This is a story about returning home after a long absence and remember those we love and finding out that reality is a little different.
Alicia Witt and Colin Ferguson are excellent together even though the story is more than just their relationship.
The makeup and hair were horrible. I don't understand how it could be so bad. Alicia's hair is often a mess. Colin frequently has a five-o'clock-shadow even early in the story's day. Actors have shiny noses.
Christmas on Honeysuckle Lane
2018
Action / Drama / Romance
Plot summary
Emma Reynolds is a newly minted junior partner with a New York City law firm and who followed in her father's footsteps career-wise, although Emma only knows her clients as faceless corporations, while her father, who had his own practice in the family's longtime hometown of Oliver's Well, Virginia with his friend and partner Joe, knew the names and faces of everyone with who he did business. Always too busy with work and now a bona fide big city girl, Emma has headed home to Oliver's Well this Christmas for the first time since law school, what could be considered one year too late as both her father and mother, Cliff and Caroline Reynolds, have passed away this year, meaning she didn't get that one last Christmas with them. Emma will be spending this Christmas with her Oliver's Well-based siblings, Andie, a successful novelist, and Daniel, a caterer, and their respective families as the three siblings will be closing up the family house on Honeysuckle Lane, including figuring out what to do with the family heirlooms and mementos, before putting the historic house and the appropriate other items on the market. The importance of this Christmas is honoring their parents' memory, they who loved Christmas and were each other's one true love for the duration of their fifty-three year marriage, it being love at first sight. Emma has come to town solo, delaying telling her siblings that she and her longtime boyfriend, cardiologist Ian Tillman, who they expected would be an imminent part of the family, have split. One of Emma's responsibilities ends up being to find someone to help them appraise the items in the house. Who Emma hires is ex-Harvard History professor turned antiques dealer Morgan Shelby, his hiring despite his and Emma's antagonistic first meeting. In going through specifically Caroline's antique Victorian desk - it where she used to hide many of Emma's Christmas presents - Morgan finds hidden some love letters written to Caroline from someone not Cliff - the letters signed "R.J." who apparently was engaged to Caroline before Cliff. Not wanting to upset the apple cart before knowing what it all means, Emma and Morgan, without telling either Andie or Daniel, go on a mission to discover who R.J. is and what he meant in Caroline's life. In going on this mission of discovery, both Emma and Morgan may come to some realizations about what they truly want in life, Emma's which includes facing the real reason she left Oliver's Well and which is made all the more difficult with something from her recent past following her to Oliver's Well.
Uploaded by: FREEMAN
Director
Top cast
Alicia Witt as Emma Reynolds
Colin Ferguson as Morgan Shelby
Kami Cotler as Townsperson
Laura Leighton as Andie
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB 799.01 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
Movie Reviews
Reviewed by
Remembering
Reviewed by
Run-of-the-millish BUT worth watching...
The story is average, but the two leads have an on-screen spark which makes this flick engaging.
What most impressed me was the beautiful house (where the story is mainly staged); and the overall Christmas decor/snow-laden setting (beautiful interiors with many trees & lights) which is sophisticated and understated - without an inflatable Snowman/Santa-Claus in sight.
Very pretty to look at - I've scored 7/10 for festive charm alone.
Reviewed by
Alicia Witt's embarrassment
Alicia Witt was spot-on perfect a few years back in "Merry Mix Up." She can act, as was particularly evidenced by the scene in which she was alone in a bathroom and had an emotional breakdown - it was subtle and very moving. Since then, her Christmas movies have gone downhill, mostly because she acts so goofy. What's with the overbaked facial expressions, weird voice inflections, and klutzy looking body movements ? This new movie is a good, solid, well-written story that keeps your interest. But, there are only three reasons to watch it :
1. Colin Ferguson (as Morgan) and the great Jill Larson (Opal of "All My Children") are very good, particularly Larson in a supporting role that is pivotal to the plot.
2. Witt's hair. In the first hour there is a scene where she stoops over to talk to some kids and her long hair completely covers her face. It's like the kids are talking to Cousin Itt from the Addams Family ! Then, in a longer scene, as she is performing, her hair hangs straight down, then its back behind her ears, then its behind her left ear only, no wait - now its straight down, nope - it's back behind both ears, yikes - now only the right side of her hair is behind an ear, now it's straight down again, etc.,etc. Does that hair move by itself you wonder ! This serious lack of continuity is hilarious - you got to see it to believe it. Plus, you can't understand how the director let this happen in the finished product ! The most blatant and continual lack of continuity I have ever seen in a film.
3. Witt's performance. During the first hour, she overacts beyond belief. At times, she gives these looks of horror or shock that are laughably inappropriate to what is going on in the scene. And her body movements are childlike or just plain clumsy. At the end of the hour, my wife said, "I think we are going to find out that her character has a mental problem - something disturbing happened to her." Seriously?! Ya think ?! But, Witt almost redeems herself in the second hour. She settles down, removes the distracting aqua blue nail polish that her character (an attorney) would never wear, pulls her hair back out of her face (per the frustrated make-up staff probably),and she seems to concentrate on what she is doing. She is actually quite good and heartfelt.
All in all, pretty entertaining and unintentionally hilarious. Can't wait until Witt's funny fiasco next Christmas. Who was it that said, "Always keep 'em laughing!".