dir. Sean Olson
There is truly nothing that can be said about Christmas Wonderland that hasn’t already been said about all the generic Hallmark Christmas films. Our heroine Heidi returns to her quaint little home town which she left behind to pursue her big city dreams – in this case, being an assistant at an art gallery. She becomes reacquainted with her high school boyfriend – in this case, a square-jawed, blander than bland, personality-devoid teacher. Being in such a nice homely environment reignites her own creative passion – in this case, painting pictures of festive scenes in horrible poppy colours, resulting in art that even a children’s advent calendar company would reject as too offensively terrible to use. It’s a tale as old as time, made only slightly remarkable by little quirks such as one little girl’s cringe-inducing singing, and grandparents who pop up for half a scene and do absolutely nothing before disappearing forever. All in all, it’s what Hallmark does best: frivolous, formulaic and forgettable.
BMDb 