Starring: Georgia Flood, Ezekiel Simat, Anthony Phelan, Christine Amor, Kaushik Das, Charlotte Stent, Anna McGahan, Leon Cain, Ling Cooper Tang, Joshua Pyman, Mansoor Noor
Distributor: Other
Runtime: 87 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Christmas in small-town Vermont. Annie re-joins her family after volunteer work abroad. She offers to foster three dogs – and finds her family again, a sympathetic vet and her devotion to dogs.
Dogs! And we might add: cute, cute, cutest! (And three of them, despite having no owners, look the part, act the part, perfect dogs to be adopted.)
This is a Christmas story, Christmas in Vermont, in a small town, snow, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, winter rituals… For those not in the know, as happened with this reviewer, it is something of a revelation to find that this is an Australian film, filmed in Queensland, with an all-Australian cast, with the principal actors all coming from Brisbane. (It certainly would show American filmmakers that Australians can do America and Christmas very well.)
This is the story of Annie (Flood) who is an alpha-leader, who has worked in Nepal for three years, setting up schools, establishing libraries and is returning home for a Christmas break before she gets a promotion and moves to Costa Rica. She is welcomed by her family who want her to stay at home. Her Aunt Claire (Amor) tempts her with the prospect of adopting homeless dogs – Annie agrees but will spend her fortnight at home looking for adoptive owners.
She is surprised when she meets up with her old school debating partner/opponent, Dylan (Simat). We know we will not be surprised at what happens at the end with Annie and Dylan, though she is. He is tall, dark and handsome, immediately liked by us the audience (and Aunt Claire declaring him both cute and adorable).
This is a nice town. In fact, throughout the whole film, every character is nice. And there are no suggestions that there could be any un-nice types around – though there is an offscreen threat to the vet that the animals have to be moved before Christmas. Which means that Annie has to go into leadership mode, organise an event to raise $10,000 for the animals. And we enjoy all her endeavours, putting on the pressure, working with Dylan, and all the time getting closer again to her father.
She continues to try to get adoptive owners for the dogs, including a tough martial arts type, Stacy (Cooper Tang), and the owner of the vegetarian caravan diner, Jake (Pyman).
There is some drama towards the end when there is a power outage threatening the success of the event. But, Annie comes to the rescue with generators and other kinds of assistance.
The production logo states the company’s aim is to entertain and inspire. The film is G rated, very much so, which means that everyone can watch it – and it is a nice, easy and undemanding entertainment, a kind of movie Christmas gift.
12 Random Films…
