Christmas 2020 Reviews: Day 22 - A Nutcracker Christmas (2016)

A Nutcracker Christmas is not as awful as its poster would have you believe.

The film follows Lily, played by Amy Acker. Lily always wanted to be a ballerina, and worked hard to become one all her life. She eventually became part of a renowned ballet dance establishment in New York, where she met Mark, (played by Sascha Radetsky). The pair fell in love and lived in New York, dancing together. Lily's main dream had always been to be cast as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker, something her sister Beth always encouraged. One day, Lily is cast in her dream role, but then tragedy strikes, as Beth is killed alongside her husband in a car crash on opening night. Lily is determined to go on stage still, believing it was what her sister would have wanted for her, but Mark prevents it, believing she is too upset and could potentially injure herself.

With her sister and her dream killed on the same night, a devastated Lily returns to the town she grew up in, ending her relationship with Mark and quitting ballet to focus on raising Beth's young daughter, Sadie (Sophia Lucia).

Years pass, and Sadie is now a promising ballet dancer in her own right. She is hired to play Clara in a big production of The Nutcracker in Philadelphia, but when Lily takes Sadie there, she finds that Mark is directing it. Old feelings resurface for Lily, not just towards Mark, but also for the ballet world.

I can't help but feel biased when reviewing this film, because A Nutcracker Christmas is everything I personally would want in a Christmas film. A well-developed romance, ballet, The Nutcracker and a lot of festivity. Set it in a library or bookshop, and this would be my perfect film.

From a critical standpoint, I still think that this is one of the better Hallmark films. However, it does have its flaws.

Let's start with the positives though.

It is very much worth mentioning first that the majority of actors in this film are dancers, or at least have experience in dance. Amy Acker originally trained as a ballet dancer, but had to have knee surgery as a teenager, ending her ballet career, and so she turned to acting instead. Sascha Radetsky is a now retired professional ballet dancer, and Sophia Lucia was a featured dancer on the reality show Dance Moms. A lot of the film shows characters rehearsing for The Nutcracker on stage or in a dance hall. It does feel like a genuine love of dance was put towards this film.

When Radetsky appeared on screen as Mark in the traditional meet-cute of bumping into each other while walking, my initial thought was that this couldn't be right, that he couldn't be our leading man. First impressions honestly made me think he looked and sounded more like the snobby boyfriend character, who the protagonist dates at the start of a bad chick flick, and then leaves him for someone a bit nicer.

I am so sorry for misjudging Radetsky, and am grateful he proved me wrong. He is so charming, and convincing in how he plays this character. He generally comes across as a happy-go-lucky guy, but he's serious when he needs to be, and you believe in the impact that Lily leaving had on him. He's quite cheerful for most of the film though, and there's about a solid minute of this film dedicated to him delivering Christmas tree puns to Lily and Sadie, and I still found him likeable despite how cheesy and cringe-inducing those lines were.

Also, there's a scene in which he dances alone (granted, just to show the audience that he can for a later plot development) and he is so beautiful in it. He makes me wish I could have seen him dance onstage.

Continuing with my praise for Mark, I appreciated that when he was reunited with Lily, they were both single, and free to explore their history and feelings for each other. There's no cliché of the horrible boyfriend or girlfriend character looming to make this into a terrible love triangle, that we have to wait to inevitably crumble.

I really liked the relationship between Lily and Sadie. You can tell it's not quite a mother-daughter bond, but there's still a strong maternal care there for Sadie from Lily, and they have great chemistry together. I also appreciated that Sadie just wanted to dance, and her plot was centred around that, without it being too dramatic or taking away from Lily's story.

On a more negative note, while I liked Amy Acker as Lily, I think that some people may be a bit less forgiving of her grudge against Mark, which she brings up frequently. Even as the characters rebuild a sense of friendship with each other, I think it takes them a bit too long to talk about their past properly. However, when that moment does come, it feels authentic and is handled nicely. You just need to persevere with Lily's grudge for a while.

There's also an issue with how Sadie and Lily often talk about Beth. I understand that she was Sadie's mother and Lily's sister, so this feels natural. What they fail to talk about, however, is Sadie's father, who was also killed in the same car crash. Even in the scene where Lily learns that they died, the film only says that Beth did, and only implies that Sadie's father (and yes, he doesn't even get a name) was killed too.

It just seems strange that they talk about Beth so much, and the impact of Sadie not having a real mother, with no mention of her dad at all, when she's also lacking a father figure entirely. This is a female dominated film, with Mark being the only male character of any prominence. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does feel unnatural that Sadie's father would matter so little to her, when her mother clearly does.

On the subject of Sadie, I find it odd that she and Mark didn't remember each other at all, despite meeting when he and Lily were together. I can forgive Mark a little bit, because Sadie went from a young child to a girl in her teens in their years apart, so she changed a lot. I think he probably should have remembered her full name when he saw her application for the role in his ballet production, but maybe I'm reaching.

However, I think Sadie should definitely remember him. Lily was with him for years, and we saw that a young Sadie met him at least once. Surely Lily would have brought him home for Christmas dinner, or to meet her family at some point in those years? Yet despite not remembering him, Sadie's still quite keen for this romance to go ahead, which is stranger still.

Some of the dialogue is also remarkably cheesy. The aforementioned tree puns aside, a notable scene for its dialogue was when Lily was offered a great opportunity, but she was reluctant to take it. Sadie then steps in to encourage her by saying: ""If you don't do it, you'll never know what might have been." I wonder if it's in the contract somewhere for every Hallmark movie to quote their own greeting cards.

I did like that Mark and Lily danced again, although how quickly they picked up their ballet moves after several years without doing it felt unrealistic.

If you have no interest in ballet, this isn't the film for you. However, I personally enjoyed seeing this aspect onscreen, and the final production of The Nutcracker we see clips of genuinely looks really good (although it noticeably zooms out to an extreme long shot whenever Lily is doing an overly complicated ballet move). Along with the romance between Lily and Mark, and the overall festive feel, this is an enjoyable, light watch, and although it's a bit niche compared to other films I've looked at this year, if it sounds like your sort of thing, I recommend you watch it.

THE SCOREBOARD

Would I recommend this film? Yes, although I am aware that the ballet theme may not be to everyone's taste.

Christmas quote of the film: "A tree like this might really spruce up the place. You're obviously pining for a tree. Trying to branch out? Trees like this just... don't grow on trees, you know?" - Mark

Film rating: 6/10