When Christmas Was Young (2022 TV Movie)
Pleasant enough Christmas romance
23 December 2022
Here we go again. CBS gives us yet another pretty woman who doesn't want to do what the demanding man wants, and yet we're supposed to believe they will end up together after they get off to a really bad start.

And yet it's the formula I'm glad CBS is giving us over and over. I wish more of the movies on stations I can watch were like this. I'm not yet willing to deal with streaming, free or not. Who has the time?

Despite being pestered by this obnoxious music executive, single mom Melody Douglass is always polite and tries to be friendly. And when she can, she persuades this man to actually work for what he wants, even though she seems unlikely to give it to him. And surely these two won't get together? They despise each other. Well, not really, but being polite doesn't mean a romance will happen. Does it?

And this executive Luke Dawson is unbelievably nasty when the movie starts. You wonder how someone like him will be able to avoid saying those things which will make the TV-G rating go away. And yet somehow, the movie keeps that TV-G rating viewers were shown at the start. He says two curse words total (these are allowed) and he's not even mad when he says them. But somehow, Luke becomes much more pleasant and even nice. Scheming is more like it, but we actually believe him. Maybe he is sincere.

Grace Sunar is an adorable daughter. And an actor with one name, Dhirendra, doesn't have much to say but is a loving father to our female lead. With his accent I'm guessing he wasn't born in this country but iwhere he is from is never revealed or relevant.

Barbara Wallace is kind of a female Scrooge who is having trouble enjoying the holiday. In her brief time in the movie, can she too make a similar transformation? I will say she does a great job.

And of course this is one of those ideal Christmas towns, with snow and everything. The snow is on the TV screen, the only place I want it. A couple of camera shots are really beautiful where it is established this town is in the mountains. Not Tennessee, of course, but someplace in Canada pretending to be Tennessee, according to the credits. And one scene takes place at a beautiful lake outside town.

This movie is about music, and there is some good music. The song for which this movie is named is pleasant enough. I'm not that interested in the meaning of the words and a description of an ideal Christmas, I'm interested in how the music sounds, because you can have great lyrics with terrible music. But for someone who is more tolerant than I am, the music will likely be enjoyable. There are traditional carols performed in the traditional style, and there is country music which to me sounds more like rock, and not the sort of thing I want to hear at Christmas. And some country music that sounds good. It's not actually the bad kind of country but I'm just saying how I feel.

Once again, CBS has come up with a variation on the formula that works.
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