CHRISTMAS IN ANGEL FALLS
US, 2017, 85 minutes, Colour.
Rachel Boston, Paul Green, Beau Bridges, Bill Lake, Jill Frappier.
Directed by Bradley Walsh.
There seems to have always been a place for Christmas films in cinemas and on television. Here is another.
It can be described as a “nice film� that would test some audience’s tolerance of “niceness�. It is very American in its themes, exuberance of characters, sentiment and even sentimentality.
The basic plot is not unfamiliar. Rachel Boston portrays Gabriel Messenger, Gabby, an angel who gets involved in human situations but is in danger of disobeying angel rules by becoming more personally attached to characters. She is supervised by Beau Bridges as Michael D’Angelo? who is a friend for Gabby but is always reminding her of the rules before he suddenly disappears. Ultimately, she asks him to bend the rules – and if Wim Wenders’ angels can become human in Wings of Desire, why not in a popular Christmas telemovie?
The impact depends on Rachel Boston as Gabby, who smiles, grins, laughs, giggles, chortles, and every other form of laughter in an enthusiastically extrovert way. For everyone it is a greeting with hi. Everything is beautiful.
Angel Falls has lost its mill, people go elsewhere for work, buildings are shut down, people are over-busy and grumpy with one another. It needs the Christmas spirit.
There is a lot of talk about Christmas spirit, the mood for Christmas, one of the central settings, in fact, is a Church, and there are decorations and singing of Christmas carols. There are also some images, stained-glass windows. However, Jesus and the events of Bethlehem are never explicitly mentioned – a phenomenon of many American Christmas movies.
Gabby is highly motivated, is to become a volunteer coordinator in the town but there are no volunteers. There is, however, an enthusiastic pastor and he encourages her. Gabby also makes friends with Jack, a jack of all trades in the town – and, obviously romance will be in the offing, with Gabby making a final decision. Angel Michael is forever quoting “free will�, that people have to make their own decisions – and finally allows an angel to exercise her free will.
The action is as expected. Gabby meets everyone, glows in their presence, cheers them up, listens to their stories, decorates the church, encourages the carol singers, continues to get help from Jack, collaborates with a young woman to set up a town Christmas website, encourages a little girl who was looking forward to the pageant which has been stopped because the town centre is not in use – and, of course, she encourages so many people to help repair the town centre and the pageant goes ahead.
For those who like happy films, no difficulties. For those who find it difficult to take a glut of niceness, a caution.
