows Garrett
and Poppy celebrating Christmas together with Poppy’s new bestie, Blaire,
stopping by to share the holiday with them.
The story was fine, both leads were charming and had good
chemistry. It was a simple, yet
effective story. I give this a 4.5 out
of 5.
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