MovieChat Forums > Christmas in Palm Springs (2014) Discussion > Nothing uplifting about it....Spoilers

Nothing uplifting about it....Spoilers


This was shown on the "UP" channel for uplifting entertainment. It wasn't uplifting at all to watch but rather annoying. The wife was a real piece of work. She was extremely insensitive and selfish; being overly concerned with her own desires, needs, and interests over those of her children, husband and marriage.

First of all, she seperated from her husband because she doesn't like the fact that she thinks he hasn't grown up and he wants to be friends with his kids. She complains that he always makes her out to be the bad guy to them. Bad guy? She is the bad guy!

She gets made at him for not being there with the kids while she's at a meeting yet she has no problem later leaving them alone in a hotel room while she's working. She takes the kids away from home and her husband at christmas to Palm springs although they had plans for them to be with him during the holiday. He even turned down a very lucrative job in LA to be with them. She tells her husband that she wants to chase her dream yet criticizes him for chasing his although he's doing very well.

When her husband shows up in Palm springs, she gets angry and tells him that him being there could ruin everything for her. She tells her boss that her husband is in Palm springs and he obviously acts annoyed by the news. She then tells him that it's over and her husband is leaving. When her husband decides to stay, for some reason she initially resists his offer to help her by entertaining the kids. She then is reluctant to let her boss know that her husband is still in Palm Springs.

She resists her husband's attempts to reconcile, does nothing to discourage flirting by other men and acts like she's oblivious to her boss's blatant attempts at winning her affections, although it's obvious to her husband and kids. She says nothing to discourage her boss's subtle and inappropriate physical contact or suggestions of extracurricular activity. She allows her boss to unfairly criticize her husband and even lets him know that as far as her husband is concerned, she's is ready to move on and up.

It all comes to a head when she tells her husband she wants a divorce, telling him that she doesn't want him getting in the way of her chasing her dream. At that point I wished he had agreed to the divorce and preemptivly filed for it himself and petionied for full custody of the kids since he was a much better father to them than her as a mother.

Like I said, there was nothing uplifting about this movie at all except for the hurried cheesy ending. Inexplicably, the wife has a sudden change of heart which didn't make much sense. Absolutely nothing had happened or changed after she told her husband that she's divorcing him. There was no real moment of redemption on her part where she comes to realize the error of her ways, just a sudden and unexplained change of mind for no apparent reason. On top of that, she doesn't even apologize to her kids or husband for the way she behaved and treated them.

Final thought...is she trying to impress her boss with her talent or the tight skirts and deep necklines of her blouses?

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Came home for the weekend and found my folks watching this. It's just plain bad, no two ways about it. Absurdly generic Tom Cavanagh-caliber fare that follows the same weak tropes of your average ABC Family Christmas movie, just written worse. The writing and acting just plain suck, but what do you expect from a movie premiering on a channel devoted to uplifting entertainment?

Side bar--that drawn out parade scene with the horrid musical performance and super-imposed hotel consierge... Holy hell.

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Why can't I walk down the street, free of suggestion?

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Agree with many of your points, but disagree about others. At first I liked the Patrick Muldoon Character: I thought he was funny and unpredictable. After about half way through though, he started to get on my nerves and I started seeing what the mother was so frustrated over. He was irresponsible and immature and probably needed to be on ritalin for his ADHD. He not only was driving his wife crazy, but his agent and the executives who wanted to invest millions of dollars in him as well. She was a good parent, and the kids recognized that. I thought her boss valued her talents and also liked her, but I did not see any reason for the husband to be so intrusive and interfering. She had a lot on her plate work-wise and thought she kept it together pretty well considering her unreasonable husband, kids, and client. I too did not understand how it ended the way it ended with them reconciling in the end.

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