A Star-Crossed Christmas

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Very little if anything is done awfully, but at the same time 'The Spruces and the Pines' isn't exactly distinguished.

John Stimpson, 2017) — also known by the less Bardtastic title The Spruces and the Pines — is a classic made-for-TV Christmas Movie. While the Romeo and Juliet story is not new and has been done many times, it is a slightly different approach to a Christmas story. By contrast, balsam firs, while belonging to the large family Pinaceae, are not members of the genera Pinus, but belong to the separate genus Abies. They are my not-so-guilty pleasure — overworked city girl goes to seasonally-named small town where she discovers a wholesome cookie-scented life assisted by an estranged high-school sweetheart/local grumpy hunk with an SUV and emotional back story.Add to this the character of the bear of a man Josh, perfectly portrayed by John MacGregor and the sweet, sassy, and beautiful Holly, nicely acted by Sarah Fischer, then you have strong character base to keep you interested. The course of true love never did run smooth, and our plucky heroine grapples with major setbacks (lost cookie recipes, missing baubles, or run-away puppies) on her way to the inevitable happy ending in the snow (not a euphemism — these are family-friendly films all the way! Julie (Jonna Walsh) and Rick (Nick Ballard) fall in love despite being on opposite sides of feuding Christmas-tree-farm families. Happily, all of this is resolved, partly because Holly discovers some old photos from when Dave and James and Julie's mother before she married, and Martha were all happy friends together; and partly because Julie explores some of her mother's boxes of belongings, discovers the family's misplaced Christmas-tree topper - a large crystal star - and three letters written on her deathbed by Julie's mother - one to Julie, another to her husband, James, and a third to Dave Spruce.

Yes, it is the old boy meets girl, they fall in love with each other (quickly) and then find out who each other are and their family have a feud with each other BUT it is done in such a nice NOT cheesy way (OK, maybe slightly cheesy Lol) that you actually like and enjoy the film and it is actually quite funny also. It turns out there are, in fact, people who don’t want to watch the same film with a different name five times a day! They agree it is more than time that the feuding stop, but they realise that, for the time being, they are forced by their circumstances to hide their Yuletide relationship.No masked ball for these two but a meet cute orchestrated by Martha (Kathy Harum), the local baker, in the role of Nurse/Friar/Prince acting as matchmaker, go-between, peacekeeper and (spoiler alert) romantic interest for Dave Spruce. But the audacity of a cookies- and-cocoa Christmasification of Romeo and Juliet make this film essential festive viewing for any Bardophile. But all is not cookies and cocoa in this sleepy backwater — with the recent death of Julie’s mother (what is it with Shakespeare and missing mothers? It naturally centres on "Christmas", because of the seasonal setting of the rival Christmas tree farms, but not for what Christmas is really about, such as, the Nativity, and/or Santa Claus. When they realise they each come from different sides of the bitter Pine-Spruce feud, Julie initially rejects Rick.

Wikipedia's article on "Pine" tells us: "A tea made by steeping young, green pine needles in boiling water (known as tallstrunt in Sweden) is high in vitamins A and C".Rick, who Respects the Troops, offers the tree free of charge and thanks the Troops for their service.

Dave Spruce too gets in on the allusions act: “Pines are soft and thin, the branches bow under the slightest weight. In the Capulet corner we have James Pine (Tom Kemp), recently widowed and just about holding it together. The only characters I enjoyed (apart from the soldier because we respect the troops) were side characters Bear and Holly, who’ve been having a secret inter-feud triste of their own for months without making such a meal of it. Sadly falls prey to a common plight: all the male characters act and speak like little girls, perhaps in an effort to make the main female character seem strong in comparison.Against their families' wills, Julie Pine, daughter of James Pine (whose wife died almost a year ago), comes home from university, with only one semester remaining in her Horticultural degree, to help her father with the Christmas rush. Time and location aren't divulged, and none of the actors ever behave as if there's a chill in the air. It was cute and heart-warming so a pleasant and nothing to be offended by watch, but also on the too safe and bland side at other points (not to mention it not being much different from other Christmas films in some of the material). Julie and Rick fall in love despite being on opposite sides of feuding Christmas-tree-farm families.