Christmas at Graceland (Spoilers)

As you can probably glean from the title, this movie takes place in Memphis, Tennessee and much of it revolves around the estate of the former “king of rock and roll”, Elvis Presley.  Kellie Pickler plays a Chicago financial executive, Laurel, who returns to her hometown for a week to negotiate a merger with a local bank.  Kellie displays her melodic voice and musical acumen on several occasions during the film.  Unfortunately, despite being a fine singer, she’s not much of an actress which negates any benefit of her singing talent.  Laurel is joined by her daughter, Emma (Claire Green) on her trip.  The beginning of the movie basically sets up that she is overworked and unable to spend as much time with her daughter as she would like.

When in Memphis she, literally, bumps into her old flame Clay (Wes Brown) in front of the Graceland Mansion.  Apparently, she and Clay used to be a musical act during their college years before breaking up.  Clay is now a concert promoter working out of Memphis.  They reconnect during her trip and both are (shockingly) single.  The other characters of note are Sally (Tamara Austin), Laurel’s old college friend, and Mr. Franklin (Tommie Cresswell), the bank owner that Laurel has been sent to negotiate with.

This movie is as full of Christmas and TV cliches as you can imagine.

• You have the greedy, work obsessed northern banker consumed with money and profit versus the kind hearted, country banker who cares more about reputation and his employees than financial reward.  
• The former loving couple in Clay and Laurel who, despite being separated for years, quickly reconnect and rekindle their old flame upon a chance meeting.  
• Two people traveling around a city of over half a million people who seem to constantly run into each other at various locations.  
• The successful but unhappy lead who leaves her hometown to pursue her career but upon returning starts to realize that her true place is back where she grew up.
• The former relationship of the leads ended when the parent of one of the characters dies.

Sally is Laurel’s black college friend, who also serves to watch Emma while Laurel is in town working.  Sally has a daughter of her own around the same age as Emma (and of course the two become best buddies in their week together).  In what has become common in these movies over the past few years, there seems to be a conscious decision to show diversity by casting minorities as best friends or secondary characters.  For this movie, Tamara seems to be the character of choice.  Alas, Sally’s screen time is limited and she is mostly relegated to lines stating how great it is to see someone, how they will miss someone or pointing out the obvious.  Still, Tamara was one of the more appealing characters in the movie and it’s too bad she couldn’t have been the lead and let Pickler fill the less demanding best friend role (Laurel could have been in town encouraging best friend Sally-Pickler to get on stage and perform for the Graceland concert).

Now there were things that really irked me in this movie (Warning: rant follows).  I’m familiar with Memphis and with Tennessee so when I saw the movie had snow on the ground everywhere I was pretty much . . . . “WTF?  Where is this movie supposed to be again?”.  First off, I can tell you with high confidence that it hardly ever snows in Memphis in December.  The odds of it snowing in December in Memphis are about the same as having an Asian cast as a lead character in one of these Christmas movies (i.e. It’s pretty rare).  Secondly, when it does snow it is not very much and it doesn’t stay on the ground long.  For there to be snow on the ground for a week as portrayed in this movie would mean freezing temperatures day and night for almost a week or more.  Even those occasional artic blasts that push into the southern states don’t just last forever.  The landscape of this movie is more like “The Day After Tomorrow” scenario where drastic weather change signifies the end of the world.  And I’m guessing that in a case like that, the Christmas concert would be cancelled in the evacuation.  Thirdly, since it doesn’t snow in Tennessee, the State DOT doesn’t invest in plows and other snow clearing equipment.  This means if it DID snow the city would essentially shut down to keep people off the roads.  People in the South don’t know how to drive in the ice and snow unless they are transplants from the North.  So from that aspect, this whole movie is total bullsh*t.  Once you get beyond these curious weather anomalies and the fact that Clay and Laurel have complete, unlimited and unaccompanied access to the Graceland Mansion to include entering the restricted areas and playing Elvis’s piano after hours . . . . it seems entirely believable.

I’m guessing that the Graceland Estate and the Guest House at Graceland hotel were sponsors for this movie because much of it seemed like a commercial for where to book lodging on your next trip to Memphis.  Let us talk about Laurel and Emma’s hotel room . . . . WOW.  It was either the Guest House equivalent of the Presidential Suite or this hotel is strictly for oil barons, hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and, of course, Chicago banking executives.  It’s unlikely any average traveler could afford to stay here if this is a typical room.  No wonder Chicago needs to layoff so many Memphis employees and slash benefits . . . . how else can they afford the local accommodations for business travel?  And if you stay at the Guest House you get your own personal concierge who will give you gifts and bring you cookies at any time of day and night!!!!  Plus, if you want to put up your own Christmas tree in your room (that you had hauled into your hotel from the tree lot) . . . .  NO PROBLEM!!!

The plot details are unimportant since the leads are so bland and there is no chemistry between them.  Wes Brown is the superior of the two leads since . . . well . . . he can act.  The story is just a vehicle to get them together and the crisis is caused by the common cliché of where the employee is called back early (before Christmas).  I guess employers constantly do this in Christmas movies because they discover the incredibly low last-minute fares for flying right before Christmas???  Laurel turns around and arrives at the Graceland Christmas concert (that she had backed out of at the last minute) and performs with Clay.  Even though it has to be below freezing (snow on the ground remember?), she performs in a low cut, sleeveless, red dress for the show.  Modern concert lighting must be lot hotter than I ever imagined.

Following the concert Mr. Franklin offers Laurel a job so she and Clay can now renew their bland, boring, unromantic relationship (YEEAAAYYY!!!).  This job offer is not due to her professional behavior, instead it is based on hearing her sing that Mr. Franklin becomes convinced she was a true Memphisite . . . Memphisonian . . . . Memphiser . . . ummmm . . . . southern girl.  I guess the innate knowledge of local barbecue and thick southern accent wasn’t enough to give it away.  Speaking of which, I understand that Laurel has a strong southern accent (despite living in the north for years) but what I don’t understand is why it is so noticeable in Memphis.  Shouldn’t the Memphis locals have the same accent she acquired growing up in Memphis?  (Answer: She’s probably the only actual southerner in the entire cast.  The rest are misappropriating southern culture!!!).

Save your time and money (even though it’s free).  There are better holiday movies around than this one.  I give it a 1 out of 5.