Lifetime
Of all the Lifetime ‘It’s a Wonderful Lifetime’ Christmas movies broadcast this year, Engaged by Christmas is the one that feels like it could actually be a Hallmark Channel movie due to its more lighthearted storyline and charming cast. The story concerns a young woman named Zoe, who works for an ‘engagement coordinator’ (someone who helps stage lavish proposals for their clients) but is ready to launch her own blog and event planning business because there are so many people getting engaged in her charming town that she just needs a break. Zoe herself is planning to be engaged by Christmas but isn’t sure how to broach the subject with her boyfriend so she seeks advice from the local newspaper’s columnist Aunt Adora. The advice she gets to just be straightforward with the boyfriend backfires spectacularly and Zoe ends up single instead of on the path to wedded bliss.
What’s a girl to do? Why march on over to the newspaper’s offices to confront Aunt Adora but when she gets there the only person in Adora’s office is a hunky man named Adam. He tries to insist that Adora is out for the day and completely unavailable in person but Zoe finally puts two-and-two together — Adam is Adora. This completely rocks her world because she thought she was getting advice from a kind old lady, and now that Adam’s advice has blown up her plans she wants to hold him responsible, insisting that he help her with her blog launch by participating in her ‘Twelve Dates of Christmas’ column, or she exposes him as Aunt Adora (it should be noted that Adam is also a licensed therapist so the advice he gives isn’t just from the heart). Adam reluctantly agrees, and as the days go on they both begin to see that they can help each other. Adam even goes so far as to offer to promote Zoe’s new business in the Aunt Adora column, while Zoe offers him the advice to stop doing the column because it’s consuming so much of his time — even for questions not published he still responds by email — that he has no life for himself. That’s easier said than done because Adora was actually his aunt, and he took over when she passed away so letting the column go would be like a final goodbye to her. Romantic sparks are also beginning to form, but when Adam loses track of time and apparently stands up Zoe for Day 11’s homemade dinner, she puts the breaks on everything and tells him he doesn’t need to help her finish the project. Over-react much? Adam feels terrible and wants to make amends, but with someone so hyper-focused on perfection he finds that one moment of imperfection may have scuttled the relationship they both felt was going in the right direction. Can Zoe’s friends talk some sense into her and make her realize that no one is perfect but Adam is perfect for her?
Engaged by Christmas is pretty delightful right from the start. The tone is immediately set by the wonderful performance of Brittany Bristow. She’s focused and driven, but she’s also passionate about love, and she always has a positive attitude even when things don’t go as she’s planned … and she plans everything. But she’s not so uptight that she’s unlikable. Bristow has to balance Zoe’s high-strung persona carefully, showing us that she is also a warm romantic at heart, and she loves giving others the romantic moments of their dreams just as she wants for herself. She’s also funny, and even when she shuts down on Adam we still want her to snap out of it because their entire romantic journey is a completely engaging one for the audience. Marcus Rosner is also excellent as Adam (and is also a producer on the film). He’s gorgeous, he’s a hunk, but he’s not a bro-type, he has a heart and feelings, and he also cares about helping others. Even as he’s feeling backed into a corner by Zoe, he still agrees to help her and their camaraderie leads to feelings that just develop naturally. Through his performance, it never feels forced and he allows us to feel his heartbreak when Zoe cuts things off. Both actors are just superb and make us believe they are falling in love in the most subtle of ways.
Bristow and Rosner are also surrounded by a wonderful supporting cast including Michael Lazarovitch as Adam’s friend and co-worker Nate, who has been trying to get Adam to quit the Aunt Adora column, then warns him not to get involved with Zoe but eventually sees that Adam is falling for her and pushes him to take the next step; Colette Nwachi as Zoe’s bestie Lauren, who comes to stay with Zoe while she recovers from her break-up and keeps trying to bake gingerbread cookies that go from bad to worse; and Megan Tracz as Zoe’s other bestie and former co-worker Emma, a ball of neuroses who finds herself even more over-worked when Zoe quits her job, and is constantly worried about her boyfriend’s odd behavior thinking he’s going to dump her like Zoe’s boyfriend did to her (of course, even though we never really see the guy until later in the movie it’s obvious why he’s acting strange). All of the co-stars do some great work and help prop up the performances of the stars.
The script by Emily Duncan and Olivia Hannah is delightful with some good dialog and situations that make the entire story feel believable. Dylan Pearce’s direction is never flashy but also tells the story in an authentic way while drawing excellent performances from the cast. The cinematography, art direction and set design all add to the charm of the story, and the location chosen for filming is the most lovely winter setting you’ll see in a holiday movie, with actual ‘snow’ — and a lot of it — falling on the actors instead of something superimposed over the shots (as Hallmark did with rain in Happy Howlidays when neither the ground nor the actors were getting wet). It all comes together to make Engaged by Christmas a magical romantic experience. Lifetime has rolled out several Christmas movies to compete with Hallmark during the season and while they have been a mixed bag, the network definitely saved the best for last.
Engaged by Christmas has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-PG.
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