Every week up until the new year, Hallmark will be showing two films a week. I’m not sure how I managed to do this last year, especially when they do what I call the Thanksgiving Bomb (a film a day on Thanksgiving week). Anyway, today we look at the generically titled Merry & Bright.

Synopsis!

When CEO, Cate, meets Gabe, she assumes he is the suitor her mother is trying to set her up with. In reality, he works for Empire Corporate Recovery, which has been hired to make her company more profitable. As Cate and Gabe begin to work together, they find that they have more in common than savvy business sense.

RECAP

The film starts with Jodie Sweetin aka Cate aka our Hallmark heroine moan to her PA that she doesn’t need a consultant to come in to fix her candy cane company. She’s only been CEO for a year, goddammit! Unfortunately, the “board” thinks differently, especially since the company hasn’t turned a profit over the last few years.

We step away from the candy cane factory and into a bustling office in New York.  We meet Gabe, a hot shot consultant specializing in corporate recovery. He complains to his boss that he doesn’t want to fix a candy cane company because a business model based on only selling candy canes for three months out of the year is ludicrous.

Boss lady isn’t having it and Gabe is exiled to Ohio.

Back in the candy cane hell of Ohio, Cate is on a date with a character that I think the script named “classic jerk.” He briefly mentions his college football days which cements his status as a douchebag, I suppose.

Cate returns home to make bespoke boxes of chocolates for every employee in the company (with some help from her mother). I’m not surprised the business is failing if this is how she spends her time. While mom is proud of this endeavor, she’s not as proud of her daughter being single.

Cate’s mother keeps setting her up, but Cate is more interested in getting a dog she saw at the local shelter. Mom tries to talk her out of it because dogs bark and poo. Sadly, for the CEO, Cate relays that the good boi she wanted has already been adopted. She’ll have to settle picking up after a husband when she finally finds one.

Gabe arrives in Ohio and checks into a poorly managed hotel. He takes a walk around the quaint town.

Once done with his brief tour, Gabe runs into Cate at the hotel. They get off on the wrong foot when Cate mistakes the consultant for a blind date her mother said she was preparing. Classic.

Anyway, the next day, the CEO and consultant visit the candy cane factory. Cate is cold to Gabe’s comments. As we know, she’s only been CEO for a year, so she hasn’t gotten around to implementing her big plans. They part ways for the day and Cate goes off to complain about the whole ordeal to her PA…again.

Thankfully, the PA knocks some sense into Cate and the CEO decides to give Gabe another shot. Unfortunately, Cate catches Gabe mid-phone call where he is also complaining about the candy cane company to his boss…again.

Just as before, the boss tells him to shut his trap and get to work.

Cate goes home to wallow in self-pity. Her mother tries to help her relax by putting up a hazardous amount of Christmas lights and “decorating” the tree.

However, mom abruptly leaves to lead her double life of minding a rescue dog. She tells the dog that she’s a divorcee.

Let’s go back to business. Gabe and Cate meet at Candy Cane HQ to make a business that only sells candy canes viable. Spirit Halloween appears to work so maybe there’s hope? After reading a market research document, Gabe suggests coming up with a new product since brand loyalty is high. Personally, I’m loyal to the Spangler Candy Company for all my candy cane needs, not whatever sham business Cate runs.

He asks Cate if she’s ever thought of this idea of not only producing candy canes. Cate slyly smiles and offers to show him her idea.

She tries to distract Gabe from her million-dollar plan (presumably so he doesn’t steal it) by telling him about the town’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony which she will be presiding over. He doesn’t bite and tells her to get with it because no one’s going to invite a failed CEO to next year’s ceremony.

Later that night, Cate’s mom talks to the dog again. It absolutely insists on joining the tree lighting event. She stuffs it into a gym bag.

At the ceremony, Cate addresses the crowd and leads the countdown to the official lighting. They all turn around to see the tree shine in all its glory…and Cate doesn’t press the ON button. She should be fired. Cate spies Gabe in the crowd and drags him on stage to press the tree button. So she just gives away the honor the town kindly bestowed upon her? FIRE HER. He does it and gets a little bit of that obligatory Christmas spirit required of all Hallmark hunks.

The couple goes on a dinner date that isn’t a date. Who cares. I’m more interested in the blossoming relationship between Mom and Dog. But I guess the focus is on human love. Cate and Gabe talk about their relationship history and how they are both single.

At the end of date-that-isn’t-a-date-oh-my-god-why, Cate gifts Gabe some homemade chocolates. This gives Gabe an idea.

He meets Cate the next morning to tell her to consider making year-round chocolates. That way their candy cane company can actually survive beyond Christmas. He even has an investor waiting in the wings. Cate says that she’ll only consider it if they do a playful kitchen montage.

After making chocolate, Gabe tells Cate that they’re headed to New York to pitch to the investor. Cate is hesitant, but goes for it.

Cate does the standard job of presenting professionally and then giving a bit of that small town, family-owned patter which always impresses the typical Hallmark businessman. He tries one of the chocolates and literally says, “it’s ok.” This is one of my favorite reactions after a Hallmark Heroine’s big speech.

Now that the big presentation is done, Cate and Gabe explore the bright lights, big city. Gabe reveals that his boss, the woman he keeps complaining to, is his mother. He then takes Cate to the company Christmas party. They slow dance to Merry Little Christmas.

Gabe shows Cate a painting his DEAD FATHER™ created.

Gabe’s mom interrupts and they chalk this whole kiss thing to getting caught up in the romance of Christmas.

The next morning, Gabe gets a call from the businessman who is ready to invest in Cate’s business. He (actually his wife) likes the chocolates, there’s built-in brand loyalty, and he’s got the money. It appears the candy cane company will live to fight another day.

An excited Gabe calls Cate to tell her the good news! Gabe’s team is even drawing up the legal docs to make the dream official. Oh, and one of the stipulations is that the company will become a chocolate company that makes candy canes on the side. A small footnote, of course.

Cate is torn. She speaks to her mother about saving the company. Should she do it? Her mom offers her generic advice which still somehow manages to inspire Cate.

The next day at the office, Cate gets ready to sign the papers. She stops herself and gives a grand speech to Gabe, basically saying he doesn’t KNOW her. The company will stay as it is. Good work, team!

Prior to that failed attempt to save the business, Cate had a spark of inspiration and decided to have her team make a different batch of candy canes, ones that were in her grandmother’s recipe book. She sends a small sample to the investor.

Meanwhile, Mom breaks up with the dog saying that he’s going to be Cate’s now.

It’s the day of the candy cane company’s Christmas jubilee. Gabe always said he wouldn’t be there for it, but here he is. He approaches Cate to apologize. Cate grandstands once more, telling him what the company is all about as if he hasn’t spent a week or however long assessing the entire business.

Once she’s finished, Gabe hands her his phone. It’s the investor. He’s so impressed with her mind-blowing innovative candy canes in DIFFERENT FLAVORS, that he’s all in.

After that unrealistic call, Mom approaches Cate in the middle of what looks like a black-tie affair to literally hand over the dog. She has a hard time doing so because 1) the dog is really fidgety and 2) she likes the dog a lot now. Cate senses this and gives the dog back, telling her mother Merry Christmas. It’s like when you buy a gift for your significant other, but really, you’re buying it for yourself. Mom happily wanders off.

Flash-forward a year. Cate is taking a group of children on a tour of the factory. She explains that she has made candy canes for various holidays which appears to have kept the business afloat for another year. Gabe appears and proposes to Cate. FIN.

REVIEW

In the Hallmark world, there are many failing businesses that just need one silver bullet to save it. It’s not a combination of issues, it’s just that the CEO hasn’t been inspired yet.

Anyway, I’m still really hesitant to accept Jodie Sweetin as a Hallmark Heroine. I said it in the last film I saw of hers: she’s just too sarcastic. She does a good enough job of this role, but I’d love to see her in more crass things. Though I guess if the money is good…

Gabe was fine. He seemed like he could be a consultant which was half the battle.

As for a company that ONLY does candy canes, I refuse to believe it. Broadening your product line to include chocolates is NOT a death sentence! You could make candy cane chocolates! Or color them to be like candy canes! AAGGHHHH!!

Rating: 2 out of 5 candy sticks (the ones without the hooks)

STRAY THOUGHTS

• There’s an absolutely USELESS secondary love story between Cate’s PA and her boyfriend. The PA is sad that her hints of getting that ring haven’t been working. Spoiler alert! They get engaged at the end.
• This “fix a failing business” theme can also be found in the similarly generically titled Christmas in Love and, one of my personal favorites, Hats off to Christmas!
• He calls his mother Sarah?! What kind of hippie relationship is this?!
• Cate has old photos of her with her grandma which are great. It’s pretty much photos of Jodie Sweetin as a kid photoshopped with an older lady.
• Gabe casually mentions that he donates loads of toys to Toys for Tots. He’s everything you want in a man.
• It never mentions explicitly that Gabe’s dad is dead, but he does say that his mother raised him on her own and seeing as Cate openly says her parents are divorced, I think it’s safe to make the assumption.
• Follow me on Twitter where I’ll probably live tweet when I can.
• Catch up with all of Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas here.

Next up

Christmas Scavenger Hunt where the town tries to find dead bodies.