jagough49 Review of My Christmas Love

My Christmas Love (2016 TV Movie)

The Mystery of the secret giver of gifts from the Twelve Days of Christmas

[10/10 · 30 December 2017]

Cynthia is a small-town girl living away from home in a big town. She is a children's book author, having published several titles about a character called "Felicia": the next book is due with a looming deadline. Her illustrator colleague and friend, Liam (who sometimes describes Cynthia as "his boss"), is secretly in love with her. As Christmas approaches, Cynthia's boyfriend dumps her, giving her a goodbye-Christmas present of two Christmas tree ornaments: a pair of white doves. Meanwhile, her older sister, Janet, who lives at home, is getting married on or very close to Christmas, so Cynthia goes home, with Liam in tow, to work together on the book, and, suddenly single, as Cynthia's partner for the wedding. Cynthia's father, Tom, is a widower, although it is unclear how recently his wife died. Their marriage had a romantic intensity that Janet and Cynthia recognise, and Cynthia hopes to find in her life. But Janet, having seen what the loss meant to her still-grieving father, tries to avoid romantic events, and is marrying a seemingly strait-laced accountant, with the plainest of ceremonies, and no honeymoon away from her family home. While driving from the city to her small home-town, Cynthia meets her first boy-friend, Scott, now a town policeman, and still interested in her. Later, as Cynthia begins to decorate her family home for Christmas (something her mother used to do with gusto, but that Janet and their father, Tom, have not considered this year, because it would remind them too much of their loss), she meets another old boy-friend at the Christmas tree and wreath shop. Then, suddenly, a small van comes to the family house, a Christmas-dressed woman gets out, sings the first line of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and gives a partridge in a pear tree (in a cage) to Cynthia, apparently. (Instantly, Cynthia, the romantic, believes it is meant for her.) There is an unsigned mysterious note attached to the cage. Cynthia is intrigued, believing she may have a secret admirer. Days pass, and the presents from the "Twelve Days of Christmas" continue to be delivered, line by line. (The "six geese" are embroidered images on cushions. The "seven swans" are seven bottles of champagne with swan-logos on their labels. The milkmaids are like movie extras in costumes, as are the maidens dancing, the lords a-leaping, the pipers piping - Tchaikovsky's "Chinese Dance" from "The Nutcracker" and drummers drumming.) After the first two gifts arrive, Cynthia sets out to solve the mystery. Investigating close to home, she discovers that the matronly owner of the local pet shop knows nothing about the partridge or turtle doves. But it is obvious she is very fond of Cynthia's father. After other attempts also fail to discover the source of the gifts, Cynthia decides it must be Scott, the policeman, and she agrees to begin going on dates with him. Along the way he implies that he is actually the gift-giver - although towards the end it is revealed he doesn't know the song properly, and Cynthia, outraged, promptly dumps him. Meanwhile, from the outset, Cynthia's father sees how Liam feels, and how Cynthia ignores this, and he indirectly tries to get each of them to realise how they feel about each other. After several other complications within the family, and with Liam, when the twelfth gift is delivered, the note reveals that the twelve days of gifts have all been arranged by Cynthia's mother, before she died, as a demonstration to her husband that romantic fancies are important. The final note, a thoughtful letter to her husband, explains this. Fortunately, Cynthia comes to her senses, and professes her love to Liam, and he reveals his feelings, also, and several other romantic threads are also warmly (however predictably) tied up during the dancing after Janet and Roger's wedding. A nice film with several touching, unpredictable moments, and considerable heart-warming whimsy. (Cynthia's voice and zaniness may take some getting used to, as initially she seems to be channelling a blend of Meg Ryan and Zooey Deschanel - but eventually it is just part of her zestful character!)