Lifetime
There are a whole series of films set in Black-owned beauty salons and barbershops, and Lifetime is cashing in on the genre with its latest holiday movie, A Very Merry Beauty Salon, which stars and is executive produced by Tia Mowry. Mowry stars as salon owner Sienna, whose business is thriving thanks to her and her expert team of stylists, Miss Kimmy (Cocoa Brown) and Ella (Ashli Auguillard). Sienna is also coming out of a romantic break-up which has left her with many walls around her heart. Her mother Georgia (Donna Biscoe) heads up a local committee that holds the Tinsel Ball every year, awarding those in the area for their selfless giving to the community. The organization was founded by her parents (Sienna’s grandparents), and this year Sienna is one of the honorees for her work in delivering hair care products — her own creations — to local shelters where hygiene products are desperately needed.
But the ball is facing some financial issues this year, but a new local business owner named Lawrence has stepped in to help fund this year’s event. It also gives him an opportunity to promote his wine business and his family’s own line of wines. Georgia is happy to take Lawrence’s money, but is more resistant to accepting any of his input two weeks before the event because, she claims, everything is already in place. She really is just offended that he seems to be using the event to promote his wine while thinking his money also entitles him to throw his weight around. She’s even more suspicious of him when she shows up at the salon and he’s already there chatting up Sienna, who feels an instant attraction to him. But Georgia believes he’s trying to use Sienna to get to her, but the poor guy didn’t even know the two were related. Georgia wants to set Sienna up with her friend’s son, who looks like a young Denzel (if you squint real hard), and Sienna’s co-workers are trying to set her up with Lawrence because they saw that spark when he walked in the salon. Even her best friend Kyle, who is choreographing the waltz for the ball, conspires to replace himself with Lawrence by faking in injury to his leg (which even Helen Keller could see was a ruse), and Georgia has an inexplicable about face and also thinks Lawrence is just what her daughter needs. Romance does begin to blossom between the two, but when Sienna overhears Lawrence having some heated words with someone on the phone, saying she ‘won’t be a problem’ by distracting him from promoting the business, all of her walls go back up and she insists that Kyle return as her dance partner. Can Lawrence — and everyone else — convince Sienna that love is not perfect, but not all men are her ex?
A Very Merry Beauty Salon is a mildly entertaining ‘holiday’ film — and putting it in the holiday category is a stretch because this story could have been set at any time of the year — that does manage to skillfully juggle several storylines outside of the main Sienna-Lawrence story. Sienna’s team at the salon also get to share in the spotlight with Ella’s boyfriend deployed overseas and expected home two days before the ball. But an unexpected event finds him called back to duty an unable to return, leaving her questioning if their love can withstand the distance. But … could he surprise her at the last minute? Miss Kimmy’s story centers around her life adjusting to the loss of her husband several months earlier, and a local restaurant owner obviously having eyes for her. Miss Kimmy is just not ready to move on, rebuffing all of his advances and even refusing to make her famous Christmas pies this year, something she and her husband did together every year. Can Sienna and Ella help her move past her pain?
Lifetime
All of the stories are intertwined very well, but there are a couple of moments that leave the viewer baffled. For instance, we never see the Denzel look-alike that Georgia mentions. Perhaps his presence could have been a better conundrum for Sienna instead of a misinterpreted phone call. Also, Georgia’s sudden about face on Lawrence comes completely out of nowhere. One minute she’s complaining about his supposed influence over the ball, and the next minute she’s agreeing with Kyle that Lawrence makes the perfect dance partner for her daughter, and even pushes her to let down her guard so he can romance her. She actually sees him as a decent person even though the two had butt heads days earlier. That was probably the biggest misstep in Tara Knight’s screenplay (either that or some story ended up on the cutting room floor).
What helps the film truly succeed are the performances. Mowry is excellent as Sienna with a very natural and realistic performance, totally making the relationships she has with her team feel like they have known each other for years, and making her heartache feel authentic. The script fails her a bit with her reaction to Lawrence’s phone call, and even at the ball she basically tells him she’s going to give him some space and in the blink of an eye she’s happily dancing with him when Kyle steps away. Despite the disjointed nature of the character, Mowry still makes it all feel right. Biscoe also has to contend with her character’s shifting attitudes, and it’s often hard to tell if she’s disgusted by or enamored with Lawrence. But she’s at least entertaining and knows how to throw shade and side-eyes. Auguillard and Brown work well together and with Mowry, but they too are given sudden character shifts that come out of the blue. Miss Kimmy suddenly decides she is going to make her pie to help Sienna woo Lawrence, and Ella barely gets to show much emotion when — spoiler alert — when her boyfriend does surprise her at the ball. Again, despite the shortcomings of the script, they still manage to give some nice performances. RonReaco Lee is fine as Lawrence and he has a nice scene with Mowry talking about the wine and his aspirations, but he isn’t given the chance to make Lawrence compelling enough for the audience to root for him to win over Sienna.
The film is well-directed by Bobby Yan, whose main output has been crime thrillers, but it still feels like pieces of the story are missing which may not be his fault. Overall, A Very Merry Beauty Salon is a fine addition to the ‘beauty shop’ genre that does not need the trappings of a ‘holiday film’. The sometimes perplexing story is buoyed by a very fine cast which help make the film more watchable than it could have been with lesser talent. But is it something to go on a perpetual holiday watch list? Unfortunately, this one is not going to become a classic Christmas movie.
A Very Merry Beauty Salon has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-PG.
A Very Merry Beauty Salon Trailer
Lifetime
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