A Winter Getaway (2021)

They're better in motion, I swear.

    Is this the first premiere showing I’ve done? Ah, no, actually first showed at the tail end of January, but close. I look forward to it pretending that all of 2020 didn’t actually happen.

    Holy shit, it opens on the exact same skyline shot as the last one. That’s some efficiency right there Hallmark. Also, since I can’t fit in in elsewhere, the director comes from a horror background and has the distinction of helming the ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ remake, so make of that what you will.

I see what you did there, Hallmark.

    Our lead works for a ‘personal concierge service,’ which is this universe means ‘make crazy shit happen for stupid rich people.’ At least this part acknowledges our current reality. She gets pulled in on a new client taking a ski trip in Canada due to the previous concierge suddenly quitting. His file is very light on details and lacks a photograph which is obviously a plot point except, y’know, the internet exists, so unless this is directly addressed will be a definite mark against.

    I’ll admit I know the basic premise, the male lead is actually just a normal guy who’s been gifted the trip by his rich friend, so him acting impressed by the amenities is fine, if a bit slapsticky, what I’m confused about is why he isn’t immediately making sure everyone knows he’s not personally rich, it’s not like they’d suddenly start treating him horribly. He’s also not putting on airs or anything, he immediately television-fixes her computer while on the flight (so must be a tech guy, even if he pronounced is cache’ like no one in tech actually does).

    They get to the hotel and after being shown the amenities he’s referred to as the owner of a huge company. He immediately gets on the phone to his friend who booked the thing and they figure that when the person he was working with left some wires got crossed and it’s an honest mistake, which I guess addressed why he didn’t tell people earlier. Apparently it was originally for the rich friend but last-minute business stuff made him unable to go so he gifted it to his friend he could get over a recent breakup. They decide it’d be fun for him to pretend to be rich, which I could see. As setups for future misunderstandings go it’s one of the better ones, I buy his reasoning.

    He apparently assumed she was going skiing with him and insists on getting her a whole ski outfit. There’s an insert shot of him signing for the clothes so I’m assuming this is going to be a thing for the eventual reveal. Turns out she can ski, which is nice. They have lunch and he asks about how she became a concierge. They have a nice little chat and these actor sell the not-terrible lines. Who wrote this? Hmm, someone clearly using a pen name, they have four credits to their name since 2020 and nothing else on IMDB. Interesting.

    They chat briefly about how he just had his heart broken and then head out on the town. They’re also starting to give each other Looks. There’s a scene at an art gallery where they’re mistaken for a couple and he goes with it, using it to gently troll her. That’s such obvious low-hanging fruit I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often. They chat some more and she brings up how important trust is to her and his face is one big study of regretting running with this goof. This comes out as insisting that the next day they spend doing what she wants to do.

    Which turns out to be dog-sledding, so we get some nice scenery porn and doggos. Also more actual songs on the soundtrack, I’m wondering if this is something Hallmark started doing when these got so popular. He asks her more about herself and her dreams and they seem to be doing some actual bonding so let’s toss a coin: if this movie is trying to be ambitious within the confines of this genre either that night or the next day he’ll freely confess his deception to her, if it isn’t he’ll be outed by someone or something else and we’ll face the second-half conflict. Let’s flip this coin.

    So after breakfast with the Canadian resort equivalent of the downstairs staff they go curling. Sure. They’ve started almost-smooching as well. He’s about to tell her the truth then for reasons I can’t entirely parse ... doesn’t? She’d just given this little speech about how rich people are always claiming to be like everyone else but they’re just not and for some reason that stops him. After a late-night call to his rich friend he’s advised to just come clean so he apparently resolves to.

    Except again he doesn’t. It’s another reasonably charming scene at a microbrewery involving craft root beer and poutine that I would reasonably enjoy if the plot-anvil wasn’t hanging over everything. I suppose it’s like a ticking clock effect, the second the couple overcomes everything and declare their love the movie has to be over in like two more minutes so they have to kind of stretch things out before then. While walking afterwards they discuss her career plans and they come up with what passes in these movies as a solid business model. They again go to kiss and she brings up the no-romance-with-clients policy. He apologizes and they move on. Meanwhile back at the agency that signature for the clothes comes up and they notice it’s different than the card on file, which is dumb because since it was a gift the friend would have authorized him to use the card but apparently the coin flip from up above came back tails and this has to be at least a bit stupid [spoiler: it’s kind of addressed, apparently it was supposed to be handled by the previous concierge and was just missed].

    She gets told about this just before he comes by her room to confess and I get that these scenes are necessary but nobody buys that they mean anything so cast, crew, viewers, we all go on autopilot until they eventually get back together. Out of academic interest I’ll see how these two sell the scene because so far at least they’ve been a marked step up from the standards I’ve gotten used to.

    Eh, they were fine.

    They confer with their respective consiglieries, he with his rich friend and her with her mom who basically just point out that yeah, he lied, but it’s hardly the worst lie and pretty understandable and can they maybe just get over it already? Except then apparently the rich friend jerks her chain by telling their concierge service to keep her in town to plan what seems to be a fake party for our male lead which is maybe less forgivable. She apparently doesn’t seem to mind as he’s arranged a date that mirrors one of her favorite childhood memories. He points out that the no-dating clients policy doesn’t apply to him and she goes with it. I do like that he says he’s “falling in love” with her rather than just that he’s “in love” which her, that’s a big distinction that I’m happy this is making. They talk about starting that business they talked about and when she ruefully brings up the starting costs he tosses off that he ‘knows a guy’ and her face changes as it fully sinks in that he does. It’s a nice note to end on.

    This one was pretty good. The script had fewer than usual stupid hoops to jump through, the dialogue wasn’t awful, and the leads were pretty damn charming. The fact that she was upset he lied was understandable as was her forgiving him for it. I also liked that it ended with essentially the beginning of their relationship rather than at the end. I’ll echo the entire IMDB comments section by saying the music mix was way off at the very end but given the standards most of these operate on I’m pleasantly surprised.