Christmas in Connecticut
Brief Description:
A food writer who has lied about being the perfect housewife must try to cover her deception when her boss and a returning war hero invite themselves to her home for a traditional family Christmas.
(possibly written by me, possibly taken from Tubi, Archive, or Wikipedia and edited by me...)
Date: 1945
Genre: American Christmas romantic comedy
Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes
Director: Peter Godfrey
Production company: Warner Bros.
Setting/Aesthetic/Feel: 5/5
Okay, so I loved the warm vintage farmhouse feels. It was tiptop and totally made me wanna throw on an apron and cook up a big beautiful meal.
Characters: 3.5/5
(Barbara Stanwyck is beautiful and Dennis Morgan is gorgeous. Just sayin’.)
I wasn’t terribly fond of Elizabeth. She lied an awful lot, flirted terribly with Jones when she was on the verge of marriage, and was 100% willing to be seen as an adulterous wife. I spent most of the film agonizing over her poor choices.
John was a creep—or maybe that’s too strong a word. He was overbearing, though, and didn’t listen to Liz very well—plus he was forcing marriage on when she didn’t want it. At first I felt sorry for him and saw him as the noble unloved lover but then I discovered he frankly didn’t love her—and then it was bye-bye John for me.
Jones I loved so hard for a long time. He was sooo sweet with Roberta and that is so unusual and darling. (Also he plays piano and has a wonderful voice, ok?) But I quickly got upset with him for being willing to flirt with Liz, even if he was convinced she was married, and not stopping things when she started to push them along—especially since he was engaged himself! (I know he’d been planning all along to break it, but still.)
Mary bugged me because of how shallow she was—that’s what she was supposed to be, though—but Felix was a treasure. He was so hilarious and so sweet (yeah so he lied too but everyone else did and that was all he did wrong so I never got around to caring very much). And Yardley—well, you liked him sometimes and hated him others. Controversial old man.
Plot: 3.5/5
I could have loved this film so much, but I am not one for dramatic emotional {romantic} angst and I can’t stand lying or misbehaviour, and the whole film is based on lies and flirting. I wouldn’t have minded the flirting so much if it hadn’t been under the pretence of Liz being married! And I got dreadfully tired of consistently being terrified by an upcoming marriage ceremony (’cause, guys, c’mon, John didn’t deserve Liz… okay and obvs she + Jones belonged together). There was a lot of comedy though and I really enjoyed that. And I know I will love the film more now that I know how it goes. I can’t take it very seriously because it’s so ridiculous, so I wasn’t as upset over the whole marriage/flirting thing as I would have normally been. The plot was well done and very watertight, though. So I don’t know. I really enjoyed it, but it’s kind of a guilty pleasure…?
Romance: 2/5
Yeah, I yapped about it all above. ^^ J + E were super cute together but yeah… Anyways, kissing-wise, I only remember 2 at the end but John tries to steal a couple and Liz tries to force one from Jones at least once, if not twice.
Theme/Message/Topics: 0/5
Ah… don’t lie??? There wasn’t any otherwise.
Content: 2/5 (high)
One scene where Norah has a fit thinking Liz + John will be sharing a room (maybe 2 minutes of her yelling at them). Another scene where Liz asks John if he’s attracted to her and tells him she’s not bothered by him flirting with a married woman and acts rather shameless about it (knowing she’s unmarried, it’s not so bad, but it still made me uncomfortable.) At the end of the film Yardley confronts Liz + John for committing, as he thinks, fornication + having the baby out of wedlock (all false, of course). Jones teases Liz that he only gets after married women and there’s a short scene where he follows her around kissing her and she’s having a fit threatening to call Sloan.
Overall: 3/5
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