There’s a mother-daughter horror movie tucked within A Magical Christmas Village (2022), cloaked by spruce and tinsel. But until Hallmark develops a line of greeting cards and snow globes commemorating intergenerational trauma, it must remain suppressed. In its absence we’re left with another holiday romance between a hardworking single parent and a peripatetic professional, one that again culminates, as is often the case, in a public display of affection cheered by townspeople that seem to voyeuristically assemble specifically for that purpose. (That Brian De Palma hasn’t directed a Hallmark film is one of the great tragedies of his career.)
The players here are Summer Ashby (Alison Sweeney), a small-town architect, and civil engineer Ryan Scott (Luke Macfarlane of A Shoe Addict’s Christmas), whose job takes him around the country. She’s remodeling a city-owned building when he arrives in search of storage space for toy drive donations. It’s an odd request (who wants stuffed animals covered in sawdust?) until you realize her general contractor’s duties primarily consist of moving Christmas trees and adjusting speakers that play seasonal music. Their awkward introduction gives way to instant attraction and the usual ritualized Hallmark bonding over shared values.
On a moonlit stroll through the town square, they pause to admire salvaged structures. “See, it’s things like this old gazebo,” Summer says. “Why do you have to tear down things just ’cause they’re old? You could keep what’s good and fix the stuff you need to fix.” Such wisdom is lost on her mother Viv (Marlo Thomas), a colorful collection of New Age stereotypes whose Jocelyn Wildenstein-esque visage is genuinely shocking. Temporarily homeless following a string of odd decisions, Viv moves in with Summer and granddaughter Chloe (Maesa Nicholson), hauling along her juicer, quinoa and an impressive array of hats.
More importantly to Chloe, she brings an elaborate Christmas village with figurines. “Your mom never believed in it, but I think this village is magic,” Viv tells her. “In fact, I know it is. It’s full of Christmas spirit and possibility. You just make a wish and watch what happens.” Under her grandma’s tutelage, Chloe learns to use the village as a sort of vision board through which she manifests Summer’s relationship with Ryan. If she places their stand-ins on an icy pond, the two are struck by an urge to skate. It’s the sort of sorcery that Marguerite Perrin might once have derided as “dark-sided,” but in Hallmark’s hands it’s more of a cloying advertisement for holiday collectibles.
Fortunately, A Magical Christmas Village, written by veteran soap scribe Melissa Salmons and directed by Jason Furukawa (whose assistant director credits run the gamut from Hallmark Mysteries to Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby), isn’t entirely without conflict. Free-spirited Viv and rigid Summer have unfinished business to settle, with origins in the unhappy childhood Summer sacrificed to look after her widowed mom. “This need you have to manage… it’s exhausting,” Viv complains after again making a mess of her life and requiring assistance. “You spend so much time fixing things. You don’t have any time to just look, to see.”
Sweeney, Hallmark royalty and a soap opera stalwart who knows a thing or two about complicated mother-daughter relationships, doesn’t overdo it when Summer tearfully counters “The universe fixes things for you?! Do you know who does that? I do it.” It’s a credit to Thomas, the beloved star of That Girl, that so much of Viv’s nonsense sounds passably credible unless you give it minimal thought. She pulls this trick throughout the film, saving her biggest whopper for the grand finale, when Viv triumphantly takes credit for something she couldn’t have accomplished without her other daughter’s help.
If you can get past what she’s done to her face, Thomas is the anti-Faye Dunaway, making an awful character likable and bringing out the best in Macfarlane, with whom she shares her finest scenes. But if that’s too much for you to bear, you can indulge your fandom and get in the holiday spirit with It Happened One Christmas (1977), a made-for-TV remake of It’s a Wonderful Life with Thomas in Jimmy Stewart’s role. Not only did it costar Cloris Leachman and Orson Welles, it was publicly loathed by Frank Capra.
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Streaming and DVD availability
A Magical Christmas Village streams at Amazon and is available on DVD and Blu-ray. Illicit free uploads appear from time to time on YouTube but usually don’t last long. Also at YouTube, you can catch Thomas on Today, where she discussed the film and reminisced about her grandmother.
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Cranky Lesbian is a disgruntled homosexual with too much time on her hands. Click for film reviews or to follow on Instagram.
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