December 6: “A Christmas Crush” (Hulu)
FYI: This movie is terrible. It does have going for it the beautiful and talented Cindy Sampson, known for Supernatural; also, there’s a slightly dark running joke about the Donner Party in this movie that I was a little surprised to see in a Hallmark movie, but I guess times have changed. There’s also a not-small amount of stalking and a variation of the Men Are Talking trope throughout.
Cindy Sampson plays Addie, a beautiful, single event-planner in her 30s who has a meet-cute with the handsome lawyer Sam, played by Robin Dunne. They literally bump into each other in the hallway of their shared apartment complex, and Addie develops a crush on Sam. Later, while having Christmas Tea with another neighbor, the spunky, elderly Mrs. Motley, Addie makes a wish on a falling star that her neighbor would fall in love with her.
Unfortunately, her wish lands on the WRONG NEIGHBOR! whose name is Pete. Pete falls madly in love with Addie, which, in rom-com terms, means he stalks her relentlessly to the point where she is sneaking in and out of her apartment to avoid having him accost her in the hallway or force himself into her apartment. Pete even shows up at her job to take her out to dinner:
Addie, in true rom-com style, tolerates Pete’s horrifying, often illegal intrusions with token feminine annoyance. Addie claims she blames herself for his behavior several times - “This is all my fault!” - because the falling-star Christmas Wish is what is ostensibly causing Pete to stalk her. As an audience we’re meant to absolve Pete somewhat because his feelings aren’t his fault. I’m not sure where the writers and directors of this movie conflate Pete’s uncontrollable feelings with his deliberate actions. I guess the real travesty is that we live in a world where it’s at least somewhat acceptable that a man demonstrates love by incessantly wearing down the woman he’s in love with until she doesn’t have the energy to fight him off.
Meanwhile, Addie manages to have several dates with Sam, where they establish a true connection with one another. Each date is, of course, spoiled by Pete vying for Addie’s affections. Rather than invoking physical comedy, this plays into the Men Are Talking trope. Every time Pete shows up, Sam ignores Addie’s fervent claims that she is NOT in love with Pete and trudges away sadly, assuming that Addie really is super into this random guy who keeps crashing their dates. Personally, I think calling 911 to have him detained might kill that Christmas Magic a little bit, but that’s just me.
Addie has several more Christmas Teas with Mrs. Motley, who, for some reason, knows all the technicalities about Christmas magic and wishes and counsels Addie in getting Pete to fall out of love with her. By the end of the movie, Addie has learned that Pete had a fiance before he became obsessed with her, and Sam and colleague Drea are enlisted to help Pete fall back in love with his fiance to deflect his attention from Addie. (Notably, Sam believes her about the Christmas Magic for some reason, even though he wouldn’t take her word about not being interested in Pete.) Their attempts consistently fail, however, but rather than seek out some magic-based solution, the four of them bail, and are prepared to let Addie spend the rest of her life being stalked by Pete.
The story culminates at a Christmas party Addie and Drea plan for the wealthy Donner family, where Addie is able to make another wish on some falling star-shaped confetti - the wish that she’s able to be honest about her feelings to her friends, her family, and her next-door neighbor. Even though she’s been honest the whole time - dudes can’t hear her over the sound of their own voices. Sam finds Addie as she’s leaving the party and apologizes, then confesses his feelings for her - which, again, is not the first time he’s told her this, and I don’t know why this honesty wish is where the writers went with this, but there we are.
SPOILERS: They kiss and make up and are assumed to be dating. The best part of the story is Drea, played by supporting actress Erica Deutschman, who gets the only funny lines and is a great comic relief. This movie is terrible. One star.