Lifetime
It’s that time of year when Lifetime foregos the murder and crime thrillers and attempts to compete with Hallmark Channel’s ‘Countdown to Christmas’ movies under their own ‘It’s a Wonderful Lifetime’ banner. No more ‘Ripped from the Headlines’ — at least not for another month or so. The network’s first holiday movie of the 2024 season tries to one-up Hallmark by jetting across the pond to Jolly Olde England … except Hallmark got to Ireland a week earlier and gave us a much more engaging movie.
Christmas at Plumhill Manor finds workaholic Margot Stone (Maria Menounos) — she works in some kind of real estate acquisitions company — on the verge of finally taking a day or two off to spend the holiday with her gallivanting mother in Key West (mom is an artist and never plants herself in one place for too long, going wherever the mood takes her next). But out of the blue she is approached by a British gentleman who informs her that her English auntie has left her entire estate, Plumhill Manor, to Margot … who has no idea who this aunt is as they have never met (apparently her father was a favorite relative of hers, therefore the estate should go to his daughter). But the property comes with a condition — she must spend a week in the home before she can rid herself of the property. Her boss, Mr. Calvaux (Stewart Alexander), sees this as an opportunity for an acquisition in the English countryside for perhaps a hotel and other buildings on the property. Margot bails on her mother and heads to England to check the place out.
There she is greeted by Jackie (Caroline Colomei), her driver (and Jill of All Trades as she has a hand in practically everything in town and at the estate), who gives her the lay of the land. Heading into the local village for a couple of pints, Margot is introduced to Alfie (Kyle Pryor), a handsome local who supplied the pub with his homemade plum cider. Margot loves the cider but when Alfie learns who she is, they immediately butt heads because he knows ‘her type’, someone who is only there to destroy the estate and the town. They engage in a heated game of trivia and after Alfie departs, Jackie informs Margot that he actually makes the cider at Plumhill Manor, where his father is the gardener. Oops. As the two mend their fences, Margot begins to grow more fond of the home, especially as she learns more about her aunt and the history of Plumhill Manor. Mr. Calvaux is still interested to see what she thinks of turning the place into a commercial venture and schedules a walk-through with someone from the British office, but Margot is beginning to have second thoughts as she grows more attached to Plumhill Manor and Alfie. But she is shown the financials of the estate which the new owner would be saddled with and perhaps she isn’t as attached to the place as she thought she was. When Calvaux and company arrive, Alfie feels betrayed, but will the clues Margot’s aunt left around the house help her find a way to save the manor and her relationship with Alfie?
Lifetime
Christmas at Plumhill Manor is an aggressively pleasant holiday movie but it lacks some oomph. A lot of that can be attributed to star Menounos, who is gorgeous and can play herself wonderfully in other projects, doesn’t have a lot of range to sell the emotions Margot should have. Her performance is a bit one-note and she’s completely out-shined by the supporting cast. Kyle Pryor is fine as Alfie, showing a bit of fire going up against Margot, but his performance was likely impacted by being in almost every scene with Menounos. At least he has some spark. Caroline Colomei is the real star of the movie. Her Jackie is a hoot, getting the funniest lines, playing both a sidekick and confidant to Margot, showing a wide range of emotions. Can Hallmark snap her up to be the wacky friend of their stable of leading ladies? One performance that really grated was Stewart Alexander, giving off low-rent Patrick Bauchau meets Max Von Sydow. The movie could have done with a whole lot less of him (and he wasn’t in it that much). Carol Royle was also interesting as Margot’s mother, reminding me a lot of the wonderful Lois Nettleton.
The production design of Plumhill Manor certainly made it feel like a real manor (I’m almost certain it was filmed in a real manor and not on sound stages). It has a real lived-in feel to it which helps make Margot’s decision to probably sell to her company a logical one because it obviously is not her style and needs a ton of work. The weird part of the art direction was the attempts to make it feel like winter with the odd patch of snow here and there, or nowherer and suddenly the entire garden is covered (yet we never see it snow. Other than that, it all does have the feel of a real country village (which also means a lot of the colors are muted so nothing really pops).
The script by Avery Henry-Bailey and Megan Henry Herzlinger has fun with the ‘treasure hunt’ aspect of the story, even if the climax seems a little far-fetched (and if auntie knew of the thing that could save the manor, why didn’t she employ it before she died?). They obviously had a ball writing for Jackie. The direction by Brian Herzlinger is fine, getting the job done, but nothing special to give the movie more holiday zing. Christmas at Plumhill Manor might kick off the Holiday season on Lifetime, but we’re going to need a little or else we’re going to feel a little Grinchy.
Christmas at Plumhill Manor has a run time of 1 hour 30 minutes, and is rated TV-PG.
Christmas at Plumhill Manor – Promo
Playa Media Group
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