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Christmas In The Clouds

2005, Movie, PG, 96 mins

Christmas In The Clouds: Review

CHRISTMAS IN THE CLOUDS
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First-timer Kate Montgomery's utterly formulaic romantic comedy, which kicked around the festival circuit for nearly four years before starting to play theaters in 2005, boasts a contemporary Native American setting and enough awkward, fresh-faced charm to make its mechanical complications surprisingly palatable. With Christmas approaching, feisty old Joe Clouds on Fire (Sam Vlahos), who lives out West and has been flirting with a widowed pen pal in New York, is faced with the prospect of a visit from his long-distance sweetie. His letters have painted a less than scrupulously honest picture of his age and circumstances, but he plans to spruce up his image by winning a cherry-red Jeep Cherokee at a local bingo tournament. Joe has no idea that Tina Little Hawk (Mariana Tosca) is actually the same age as his son, Ray (Tim Vahle), who left the reservation for greener pastures but returned after a bitter divorce and now manages the ski resort owned and operated under tribal authority. Ray has just learned that a writer for the prestigious "Worthington Travel Guide" will be checking in incognito, and pins his hopes for the resort's future on earning a four-star rating. Meanwhile, Tina decides to use her Christmas vacation to meet her epistolary Romeo but is cautious enough to come unannounced, stay in a hotel — Ray's resort — and hide behind her father's surname — Pisato — so she can check things out first. Naturally, she mistakes Ray for Joe and is in turn mistaken for the mysterious travel writer, dyspeptic, alcoholic Stu O’Malley (M. Emmet Walsh). Add in vacationing older English lady Mabel Winwright (Rosalind Ayres), who takes an immediate shine to Joe, and if you don't know how the plot will play out, you haven't seen a romantic comedy since CHRISTMAS IN CONNECTICUT (1945). Why a story this blandly mainstream had to be developed with help from the Sundance Institute is a minor mystery, as is the reason why no one persuaded Montgomery to drop old Joe's gratingly folksy voice-over. But the fact that it was shot at the picturesque Utah resort is a huge plus and the film is so unabashedly eager to please — from its amiably quirky characters to the paint-and-feather-decorated house mouse that keeps turning up in unexpected places — that it's hard not to hope things work out for everyone, even though you know perfectly they will. leave a comment --Maitland McDonagh
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