Bradley Walsh

(On TV, November 2021) Cinema, most of the time, aims to share its values with the widest possible audience. The morality of mainstream film is basic, uncomplicated and comforting in its obviousness. But, from time to time, audiences may have their own idiosyncratic reactions to innocuous fare, and as Christmas Encore unspooled, I felt myself annoyed that the heroine was making all the wrong choices. Of course, this is a Christmas film, and a Hallmark Christmas film at that — realism or even pragmatism are not part of its vocabulary. So when, in the opening moments, we see a young woman (Maggie Lawson, only slightly better than Hallmark heroines usually are) clearly having no success at all as an aspiring actress in Manhattan, an offer from a best friend (the very cute Mercedes de la Zerda) to get a safe corporate job back home in Chicago seems like the obvious choice — you go, girl, have a nice life and make your own happiness. But no: this is a film about art and following dreams and chasing the dragon of success atop the boom-and-bust model of fickle theatrical productions. (It gets worse once the financial backer of her latest production pulls out, putting the entire thing in jeopardy, at which point we’re all there shouting, “TOLD YOU SO.”)  One more thing that doesn’t work in Christmas Encore’s favour is that it has so little going for it in terms of direction, dialogues or acting that even milquetoast objections loom larger and more crucial. Of course, it all gets resolved at the end — her colleague turns into a lover, her uncaring patron turns out to be generous (one last time?), the play is a success and nobody dwells on how it’s all to be repeated as soon as the seasonal production wraps up (especially since we get very few hints as to her longevity in a business where young actresses go out of style very quickly). Yes, I know: The point of such romances is to avoid thinking about any complications. Even an actress coming up with a Christmas play concept after Thanksgiving is somehow not a problem. But Christmas Encore doesn’t have the spark needed for such a sleight of hand. The protagonist isn’t the only one making all the bone-headed choices:  The romance is perfunctory, the lead actor feels bored, director Bradley Walsh’s execution is unremarkable and the entire thing is far closer to annoyance than innocuousness. In the absence of anything interesting, even the usual flaws of its subgenre become surprisingly effective irritants.