A Castle for Christmas: A Frivolous Discussion about a Ridiculous movie

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Spoiler Alert, but read this anyway, as nothing is really going to be spoiled. Simply imagine every Hallmark-Christmas-movie trope and cliche ever and it is in this movie. I recommend the consumption of lots of Christmasy alcoholic beverages as you watch. This post is editable, click in lower right corner to add your tropes and cliches.

Persuaded by rave reviews from my both my (spoiler!) knitting group (knitting being a loose term) and my neighborhood pandemic buddies, I watched this hilarious movie last night. ‘Twas a Christmas miracle indeed, because I managed to persuade my movie-phobic kid and my movie-snob husband to watch it with me, and for that, I give this movie a thumbs up. It got us all in the Christmas mood, and we followed it immediately with Santa Inc, which is, pardon the pun, the polar opposite of this movie. (FWIW, watch Santa Inc., which is hilarious as in :laughing:, but definitely not appropriate for young uns.)

Let’s divide the tropes and cliches into categories.

Useless Tropes:

*The mean/evil couple who checks onto the Castle Inn for the Christmas Special, never to be seen again.
*Angus. He is so mysterious. We were sure there had to be some reason he almost never spoke, but instead communicated with nods and meaningful glances.

Useful Tropes:

*The heroine and hero accidentally falling into each other’s arms outside the Castle Inn, literally the second she steps out of airport cab.

Cute cliches:

*The jolly pub scene when they all sing Loch Lomond

Stupid cliches:

*Hamish, the well-trained dancing dog. (My daughter disagrees and says he was a highlight.)

Continuity Errors

*Lavishly and extensively decorating the house for Christmas overnight, with copious and expensive decorations.

Feel free to add yours, or even come up with a new category! And Greetings of the Season to all of you CC’ers!

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As someone who enjoys the escape and predictability of Hallmark movies, I watched last weekend. I also wondered about the couple who check in and don’t appear again. My biggest take-away about the fantasy was how they decorated the castle in 24-36 hours to the over the top result before the Christmas party (I loved the staircase result). D & I went to the Biltmore some years ago in early October and they were starting to decorate for their Christmas tours. I seem to remember them saying it took weeks with a significant team of decorators to make it happen. I thought this seemed like a Hallmark movie with a bigger budget.

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I watched this yesterday and thought- well there is time I will never get back! I also had a problem with all the decorations and lights. I just kept thinking of how expensive all of that must be! The guy could just not decorate and then he could afford to pay all the taxes. I admit I didn’t pay attention after the 3rd song montage, so maybe Sophie paid for it?

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Good catches! I added the house decorating miracle under the category Continuity Errors.

This movie has motivated to get my house decorated for the holidays. Hopefully I can get my hubby to saw an inch off the bottom of the tree so we can start decorating it. It’s currently laying outside on the grass, looking forlorn and unloved.

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I love cheesy Christmas movies so it was a hit here.

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I’ve put this movie on at bedtime every night for the last week; I’ve never made it past the first 5 minutes. It’s working better than my melatonin :rofl:

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My husband was sure that they were the ex- & other woman!

Single most-real thing in the movie: that the Scots/British/Irish would be on board with killing off the ‘too-perfect’ Winston. 100% accurate.

Continuity error: the dress she ‘found’ in one of the bedrooms had a different top when she was trying it on vs when she wore it to the ball. Historical error: 100% not an historical dress!

Egregious product placement: Saks Fifth Avenue (which would have set records for international delivery, nvm getting all the sizes & styles “right”!)

We came into it expecting it to be formulaic. Some of the dialogue was better (& funnier) than the usual for a Hallmark/Lifetime-type movie, and some of the on-site elements (such as the knitted things on phone booths) do have a piece of reality to them- except that irl, it’s on things like letter boxes not phone booths which are nearly non-existent now (there are something like 7 left in the wild, and another 7 or so in museums), eg:

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but really there was only one plot line, and it was thinner than even Hallmark-level movies.

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Ok, I’ve solved the mystery of the evil/mean looking couple who check in at h Castle Inn. No, it is no a satisfactory explanation and in fact, makes me want to slap the director.

We were all perplexed by the mystery couple and the movie should have utilized the element of intrigue!

I feel a bit sorry for director Mary Lambert. To go from Pet Sematary to this! Definitely a step down.

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good detective work, @Lindagaf. It’s a fail as an Easter egg- a good Easter egg slips in so seamlessly that the aficionados see it, but it doesn’t distract from what’s going on. Just more of an indication as to just how little plot there was in the movie: everybody is looking for something more to it!

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I guess it is just me, but Brooke Shields just bugged me. The rest of the things seemed very typical for this genre.

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That’s fascinating! We watched all the princess swap movies last year but didn’t recognize this couple.

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This one was too cheesy for me (sorry Brooke and Cary), but I like the Netflix Norwegian series Home For Christmas.

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For a different holiday rom com, I enjoyed love hard on Netflix. My husband is obsessed with hallmark movies.

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ooh I forgot the most aggravating bit: “Dun Dunbar”! It either translates to Fort Fort Hill or Fort Fort Bar [name of person]. It’s comparable to saying Castle Castlehill! It was like fingernails on a chalkboard everytime they said it.

(fwiw, irl there is a town called Dunbar in Scotland, and there is a Dunbar Castle)

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Watching it too (only on the treadmill, the only place I enjoy sappy things like hallmark movies and virgin River for some reason).

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Haha! This made me laugh. It reminds me of when I was a student in London. There was a tube advertisement for a Mexican restaurant advertising Salsa Sauce. That always cracked me up. Get your fresh Sauce sauce here!

I’m going to sneak off and watch some of these other suggestions. Thanks!

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Exactly!

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Home for Christmas is outstanding!

Now can I resist the temptation to watch Princess Switch 3? Because we really did need a third variation on this theme. :rofl:

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Is it really outstanding? Because I am thinking of watching it and need to justify my commitment.
Edit, it’s the Norwegian show, def going to watch it!

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Back to this thread because the procrastinating, ivy league level student’s thread was stressing me out. I may actually finish this movie tonight :rofl:

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