Starring: Alicia Witt and Brendan Hines
Released: 2019
Summary: When a country music star is accused of plagiarizing her holiday single, she returns home to spend Christmas with her family and an old flame.
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| Image: Crown Media, United States LLC |
Falsely Accused
Connie Black, a country music star and Melody Jones's mentor, is stuck in a rut. Her star is fading, and she's in desperate need of a hit song to revive her dying career.
When Melody records and releases a song she wrote in high school with her father, Heart of Christmas, Connie's husband pushes her to file a lawsuit, claiming it has the same chords and words as Connie's past hit, Heart of Tennessee.
Deep down, Connie knows Melody would never steal her work, or lie about it when confronted. But, since her husband is also her manager, she pursues a settlement or lawsuit despite her reservations.
Melody needs proof she wrote the song first, so she heads home to Madison, Indiana, to look for her original sheet music.
Have you ever been falsely accused of something? Maybe saying something you didn't, or eating the last cookie in the jar?
When you are innocent and know the truth, false slander makes you wince.
A college philosophy class was required in my degree program--truly the most worthless subject on the planet comprised of empty babblings and vain whimsy. I listened to the professor and never comprehended a thing he said. His lectures were like trying to follow a dot-to-dot that never produced a picture of anything recognizable. Maybe he was on acid and I was too naïve to notice. I was a good student who graduated magna cum laude, but the entire point of philosophy escaped me. As a Christian, the Bible was my ultimate blueprint for living and the measuring stick for truth, so for me, philosophy was a time wasting attempt to reinvent the wheel.
Our class was given a reading assignment we had to write our thoughts on, but I didn't even know where to begin. It was like being asked to translate a foreign language I never learned.
Turns out, a fellow classmate felt the same way, so we tackled the assigned reading together and tried to make sense of it. Neither of us felt we had a handle on it, but we went our separate ways after our talk and wrote our own papers.
Not long after our papers were turned in, we were both called to the professor's office. He accused us of cheating and threatened to expel us from the college! The accusation cut like a knife. I had graduated fourth in my high school class and had stayed on the Dean's and President's lists all through college, so I wasn't a dummy, much less a cheater. The sting sent me reeling. We repeatedly explained how we read and discussed the assigned reading together because of our struggle with the subject, so it made sense our papers shared similarity of thought. Begrudgingly, with no regard to our stellar academic records, the professor reduced our sentence and gave us both D grades for the course.
In retrospect, philosophy is so open I could have pulled a discussion from my rear end--maybe that cows fart rainbows and slide down them when they're bored--and it would have received a better grade.
The point is, being falsely accused is hard to bear. It's one thing to get caught doing something you hoped to get away with, but quite another to be cited for a crime you didn't commit.
A Story About Forgiveness
Forgiving people who wrong us is essential for our well-being. Grudges and animosity are poison to the soul.
Melody Jones sets a tremendous example. After the sting of betrayal and attempt at dishonest gain by Connie Black, Melody happily forgives her.
How would you have reacted in Melody's shoes? Some of us would never speak to Connie again. Others would use their clout to ruin her or take revenge.
Melody chooses to show compassion. She empathizes with how difficult it must be for Connie to reach the pinnacle of success, only to lose her relevancy. Melody also shows Connie respect, even when she doesn't deserve it, because she honors the part Connie played in her life as her mentor and the one who helped her get started in country music.
Image; Crown Media
When Melody shows Connie the proof of her innocence, Connie has the opportunity to act with integrity.
Melody extends grace and mercy to Connie, and the undeserved kindness moves Connie to ask for forgiveness. As if this isn't enough, Melody gives up her dream--singing a duet with country legend, Hunter Hamilton--so Connie can have her spot in his Christmas program.
Doing the right thing boomerangs because Hunter invites Melody to sing with him in the new year.
The relationship between Melody and Connie could have been irreparably broken, but because Melody takes the higher road, their friendship is restored.
Who have you cut off in your life due to offense? Maybe it's time to be the bigger person and hold out an olive branch.
When Your Kids Fly the Nest, Do You Change Their Rooms?
When Melody returns home for Christmas, her room is exactly the same. Her songbooks are where she left them. Her photo frames and decorations haven't moved, including the Elvis stuffed toy Chase had given her on her sixteenth birthday.
Is this the norm? If you have adult children no longer living at home, what did you do with their rooms? Did you give the rooms makeovers, or are you allowing their rooms to be a time capsule for when they come home to visit?
I guess your answer depends on whether you're a sentimental pack rat, or a clean freak who packed up their "stuff" and sent it with them. Some curate the old days and cling to nostalgia, while others see the extra space as a blank slate for new uses. Take the poll below to see where the majority lands on this issue!
Tribute to Veterans
Hallmark always remembers our brave military families, and it's admirable.
In this movie, Melody's sister, Jillian, is holding together her candy business, raising her daughter, and celebrating Christmas, all while her husband is deployed.
Jillian even joins the church choir to lift her spirits while he's gone.
The techies get together and live stream the talent show so Jillian's husband, Bill, can watch her and their daughter sing a Christmas song together.
Thank you, Hallmark, for honoring our heroes.
Did You Guess Where the Original Song Would Be Found?
Mr. Tyler, Melody's old music teacher, is using some of her earlier sheet music to train his students, but this was revealed so early in the movie you had to know he wouldn't have what Melody needed.
Since Lucy played the new song on her guitar, I guessed Lucy had been using the original music and lyrics, but that didn't pan out either.
Did you have a guess?
Near the end, when the quote of Melody's dad was used again, it finally dawned on me. I'll be you figured it out sooner!
It's not the gold record on the wall, it's what's behind the gold record that touches us all.
Yep, her dad put their original song behind Melody's gold record because it meant so much to him.
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| Image: Crown Media, United States LLC |
Pleasantly Surprised By This Movie
Alicia Witt is my least favorite of all the Hallmark leading ladies, so I typically avoid her movies. This one, however, is a great story. Of course, you must overlook that she doesn't have a strong enough voice to achieve country stardom, though it's a step above a shower voice.
Chase Mattson provides great accompaniment, and they sound better together than she does solo. The voice that really shines in this movie is Melody's niece, Lucy, played by Anna Anderson Epp.
I do question why Chase says he can't leave the tavern to follow Melody to Nashville, especially since his sister has a handle on the tavern, but then turns around and agrees to go on tour with her in the new year. But, hey, who needs to nitpick.
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