Ten minutes into watching Angel Falls A Novel Holiday, I realized I had made a mistake. By then, I had already typed out the topic on the draft, bringing the would-be post down and moving on to other endeavors is not exactly who I am or who I want people to think I am or who I want to risk becoming by so doing, so I forced myself to sit through the 80-plus minutes that made up the movie. It was a rough time. I know I have not been a good person, at least, not all the time. If this movie was the gods trying to punish me, I must say they did a fine job. I finished the movie feeling sorry for myself. Feeling punished.
“Angel Falls A Novel Holiday” is a Hallmark TV Original movie. According to Wikipedia, Hallmark Original movies are “family-friendly and inspirational, ranging from holiday-themed films to westerns” so I understand where they’re coming from. And I also understand how watching this made me feel.
You can say that romantic movies are not my thing and you are correct. See, I am not obsessed with romantic movies but I am a reasonable young man. I can tell a good movie irrespective of genre. I watched “Hitch” in 2005 or 2006 and watched “Deliver Us From Eva” in 2011 and I still remember them because they were really good. “Angel Falls A Novel Holiday” is not even a romantic film; it is supposed to be a film about Christmas, about community, and about the world of novels and publishing. But I am not buying, this is all about Hannah (Jen Lilley) and Ryan (Carlo Marks) and their connection.
How tall is The Rock?
Ryan returns to Angel Falls for Christmas where he meets his late mother’s friend who has kept in touch and is his major link between his memory of his time here while he has been away. This woman has a beautiful daughter Hannah and they together run their small publishing outfit. Happy to be in town with the Christmas fever pitch high, Ryan decides to help the business and so doing becomes very close to Hannah who used to be his rival.
Now, this is where it gets annoying. The whole thing is so artificial. Hannah is beautiful, kind, unsure of herself, brilliantly helpless, and single. Ryan is super smart, handsome, thoughtful, kind, and single. They like each other, can’t stop looking for excuses to be in each other’s company, always have lighthearted banters and generally been buddies. We have seen this before, we have seen this before, we have forking* seen this before.
But the writers and Director Jonathan Wright are not dumb so they added a subplot to the show, they included the story of Rita Finnegan played by Rachael Crawford. Tina is a popular novelist who is in Angel Falls because she is grieving her recently deceased husband, choosing Angels Falls because her late husband grew up here and coming here for Tina is her way of trying to reconnect with her husband as she tries to spend her first Christmas without the man she married and had loved for years. Tina stays in Ryan’s family house which Ryan is reluctant to visit because of the memories of his late family. Tina’s story concept is interesting.
About Card B’s feet
But the makers of “Angel Falls A Novel Holiday” mess up with Tina’s arc by making it a tool in the hands of the sanctimonious lovers. Hannah is star-struck and selfish as she wants to be in the good books of Tina and publish Tina’s good books. As for Ryan, it is about impressing his crush and exercising his irresistible-in-small-towns charms and feeling good about himself.
At the end of the day, Tina is happy and Romeo and Juliet are in each other’s hands.
Should I watch Angel Falls A Novel Holiday?
You ask. Well, go and watch the movie. I suffered and you, too, should have the honors. Don’t get it wrong, I do not hate you and I do not want you to suffer. The Christmas angle was good, most of the time, if it is your thing. I felt the director should have explored more of the carols. What did we get instead? Christmas trees and Christmas lights all over the places – and Christmas carol played on the piano as the soundtrack which was good at first but which became a fly at siesta.
Mercifully, the film is short, just 80 minutes in length. Go see the movie. I may be running my mouth because of my dislike for romances, so you can’t take my words for it. I watched this film on my laptop with soccer happening on TV overhead the laptop and with my phone in my hand scrolling through stuff. It helped me get through this movie. You should make your own plan. I hope you ignore this advice. I hope you suffer.
Image source: Heavy.com
*The new spelling of that French word
