Co-writer-director Christin Baker brings holiday cheer this year with The Christmas Writer. Noel (Shelby Allison Brown) is a lesbian writer of Christmas books, but she’s not feeling it this year while grieving the death of her mother. A non-festive writer’s block is keeping her from thinking about Christmas. When Noel comes home from a book signing to find her girlfriend in bed with another woman, she decides to head to her small hometown of Pinewood to rest and reset. Her grandmother welcomes her warmly, but the depression persists.
Adding to Noel’s anxiety is that her publisher is hounding the author for a new Christmas book as she struggles to feel any holiday cheer. She also learns that with her mother gone, her grandmother is lonely. She bumps along the bottom until she meets Callie (Callie Bussell), the new owner of the local bookstore. Callie is holding a contest for the best Christmas story, with Noel to be the judge. This turns out to be unexpected fun for Noel. Contestants filter through to pitch their ideas, and Noel meets the most unusual people, to her great amusement.
Over coffee, Noel learns that Callie is lovely, single, and also gay. There is a spark, but Noel rejects the notion of a new romance as being an added complication with her other issues. The mutual attraction, however, is undeniable, and is also noticed by Noel’s family and friends, who pester her about it. Will Callie become her Christmas muse? If something should develop, will Noel go back to the city, or will she stay in Pinewood?
“Callie is holding a contest for the best Christmas story, with Noel to be the judge.”
The Christmas Writer is a fine example of a formulaic romance, and the viewer who lives on a steady diet of this style of entertainment (which is a startlingly large audience) will be pleased. There was clearly sufficient budget, as the production values are high. The cinematography is good, as is the editing, pacing, and soundtrack. The performances are adequate to the style, with Brown doing the heavy lifting. As with all Christmas Romances, emotions run high, but we know catharsis is right around the corner.
A character named Noel in a Christmas film is obviously too on the nose and would never fly in any other genre, but the rules are different here. Making this a lesbian story is a fresh, welcome variation. I must have missed the memo that the “Hallmark” genre had made its way into the LGBTQ+ space, but it’s about time.
This genre of Christmas romance uses a script that is essentially made from a Mad Lib template. You can find at least several other films with a parallel plot but different locations, character names, and conflicts. Of course, sooner or later, there will be Christmas carols, or a song about holiday cheer with a cozy fireplace, or about being away from home. It’s either chestnuts roasting on an open fire or it’s a blue Christmas. The Christmas Writer is no exception.
Baker’s film does have more gravitas than the usual holiday schlock as Noel worries about small-town hate for LGBTQ+ people. Callie tells her that she has found warm acceptance in Pinewood. A nitpick with the script logic is that Noel is torn between staying in Pinewood or being a writer… but a writer can live anywhere and still write.
The Christmas Writer is loaded with poignant beats to pluck at the heartstrings. This would be unforgivably manipulative in any other genre, but for those who love a Christmas romance, this is the heartwarming emotional core the viewers are here for.
"…loaded with poignant beats to pluck at the heartstrings."
