Now that we are done with the Turkey Day food. Well hopefully the leftovers are gone by now. We have made thru Black Friday and Cyber Monday alive, if not broke. What does that leave us with? Holiday movie fun! Ok, there is also travel too!
Makesure to watch the clip below
While I have another cup of coffee, let’s talk about ghosts and tea. Charles Dickens put ghosts upfront for Xmas with A Christmas Carol, for me it will always be The Nightmare Before Christmas that gets me in the holiday mood and wanting to take a trip to the land of rides and winter sun.
But we are here to talk about another afterlife holiday film, Freeform’s newest original holiday movie Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas. So is this holiday Rom-com film worth two hours of your night? Let’s see.
The film stars Aisha Dee (Freeform’s The Bold Type) as Jess along with her soulmate and best friend Kara played by Kimiko Glenn (Ducktales), who steals the show at times as the lovable, new age, teaista (I am a coffee person, if this is the wrong term).
The movie starts off with the needed backstory for Jess, how she has strong feelings about female empowerment and rights, but she’s searching for a larger purpose. Meanwhile, her equally free-spirited friend Kara seems to have everything together as she pursues her passion for tea.
The core of the story gets going when Jess is in her car and on her cell heading home from her first date with Ben, played by Kendrick Sampson (How to Get Away With Murder), Jess dies in auto accident while playing with her phone. (While we here at ToT don’t believe in texting and driving, this scene was too heavy handed and “papa don’t preach”-y.)
Now the fun of “Ghosting” starts – Jess is stuck on earth unable to move on to the next realm and the only people who can see her are Kara and Ben. For the non gen Y and Xers, Ghosting is a term for someone who doesn’t follow up after a date or suddenly disappears from a relationship.
Ben thinks he has been ghosted by Jess since she doesn’t communicate with him after their great first date. Well, being dead makes returning texts difficult, after all ghosts can’t use touch screens. Duh! During his funk about being ghosted, we meet the fourth major charter of the film, Ben’s sister Mae played by Jazz Raycole (The Quad). Mae gives the flick a great foil for Kara, as well as a potential love interest. Missi Pyle (Dodgeball) has small but vital role as Kara’s spiritual adviser and steals a few scenes even though she seems to be mostly used to move the story along.
Many Freeform original films don’t always hit the spot for me. They have a strong starting premise but some of them either get lost in trying too hard to make funny moments, which are just flat on their own or just don’t work for the actor in that role – sometimes both.
The ride to see if Jess can make her ascension is an enjoyable one. Both Aisha Dee and Kimiko Glenn have the skill to pull off the pages given to them. In fact, extra props to Kimiko Glenn in keeping her charter lovable and quirky. In lesser hands, the role could have been turned into unlikable trope. While the film could have have told the story with in 90 time allotment, TV movies are 2 hours by default. Yes, the “special effects” are not going to be a subject of a Corridor Crew video. But this isn’t that type of movie.
Yes, we get a heartwarming resolution to the story in tone is the vein of It’s a Wonderful Life, at the same time we get one of the best original holiday films from the network. It is a fun ride and makes you happy at end. Isn’t that the goal for a holiday film? We give it 3.5 our 5 stars.
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas — executive-produced by Lisa Kudrow (Web Therapy) and Dan Bucatinsky (Scandal), along with vets Tony Phelan (Grey’s Anatomy) and Joan Rater (Grey’s Anatomy). Theresa Bennett directs from a script penned by Laura Donney.
Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas premieres Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 9/8c on Freeform.
(Photos: Freeform)
