3.5 stars (out of 5)
Indie-champ Zach Clark wrote, produced, edited and directed this tough-love drama (with glimmers of darkly sweet comedy), and it’s one for those who find the whole yuletide thing difficult, and vastly preferable to your umpteenth viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life or Love Actually or the Masterchef Christmas Special or whatever.
Suzanne Barrington (Anna Margaret Hollyman) is looking forward to Christmas and awaiting the move from Virginia to Hawaii so that her husband Jeff (Nathan Williams) can take up a TV weatherman gig. However, Jeff is murdered in a break-in on December 1, and while Suzanne painfully grieves as Christmas approaches there are twists and turns here that lead to surprise revelations and friendships, as well as the terrible feeling that she never truly knew her beloved.
And while there have been grim Xmas-themed (and proudly anti-Xmas) pics before, Clark’s film vividly demonstrates that bad things still happen despite the happy holidays, as Suzanne works hard to be full of good cheer while falling apart and uncovering secrets that can’t be mentioned here.
Featuring fine work from an unknown cast (Chris Doubek as Detective Ross, Yvonne and Leo Erickson as Suzanne’s parents, Laura Lemar-Goldsborough as Fantasia), this is nevertheless mostly about Hollyman, a star of the low/no-budget scene and delivering a cautiously subtle, sometimes funny and often uncomfortably melancholy performance.
And ho ho damn ho.
I Wake Up Screening 