“Christmas in the Heartland” was originally titled “The Christmas Trap” or vice versa. The plot is similar to lots of other movies. “Heartland” employs the comical switching of characters before Vanessa Hudgens made it so posh.
The movie has a straight to video sort of feel, but that isn’t always a bad thing. The story is predictable but the characters are charming enough to make you smile. It’s not intended to be a hysterical satire on rural America, but that’s pretty much what it is.
The two young stars are what make “Heartland” watchable. Sierra McCormick and Brighton Sharbino play Kara Gentry and Jessie Wilkins respectively. The two teenagers have a serendipitous encounter on a flight from Vermont to Stillwater, Oklahoma. Both are meeting estranged families for the first time. Jessie wants a home. Kara (who comes from wealth) just wants to be normal. So guess what happens…They trade places!
Sierra McCormick and Brighton Sharbino aren’t great actors. To be fair, McCormick was 20 and Sharbino just 15 at the time of filming. The girls are quirky enough characters to enjoy and both are having fun with the roles. You can almost see the actresses growing more comfortable as the movie progresses.
Somehow, production landed veteran stars Shelley Long and Bo Derek who play the grandmothers. Long and Derek both are quite effective with the characters. Long is a goofy hippie type. Derek a high end hoity-toity snob. They are both natural with the performances and lend a slight degree of credibility to the otherwise amateur picture.
Music plays a big part in the movie. Both families are written to have musical backgrounds. Christian Kane and Joe Don Rooney play the girls’ fathers. Each actor comes from a musical background lending authenticity to the guitar playing and singing that breaks out throughout. Veteran television actor Christopher Rich rounds out the cast as Gentry family patriarch, Bob.
I could torch the writing. I appreciate the theme of two distinct broken families trying to mend. The circumstances leading up to the flight and the switch are a bit unnatural. We the viewer can accept that as fodder for the story. The switch itself is funny, but also a bit mean. When Kara (pretending to be Jessie) meets her dad for the first time, you almost feel like cringing. Too many exposition dumps are employed to spew out background in a non-organic way. The ending is corny and contrived, and ties up every loose end in an almost deus ex machina fashion.
“Christmas in the Heartland” is a fun flick to watch for the Holidays. It would have been a C. But the closing musical number and outtakes shows you how much fun they had making the movie. It also bumps the grade a touch. Watch it and have some laughs.
**Writers Note** This is my 550th review. We’ll hit 600 next summer!
1 Comment
I love this movie .. Did it come out to be a little bit more corny than it had been intended to be.. Yes..
That happens when you have when you choose an singer who has had no acting experience. (JDR)
Now.. Christian Kane .. actor, singer, songwriter, stuntman, cook.. Nailed his role as Jeff Gentry.
Their is a great antibullying theme in the storyline that gets overlooked.
The ending was genius the way they incorporated the bloopers just needed a better segway to get there..
The original title was Southern Christmas.. changed to Christmas In The Heartland.. aka The Christmas Trap,
because they weren’t sure that folks who viewed it outside the USA would get the “Heartland” reference.