My next film was a big deal when it first aired at Christmas 2020, being as this romantic comedy was the very first LGBTQ+ themed festive movie ever broadcast by the traditionally strait-laced Lifetime TV network. About time. There’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about the plot of The Christmas Set-Up - like most Hallmark/Lifetime holiday romance tales, this one involves a lonely, soul-searching singleton heading back to their hometown for Christmas and finding love and a new lease on life with an old high school crush. The differences here are that the two romantic leads are dudes and that, luckily, the script is a cut above the usual cheese one might expect from these films. It’s evident that all concerned with making it were aware of the significance of what they were doing here and took the time to put some care and affection into the film’s plot, casting and execution.
Pat Mills’ film brings us the story of big city lawyer Hugo (Ben Lewis), who heads home to Milwaukee to spend the holidays with his mum and brother. As per, he’s forced to consider what he’s looking for in life when he bumps into his hunky first love Patrick (Blake Lee), right around the same time he’s offered a promotion to his firm’s offices in London. Will he choose his career, or woozy, dreamy doe-eyed love? Who’s to say?
For me this one completely succeeds as a film about gay characters because it doesn’t treat these lovers as any different from how a hetero couple might be handled in a Lifetime movie. Everything feels organic and natural, there’s no dramatic ‘coming out’ scene and no eyebrows are raised at Hugo and Patrick’s sexuality - being a gay man is treated as a very normal thing, as it should be. I feel glad that not just movies, but our whole society is moving in a direction where being gay doesn’t have to be treated as a huge, scandalous deal. I mean, yes, I understand that many gay men may still have it harder than these guys - absolutely everyone in town is supportive, encouraging and truly happy for these guys to have found each other - but the film presents an idealistic view of the world that’s surely not too difficult to achieve if only each and every backwards-thinking individual would just try. Why shouldn’t it be this easy for two pleasant men to meet and fall in love?
It does all feel slightly contrived that these two men happen to find each other and keep bumping into one another all over town, until you realise that their strings are being expertly pulled by Hugo’s O.T.T. sweetheart of a mom, played by the irresistible, hilarious and noted gay rights advocate Fran Drescher.
The film also puts a cute spin on the whole ‘small town life is so much better’ thing that’s so prominent in these films, with Patrick revealing to Hugo how their traditional little town has gradually embraced queer culture. There’s even a gay bar with a resident drag act, leading to the obligatory get-one-of the-characters-up-to-sing moment. However, rather than being embarrassing or funny, Hugo’s festive rendition of ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’ is really rather beautiful, with the bar’s patrons naturally erupting in delight at the line “make the yuletide gay.”
There’s also a compelling subplot about Hugo investigating the history of the founder of the town’s Christmas traditions - turns out he was homosexual too, but didn’t have the luxury of being able to be out and proud. It’s all done in a way that feels very true and it’s nice to see a film where gay culture and history are celebrated as reasons to fall in love with small town life, rather than reasons to escape to cosmopolitan big cities.
It all feels so much more darn moving than it has any right to be and Ellen Wong is so perfectly cute as Hugo’s straight BFF who tags along and is similarly seduced by small town magic, as well as Hugo’s dashing, hunky, military brother. On paper it all seems so trite but the sight of these two sweet guys happily falling in love and sharing a soft kiss under the Northern Lights is delightful and affecting. By the climax, when the snow starts falling and everything has turned out alright, I’m not ashamed to say I have a little tear in my eye - this silly little made-for-TV film feels like a vastly important sea change for these kinds of movies.
I watch The Christmas Set-Up on a day where, after a period of feeling really stressed,anxious and generally quite shitty, I realise I’m starting to feel good about life again. I’m finding that the sincere, touching Christmas movies like this one are really helping lift my stinky mood on days when I feel down in the doldrums and I skip off with a bit more of a spring in my step after its super-happy conclusion.
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