If you’ve ever wondered what a Hallmark Christmas movie would look like if you got rid of the former Disney child stars, glossy production locations and Dolly Parton showing up at the end to sing a festive ballad, here we have an answer. This is a British micro-budget answer to holiday themed films such as Falling for Christmas, A Cozy Christmas Inn or A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe – all of which emerged in the last year.
The film-makers of this one clearly know the template like the backs of their hands, with the following Christmas romcom tropes present and correct: a wholesome but struggling business enterprise (see title), a trip back home for Christmas (see title), the magic of small communities compared with big cities (guess where the Holly Day Inn is located), a random meet-cute (a roadside tyre-change), the potential change of career (female lead is initially a London-based workaholic), the romantic B-plot involving an older couple (hello, Colin Baker and Anita Dobson), the importance of the spirit of Christmas (passim), the baddie who wants to close the local business (guess who the male lead works for), the big misunderstanding (male lead is mistaken for travel journalist) and of course a cute dog (Mr Jingles). Obviously it’s not original, and that’s the whole point: the idea is to enjoy a warm brew of cliches as comforting as a gingerbread latte on a frosty night.
It probably does bear mentioning that there are Christmas pantos around the UK every year with considerably more money to throw around than this film – and as a result, it has the faint sense of one of those unfortunate Winter Wonderland attractions: people shell out £100 to get in, only to realise that the entire thing takes place in the back of a pub car park, Rudolph is made of cardboard and the fairy lights are all from Poundland. But it would be a shame to be too Scrooge-like about this: Christmas at the Holly Day Inn was evidently made with an enormous amount of affection for the genre, and certainly gets a big shiny Christmas star for effort.
• Christmas at the Holly Day Inn is released on 6 November on digital platforms.
