A Star-Crossed Christmas

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The made-for-TV Christmas movie is like a cosy hoodie: it wraps you in a warm embrace of familiarity as you watch yet another variation on Cinderella, The Prince and the Pauper, or A Christmas Carol. The course of true love doesn’t run any more smoothly for Rick and Julie (Rick and Julie, ffs) who decide they love each other and should break up all within the same afternoon. A Romeo and Juliet romance takes place among two commercially competing, and emotionally feuding New England Christmas Tree farming families.

I absolutely loved this film and it even made me shed a tear or two about three quarters of the way through. But all is not cookies and cocoa in this sleepy backwater — with the recent death of Julie’s mother (what is it with Shakespeare and missing mothers? So there are two families who own Christmas Tree farms next to each other and due to a fire that took out seven years worth of crops they've been at each other's throats for as long as the kids can remember. Sadly falls prey to a common plight: all the male characters act and speak like little girls, perhaps in an effort to make the main female character seem strong in comparison. It was cute and heart-warming so a pleasant and nothing to be offended by watch, but also on the too safe and bland side at other points (not to mention it not being much different from other Christmas films in some of the material).

Although a simple story line, I am quite sure that there are literally millions of men and women who have lived the rest of their lives regrettably for listening to their closest loved ones (fathers, mothers, aunts, or uncles) and for years wondered to themselves ".

The festively-named Holly (Sarah Fischer) stands in for Benvolio, whilst the strong and dependable Bear (John MacGregor) plays an equivalent role for Julie (the opportunity for an ‘exit pursued by’ joke was sadly missed). But only the two grumpy old men know what the feud was about, and each of them angrily refuses to discuss it. Rick has been promised the opportunity to take over the spruce Christmas tree farm if he likes the work. There wasn't enough emotion when showing how the wife and mother's passing had really affected her family, especially her husband - this would have added to the climax. It naturally centres on "Christmas", because of the seasonal setting of the rival Christmas tree farms, but not for what Christmas is really about, such as, the Nativity, and/or Santa Claus.

In case we are under any doubt that we are in Romeo and Juliet territory, Bear laments that Rick and Julie’s relationship is doomed to failure: “Ever heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys, Romeo and Juliet? Also, other Wikipedia articles note that "pines" and "spruces" all belong to the botanical family Pinaceae, while the pines, as such, belong to the genera Pinus. Julie and Rick fall in love despite being on opposite sides of feuding Christmas-tree-farm families. No masked ball for these two but a meet cute orchestrated by Martha (Kathy Harum), the local baker, in the role of Nurse/Friar/Prince acting as matchmaker, go-between, peacekeeper and (spoiler alert) romantic interest for Dave Spruce. It turns out there are, in fact, people who don’t want to watch the same film with a different name five times a day!

Happily, all of this is resolved, partly because Holly discovers some old photos from when Dave and James and Julie's mother before she married, and Martha were all happy friends together; and partly because Julie explores some of her mother's boxes of belongings, discovers the family's misplaced Christmas-tree topper - a large crystal star - and three letters written on her deathbed by Julie's mother - one to Julie, another to her husband, James, and a third to Dave Spruce. The premise for 2017's 'The Spruces and the Pines' didn't entirely grab me at first or make me go wow. But Rick has not grown up with the on-going feuding, which he thinks is nothing to do with him, or Julie, and he persists, and wins Julie around. Meanwhile, coming from Texas, where he had been a successful used-car salesman, Rick Spruce, accepts the invitation of his uncle, unmarried and childless Dave Spruce, to help his uncle at this busy season. Rick, who Respects the Troops, offers the tree free of charge and thanks the Troops for their service.When respective heirs Julie Pine and Rick Spruce unwittingly fall head over heels for each other during the holiday season, they must keep their growing romance a secret or they'll risk a Christmas blow-up that could destroy their relationship, their businesses, and any hope at bringing the feud to an end once and for all. I was looking forward to a light-hearted, fun movie to get me in the holiday Spirit, especially after all those Halloween slasher movies.

The Spruces and the Pines is a made-for-TV movie that premiered on Ion Television on December 3, 2017.It's been a year after Julie Pine's (Walsh) mother's death and she's decided to come home for the Christmas period to help her father in his busiest time.