Christmas in Carolina (2020)
I watched this on the plane last night, and I had to let this movie marinate a bit before writing about it. It is really bad, like, ”How did this poor quality production even make it onto Amazon Prime?” bad. 12% on Rotten Tomatoes bad.
I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was filmed and produced in early Covid-times, and we were all struggling to do our jobs back then.
The good news is this movie is only 72 minutes long, so I made it through.
Synopsis: Busy city guy and even busier city girl living in “Baltimore” meet up for a date. She’s rude throughout the date but they’re suddenly both super into each other and want to go out again. The romance blossoms, and guy wants to take girl home to South Carolina to spend Christmas with his family. There’s mild drama with guy’s brother who keeps breaking up guy’s relationships (because he wants to date guy?) - one of the storylines that didn’t make much sense. Guy proposes marriage and they all live happily ever after.
Guest stars: Kellye Shaygne Williams and Darius McCrary of Family Matters fame are back playing another brother and sister in this movie. Kellye is the mom and Darius is the uncle of main guy. The person who stood out the most, in my opinion, was Jessi Nicolet, who played the best friend of main girl. I think she has star potential.
Was this filmed in a Carolina (North or South)? Yes, no one’s tried to pass off Canada as South Carolina in this movie. The entire movie was filmed around South Carolina, even what was supposed to be Baltimore.
Who died in this one? I thought all family and friends finally made it through a holiday movie unscathed, but I learned in my research today that main girl‘s parents were killed in a car accident, which is why she didn’t feel the Christmas spirit.
Did we get any montages? One and half, this seems to be a common theme in these movies as a way to keep the story moving forward without more dialogue. God forbid they write in any actual chemistry and relationship-building for the characters.
Did this movie have an unexplained dog? What an odd question, you might think. But both main guy characters in Vermont and Cape Cod had dogs that were just there in a scene or two for no real reason. Vermont main guy twice entered scenes carrying a small terrier that was wearing a Christmas sweater, and not once was the dog ever mentioned. I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FESTIVE DOG. Cape Cod guy did mention his dog once, and we later see the pup as the couple walks along the beach. But the dog is never seen or mentioned again. Christmas in Carolina had no mystery dogs.
Was there anything you did like about this movie? I appreciated that this film didn’t have a small town > big city vibe. The main characters both kept their good jobs in the city and made plans to be busy together in Baltimore. No one gave up their career to make balsam-scented hand soaps in a small town. And it’s always good to see Laura and Eddie from Family Matters.
I also loved that this movie kept me entertained on the last leg of a long day of travel. To get from St. Johnsbury, Vermont to Arabi, Louisiana, I travel by car, bus, and plane. The family takes me on an hour-long car ride to Lebanon, New Hampshire, where I board a bus that takes me to the airport in Boston. What they don’t show you in all these holiday films about how great small towns are is how much work it is not to live near a major airport. But it’s always worth the travel to see my sister.
It’s the bigger love of the family, after all.
