There was a moment during A Castle for Christmas during which I was confused.  There is a scene in which a couple checks into the quaint Dunbar, Scotland, bed and breakfast where many of the events in the film take place.  The fact that this bit was filmed, inserted into the movie, and lingered on for a minute or two made me think these two characters, Frank De Luca (Mark Fleischmann) and Mrs. Donatelli (Suane Braun) are significant.  As the plot wound its way to its predictable conclusion, I kept waiting for these two to once again appear.  But, no, this is the last we see of them.  As it turns out, they are major characters from a different Netflix film franchise, one that I have not seen and have been avoiding.  I guess the popular streaming service is trying to build its own Christmas cinematic universe?  This odd, if short, interlude is the only mark against a fair motion picture, even if it is not exactly a Christmas movie.

Best selling author Sophie Brown (Brooke Shields) is a long way from A Castle for Christmas, in time and space.  She is famous for a series of apparently romance novels based on a female character that seems to mirror her life.  This is the assessment of day time talk show host Drew Barrymore (as herself) when Sophie comes on her show to discuss her latest publication.  The book has caused an uproar because Sophie killed the male lead, the insinuation being that Sophie wrote this due to her being divorced by her ex-husband.  The pressure of her fans and Drew’s questions leads to Sophie snapping on national television, talking about all the violent ways in which she could have killed her character.  After some tea and sympathy with her daughter, Lexi Brown (Vanessa Grasse), Sophie decides she needs to go on a retreat to some place out of the way.  Recalling a discussion she had with Lexi about their family’s Scottish roots, she decides to travel to the fictional town of Dunbar.  Specifically, she wants to visit Dun Dunbar Castle, a place where her late father had told her that he had snuck into and carved his last name “McGuinty” into one of the doors.  Thus, no sooner had she checked into the aforementioned inn that she is headed up to see the estate.  She arrives just as the last tour is concluding.  It is the groundskeeper, into whose arms she literally fell upon getting to the bed and breakfast, that offers to take her around the inside on his own.  He is Myles (Cary Elwes), but for the moment she does not know that he is the twelfth Duke of Dunbar.  He is friendly enough, too, until she is caught surreptitiously going off on her own to find where her father had left his mark.  When Myles catches up with her and angrily tells her off, she realizes his true identity.  Still, the romance of the castle and her family’s ties to the area make her feel at home.  This notion is given a boost when her new found friends at the inn’s pub, a group of ladies who knit together at the watering hole (ah, Scotland), reveal that Dun Dunbar is up for sale.  Sophie decides to put in an offer, one that Myles is not eager to accept despite being advised to take it in order to settle his mounting debts.  He is particularly unenthused with the prospect of parting with his beloved home when he learns that it is the annoying American author who is making the bid.  Nonetheless, he promptly comes up with a plan.  He will agree to the purchase provided she comes to live in the castle until Christmas Eve, hence the title.  He hopes that her living amongst the estate’s many issues and financial concerns will make her change her mind about the sale.  The money will be held in escrow until that time, but it will go to him after that date and he will have seen her off by then, and the proceeds will go to him.  He even decides to put her in the draftiness room in the building.  It all, of course, backfires on him.  Not only does she take the leaky roof and complicated finances in stride, she also steals his dog’s affections.  Another obvious development is that they begin to have feelings for one another, but he remains stubbornly set against her for longer than she is against him.  Everyone in the village is cheering for this romance because, as Sophie learns from them, Myles has been the economic backbone of the community for some time.  The fact that he has not been enforcing their past due rents to his own detriment is what begins to change her mind about him.  For him, it is reading her books, even though she is growing tired of writing about the character that has brought her a fortune.  This is becoming more of a detriment as her agent, Claire (Desiree Burch), who is demanding that she return to the United States to continue her career.  However, when Claire learns about the castle and the duke, she is much more on board with what this could mean for Sophie’s brand.  Thus, everything is moving along smoothly as Myles and Sophie prepare to host a Christmas Eve party in the hall.  As they are practicing a dance they plan to perform, Sophie suggests that Myles not move out upon the completion of the sale.  He takes umbrage at the notion of being a tenant in his own home, even though that is not what she is suggesting.  All their goodwill is suddenly gone, and he seemingly has accomplished his original goal when she decides to leave.  What prevents her from going to the airport is a conspiracy of the villagers.  Later that night, he comes on horseback to apologize, and they go to the soiree as planned.  He also surprises her by bringing Lexi over from the United States.  We close with her back on Drew’s show, promoting a new book based on a legend of one of the original Dunbars told to her by Myles.

The insertion of the holiday in A Castle for Christmas is incidental.  I picked it when looking for a Christmas film because it came up in a search for films in this vast sub-genre.  The deadline for the final transaction could have been St. Swithin’s Day and the structure of the plot would have been the same.  That is July 15^th, by the way, in case you are curious.  Since few people outside of England (and Norway, apparently) have heard of this obscure Catholic saint, they went with a more universally familiar and photogenic holiday.  There is also an attempt to say some things about the meaning of Christmas, but they are tacked on at the end.  What you are left with is a romantic comedy that happens to have Christmas in it.  All the same, there are some admirable sentiments behind which any Christian can get.  The one I would highlight is Myles confession when Sophie finds out about his charity with the villagers, saying that he tries to leave things better than he found them.  This is a great way of thinking about the Christian mission.  It starts with Jesus, to be sure, but I would say it defines the lives of pretty much every saint since then, including St. Swithin.  Since I brought him up, and the film is set in the United Kingdom, his life is as good as any to underscore this point.  He was bishop of Winchester in the ninth century.  Before he died, he requested that his body be interred in an area where people would be walking over his grave.  Yet, many miracles began to be attributed to his burial site, and eventually his remains were transferred to the Cathedral.  The date of this move is his feast day.  A legend grew from this holiday that if it rained on this day, then there would be forty days of precipitation to follow.  This may seem benign, but think of the benefit to an agriculture society of such moisture in the summer.  It is important to remember, though, that these things happen because of God, and St. Swithin is merely the intercessory.  One cannot equate Myles to a figure like St. Swithin, but both are leaving the world better than how they found it.

Besides the strange characters in the middle of A Castle for Christmas, the ending with Drew is also confusing.  It seems like outtakes, but I cannot decide if it is part of the actual movie, or something they are faking for Drew’s show.  The title is also misleading.  As a whole, though, it is a fair piece of cinema.