For those who don't know, in JFS, the play follows two actors, a boy named Brian, and a girl named Beth (the sister of Brian's friend, Jerry) from the ages of 8/7 through 23/22. It's pretty much a mixture of childhood squabbles, having fun, puberty, awkward encounters, comedic jealousy, attraction/denial, over these years. This is all done through a series of flashbacks. The movie is virtually identical. We start when the protagonists, Kat and Sam, first meet around the age of 7, and over the course of the film - specifically for the yearly Christmas party - their relationship changes as they age and as they develop a sense of themselves and of what they want. Weirdly, both stories also have a fairly dramatic sequence where the two leads are about to confess their true inner feelings for the other, before they are drawn into an argument and break off contact for a few years before the big climax.
Although JFS and Love Under the Christmas Table are very similar, so much so that I felt the need to talk about them together, there is one key area where the play's ability to tell a story is superior, and this is the reason why I didn't give the movie a 10/10. In JFS, the play opens with the character of Brian, age 23, introducing himself and the situation to an audience. Beth comes and goes at different ages, and Brian goes back and forth to different ages during the flashbacks, but always has a monologue to help frame the scenes, sequences, and the passage of time. By the time of the big confrontation where Brian confesses his love to Beth, they are in the present day when he's 23 and she's 22. This movie starts off with voice-over narration by the male protagonist on the night he's planning to ask Kat to marry him (so "the present" in the film's narrative), but after that there is absolutely no narration. None. The scenes come and go with only a title card giving their ages. This is helpful, but we have no sense of what is happening between encounters other than what you pick up in conversation with party guests year in, year out.
So here's the big takeaway from my ramble. The movie is very good. There's some excellent chemistry between Danica and Dustin. You believe their attraction, their joy, pain, frustration, and confusion. You see them in intimate moments of friendship and flirtation, and their situation does hold your attention. I like the setting - the same house year after year with the same people, except the kids get a little older, and there are more of them as people get married and have children. There's an adorable dance sequence between the leads, and Danica, in particular, is so captivating you can't take your eyes off her. I mentioned above a big argument. There are three sequences in a row, the dance (age 23, I think), where Kat takes Sam to see her workshop and they confess more than friendship to each other (age 24), and a big fight (age 25, again, I'm going from memory with the ages here). The argument seems forced at first, because you're not given much information about what's going on between these characters over the course of a year, but you understand that Kat is upset that Sam only comes home once a year, and he's upset that she wants to stay right where she is and never leave. Mean-spirited words are said by both, and while they shock you with how hurtful they are, you also get a sense that this feels very real. People fight this way and when people get hurt, or feel vulnerable, they hit back just as hard. We also learn that this is when Sam had originally planned to propose, which he has to put off for (I think) five more years.
Although the payoff is somewhat convoluted - (there's a cardboard workshop that's created, but later the inside of the house is decorated for a proposal, but because of the issues that go down during the climax you're not certain if this is all Dustin, or the family, or who exactly is playing who. Again, this is the biggest problem. The narrative structure could have been tighter with one of the two characters being given storytelling duties. They start off with Sam doing this and drop it no more than five minutes into the picture) - you still feel joyful and moved by their happiness.
It's a good movie for a date. It's a good movie for a romantic. It's a good movie for those who like different storytelling structures, or who like stage plays because it feels like one. It's not the best movie for someone just wanting to pass the night away, since the flashback style of the film requires you to actually think about the story more than a film with a traditional structure.
I say check it out. It's not a bad movie. Just a little confusing at times.
Oh, there is one thing I want to add that irked me, but I didn't take any points off the film for it. So Kat works at a furniture manufacturing place (I think her dad owns it???) and she's either a builder or designer (maybe both???), while Sam is college educated and a newspaper reporter. We learn a little more about Kat than we do Sam, and that's a point that even the characters mention during a specific scene. My issue is that when Sam is talking to his parents about his proposal to Kat (this is when he thinks the proposal is off, since he was told that Kat wasn't interested and he didn't want to break her heart) we find out that Sam bought a house for the two of them in Upstate New York. A little much before the two even went on a date, let alone gotten engaged, but I'll allow it for the sake of the romance of the film. Here's what irked me, Sam tells his parents he gave up his newspaper job to work as a logger. Yeah, no. If you see this guy, the kind of guy he is, there is no way - and in no universe - this guy becomes a logger in Upstate New York. They should have just made him a reporter in Syracuse or something. It's a minor point, but since it comes so close to the end of the film it was fresh in my mind.
See it. Enjoy it. Have a Happy Holiday!
Although JFS and Love Under the Christmas Table are very similar, so much so that I felt the need to talk about them together, there is one key area where the play's ability to tell a story is superior, and this is the reason why I didn't give the movie a 10/10. In JFS, the play opens with the character of Brian, age 23, introducing himself and the situation to an audience. Beth comes and goes at different ages, and Brian goes back and forth to different ages during the flashbacks, but always has a monologue to help frame the scenes, sequences, and the passage of time. By the time of the big confrontation where Brian confesses his love to Beth, they are in the present day when he's 23 and she's 22. This movie starts off with voice-over narration by the male protagonist on the night he's planning to ask Kat to marry him (so "the present" in the film's narrative), but after that there is absolutely no narration. None. The scenes come and go with only a title card giving their ages. This is helpful, but we have no sense of what is happening between encounters other than what you pick up in conversation with party guests year in, year out.
So here's the big takeaway from my ramble. The movie is very good. There's some excellent chemistry between Danica and Dustin. You believe their attraction, their joy, pain, frustration, and confusion. You see them in intimate moments of friendship and flirtation, and their situation does hold your attention. I like the setting - the same house year after year with the same people, except the kids get a little older, and there are more of them as people get married and have children. There's an adorable dance sequence between the leads, and Danica, in particular, is so captivating you can't take your eyes off her. I mentioned above a big argument. There are three sequences in a row, the dance (age 23, I think), where Kat takes Sam to see her workshop and they confess more than friendship to each other (age 24), and a big fight (age 25, again, I'm going from memory with the ages here). The argument seems forced at first, because you're not given much information about what's going on between these characters over the course of a year, but you understand that Kat is upset that Sam only comes home once a year, and he's upset that she wants to stay right where she is and never leave. Mean-spirited words are said by both, and while they shock you with how hurtful they are, you also get a sense that this feels very real. People fight this way and when people get hurt, or feel vulnerable, they hit back just as hard. We also learn that this is when Sam had originally planned to propose, which he has to put off for (I think) five more years.
Although the payoff is somewhat convoluted - (there's a cardboard workshop that's created, but later the inside of the house is decorated for a proposal, but because of the issues that go down during the climax you're not certain if this is all Dustin, or the family, or who exactly is playing who. Again, this is the biggest problem. The narrative structure could have been tighter with one of the two characters being given storytelling duties. They start off with Sam doing this and drop it no more than five minutes into the picture) - you still feel joyful and moved by their happiness.
It's a good movie for a date. It's a good movie for a romantic. It's a good movie for those who like different storytelling structures, or who like stage plays because it feels like one. It's not the best movie for someone just wanting to pass the night away, since the flashback style of the film requires you to actually think about the story more than a film with a traditional structure.
I say check it out. It's not a bad movie. Just a little confusing at times.
Oh, there is one thing I want to add that irked me, but I didn't take any points off the film for it. So Kat works at a furniture manufacturing place (I think her dad owns it???) and she's either a builder or designer (maybe both???), while Sam is college educated and a newspaper reporter. We learn a little more about Kat than we do Sam, and that's a point that even the characters mention during a specific scene. My issue is that when Sam is talking to his parents about his proposal to Kat (this is when he thinks the proposal is off, since he was told that Kat wasn't interested and he didn't want to break her heart) we find out that Sam bought a house for the two of them in Upstate New York. A little much before the two even went on a date, let alone gotten engaged, but I'll allow it for the sake of the romance of the film. Here's what irked me, Sam tells his parents he gave up his newspaper job to work as a logger. Yeah, no. If you see this guy, the kind of guy he is, there is no way - and in no universe - this guy becomes a logger in Upstate New York. They should have just made him a reporter in Syracuse or something. It's a minor point, but since it comes so close to the end of the film it was fresh in my mind.
See it. Enjoy it. Have a Happy Holiday!