Desperately Seeking Santa (2011)

Directed by: Craig Pryce | 84 minutes | comedy, romance | Actors: Laura Vandervoort, Nick Zano, Paula Brancati, John Bregar, Patrick Garrow, Natalie Krill, Gerry Mendicino, Chris Violete, Katie Griffin, Shamier Anderson, Damien Atkins, Lisa Berry, Diane Fabian, Jai Jai Jones, Kim Roberts, Reg Dreger , Maria Carvell

Lovers of sweet romantic movies can have some fun around the holiday season with The Hallmark Channel’s annual series of holiday movies. You usually don’t have to expect a good story, exceptional acting and an original angle. You do get the holiday feeling as they have defined it in America in thick dollops spread over an at best mediocre story in which the two protagonists endlessly revolve around each other while everyone around them – including the viewer – has long known that they were made for each other. to be. ‘Desperately Seeking Santa’ (2011) fits that picture perfectly. The leading role is played by Laura Vandervoort, a Canadian actress with Dutch roots who we saw earlier in ‘The Lookout’ (2007) and series such as ‘Smallville’. Her opponent is Nick Zano (‘The Final Destination’, 2009). Decent actors, but not exactly ‘A-list’. Keep that in mind if you decide to watch ‘Desperately Seeking Santa’.

Vandervoort is Jennifer Walker, the ambitious manager of the Boston South Mall. With the holidays, it’s all about one thing for entrepreneurs: making as much turnover as possible. Jennifer is made responsible for the Christmas promotion by her boss (Edgar Hillridge) and with her coveted promotion in view, she does her utmost to get as much money as possible from ‘the most wonderful time of the year’. She comes up with the ingenious plan to find a Sexy Santa, who has to convince women (because they apparently still do all the Christmas shopping in conservative America). During the auditions, student David Moretti (Nick Zano) turns out to be the favorite of many women: he is not only sexy, but also intelligent, sweet and modest. Too good to be true? After a collision earlier, Jennifer isn’t all that enthusiastic about David, but most of the votes count and he gets the contract. The accompanying salary slip suits him well, because his father’s (Gerry Mendicino) Italian restaurant is at the top of the list to be smashed to make way for an expensive residential tower. He wants to use the money to pay lawyers to put a stop to this. Just as Jennifer gets to know David a little better and begins to fall for him (surprise…), she learns that her boss and her backstabbing boyfriend Neal (John Bregar) are responsible for the suffering of David’s family.

Will she opt for the promotion that is increasingly beckoning, or will she let her heart speak? To ask the question is to answer it. But it won’t surprise anyone that ‘Desperately Seeking Santa’ isn’t exactly surprising. Writer Michael J. Murray and director Craig Pryce deliver formulaic work without an ounce of inspiration. It is thanks to the actors that the film can still be watched. Although Laura Vandervoort plays a standard role of the cold career woman who slowly but surely defrosts and comes to see what really matters in life, but she does this well. After all, it is not her fault that the transformation she is going through is so short-sighted. Nick Zano has possibly even less to do than David, the personification of perfection, that makes you wonder why he took this role in the first place (because such a role is not challenging of course). The supporting actors have the thankless task of pushing the plot forward and/or providing a comic relief, without being able to profile themselves.

With a better, more exciting script, a director with more elan and inspiration and really good actors, ‘Desperately Seeking Santa’ might have become something more. But this is exactly what you can expect from a Hallmark production: predictable uniform sausage topped with a Christmas sauce that makes little impression. Nice ‘wallpaper’ during the holidays, but nothing more.