This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
In present time, we meet Mike and Zian who now have a daughter. It's Christmas Eve and they are preparing for Christmas, each with a special surprise gift for the other. Zian is recreating a memory from Mike’s teen years with his father, and preparing a nice window decoration. Mike is going to surprise Zian with the arrival of his grandfather from the Philippines, whom Zian didn’t know existed since he was also a foster child. The only problem is, Mike may have lost Zian’s grandfather at the airport. Eventually he comes house and turns out he was saved by a doctor named Charlie. We see a couple from 1951. Charlie, is a doctor in military and may soon be heading to Korea and his wife Joan, who has just fractured her arm and so, now Charlie won’t let her do a thing around the house. He wants the Holliday to be special and thinks he can manage all by himself but soon realizes that he is way over in his head. Luckily they have some good neighbors, who help out and that includes a promise to send Joan a Christmas card that Charlie has pre-written every week for the next fifty-two weeks. The 2003 segment features another young couple Sarah and Luke, who have never had a disagreement, but the arrival of both their parents for the holiday may put their idyllic life to the test when it comes to everything from a window decoration to turkey or ham for dinner. One of the cards that Charlie wrote in 1951 somehow ends up being delivered in 2003 where the couple realizes how much the original couple must have been in love. And then we also see that it was the couple from 2003 time period, who started this tradition of putting greeting cards on the window, which is the surprise Zian is trying to give Mike in the present day.
The whole concept of Cherry Lane movies is interesting, but they all have this 'made for TV' feel thats hard to shake. Also personally, I am interested in this only because one of the three stories is about a gay couple. Some stories are better than other. In 2003, I am not sure if it was necessary to focus so much on the constant bickering of the couples two sets of parents. The parents were just a bit ridiculous setting bad examples for the young couple very much in love. The story in 1950s was interesting and is supposed to make you fall in love again, but somehow I just failed to connect with it at any level. It felt more like they’re acting than trying to be real people. The performances are more like stereotypes of characters we’ve seen in classic movies. The story flows better in present times with the gay couple, also likely because they have played these characters before. Their story had interesting tidbits on family, raising kids, traditions and being there for one another. Having said that the couple had very little chemistry. The way they spoke, especially Zian, was like reading rehearsed lines rather than speaking from heart, very theatrical. Anyway, this film had been on the list for a while and I needed to watch it before few more months pass and we have another one of Cherry Lane films showing up in this year. (4/10)
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