the story
It's 1914, in the beginnings of World War I, and is close to Christmas (the movie ends on Christmas Eve).The King household is turned upside-down when a telegram comes in, stating that Felix is listed as missing in action. Janet is especially upset; she and Hetty quarrel over the matter. This leaves Janet strongly against the war effort and Hetty the total opposite.
Meanwhile, Hetty is having problems of her own. She is attempting to find some high-quality talent for her Christmas concert to top Carmody's (both are being held on the same night). She goes to Charlottetown to find such talent and, while there, her back goes out on her. She is admitted to the hospital and discovers she needs surgery to remove a tumor on her spine. (Ouch.)
On top of all that, Felicity's life goes into a tail-spin as well. She is forced to send the Dean children away to live with their aunt and uncle in Fredericton. Afterward, Felicity has no choice but to sell the Foundling Home and look for another job.
I would tell you how everything came out in the end, but I don't want to spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it yet.
in my opinion...
Happy Christmas was a good movie. However, I do have a couple of complaints.
1) Most of the major characters (Sara, Izzy, Gus, Jasper, Davy and Dora) were omitted from the plot. I do know some of the actors themselves were unavailable for filming (big reason why the characters were written out), but still, more major characters would have helped.
2) Nothing was really resolved during the movie. We never really see Janet and Hetty make up, unless the impression was they would agree to disagree and forget about it. Nor does Janet come to terms with the fact that all her "babies" (mainly Felicity and Felix) are grown up and have their own lives. Plus, what was Felix doing all the time he was listed missing? Happy Christmas could have easily been a two-part miniseries, provided the writers went into more detail about stuff that was going on. (However, it does give fan fiction writers something to write about!)
miscellaneous stuff
There were some other things, though: the costumes were great, and there were some period details (a box of Quaker Oats, all the electric lamps, a lot of men wearing jeans--although we saw that throughout the series) throughout the movie. The theme of the movie is pretty obvious, too: change is eminent, and there's nothing you can do to stop or prolong it.my rating (on a scale of 1 to 10)
I give Happy Christmas, Miss King a 8--given the fact that there should have been more major characters and it could easily be made a two-parter.Review ©1999 by Shelly T.