It’s Christmas in July! At least on the Hallmark Channel, where you can catch a new series of holiday-themed movies all month, starting with Falling Like Snowflakes. In the newest Hallmark romance, a photographer heads out during a winter storm to try and photograph a rare type of snowflake, and is joined by an old high school boyfriend who wants to make sure she stays safe. Speaking of playing it safe, let’s talk about this script, and how the only tension in the film involves a literal patch of black ice…
FALLING LIKE SNOWFLAKES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: A photographer, Teagan (Rachel Dalton), hikes across a snowy hilltop, pausing to lay down a piece of black fabric on the ground. She focuses her lens and takes some incredibly close-up, detailed shots of the snowflakes that land on it.
The Gist: Teagan is a photographer who specializes in snowflakes – so far, she has taken photos of 34 of the 35 different kinds of snowflakes that exist, and they’re all on display at a local art gallery. When a wealthy businessman and art collector, Mr. Garrett (Michael Gordin Shore), visits the gallery, he asks her why she hasn’t photographed the 35th type of snowflake, an elusive 12-sided flake, she explains that for such a snowflake to exist there must be precise weather conditions she has yet to encounter. Mr. Garrett proposes a deal: if she can find and photograph a 12-sided snowflake to complete her collection, he’ll buy them all. It’s quite the offer, considering the proceeds would go directly to the local community center where she teaches a photography class to kids. The center’s heater is broken, obviously, and this money would go a long way toward putting smiles on kids’ frozen little faces, etc. etc.
Eventually Teagan learns that one of her young photography students is Julie, the daughter of her old high school boyfriend Noah Cooper (Marcus Rosner). When Teagan reconnects with Noah, it’s awkward at first, but they rekindle a friendship and remember that they’re both into weather and snow in their own unique ways – Teagan with her snowflake photos, and Noah because he left his job as an atmospheric scientist (a.k.a. a weather man) to take over the local snow plow business from Teagan’s father. When Teagan decides to chase a big storm to catch the perfect photo for her collection, Noah offers to drive her in his plow to make sure she stays safe.
Meanwhile (these kinds of films don’t usually have a “Meanwhile” so where we go…) a rival photographer named Suzanne (Julia Dyan) catches wind of the fact that Mr. Garrett desperately wants a photo of the 12-sided snowflake, so she sets off to capture one for herself to sell it to him, that low-down, dirty snow sneak. As Teagan and Noah head into the eye of the storm, with Suzanne on their heels, they find themselves in the midst of some weather-related glitches (but don’t worry, it’s nothing a few tire chains and newly-requited romance can’t fix).
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? I couldn’t help but think that this movie was essentially just a mild-mannered version of Twister, with a pair of formerly estranged storm chasers/lovers brought together for one more big storm, though this version obviously has much less danger and grit.
Our Take: The biggest fault of Falling Like Snowflakes is its inability to acknowledge conflict or chaos in any way. Hallmark movies all have happy endings and minimal drama, but what stood out in Falling Like Snowflakes was just how easily the tension in the film is broken and resolved. Life is messy and this film offers several instances of that: Noah is a widower trying to give his daughter a better life. Teagan has a professional rival that threatens her success. Teagan loses her camera in the snow during an especially dangerous section of the storm, and thinks she loses all her photos. But every one of these problems is resolved handily or brushed aside, suggesting that for every problem in life, there is a band-aid and a happy ending. Teagan never even bats an eye when she loses her camera, nor does she stress about the fact that the children’s community center really needs her! It’s as if the writers forgot that there was an actual goal or purpose to her storm-chasing halfway through writing the script.
It is especially entertaining that the way that Teagan triumphs over her photography rival, Suzanne, is simply because it turns out Suzanne is just a really bad photographer whose pictures, it turns out, are out of focus. But again, it’s an easy out. Once we learn that, Suzanne is a non-entity. Similarly, the photos that Teagan took during her storm-chasing trip all seemed to be lost – that could have made for an interesting plot pivot, if she actually had to address that and admit it to Mr. Garrett. But no, Noah found her camera in the snow, and it turns out, the camera did capture that rare 12-sided snowflake after all. I certainly don’t mind a happy ending or a tidy film that resolves all its major plot points, but in Falling Like Snowflakes, most of those seem to fall away, as if a plow with ice melt ran over them and they simply disappeared. The only thing that the film (snow) banks on is that Teagan and Noah kiss at the end. But we knew that would happen.
Parting Shot: On Christmas morning, Teagan and Noah stand on a snowy mountain looking out at the vista below. “I want to come back here every Christmas,” she tells him, and he reassures her, “We will.” And then they kiss.
Performance Worth Watching: Julia Dyan is the only character that brings anything complex to her role as Suzanne. She’s not a sinister or conniving as I truly hoped she’d be, but the fact that she’s simply inept is still a clever twist.
Memorable Dialogue: When Mr. Garrett asks Teagan why, if there are 35 known types of snowflakes, she has only photographed 34 of them, she replies with the conviction of Indiana Jones attempting to procure the Holy Grail, “The twelve-sided stellar dendrite. It’s probably the rarest snowflake there is.”
Our Call: SKIP IT. Falling Like Snowflakes is among the most bland Hallmark movies I’ve sat through. Unlike a good, useful packed powder, this one is just a heavy, wet blanket.
Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Falling Like Snowflakes’ on the Hallmark Channel, Where A Photographer and Her Ex Rekindle Their Romance On A Trip To Photograph An Elusive Snowflake appeared first on Decider.
