{"id":4636,"date":"2013-12-14T08:37:23","date_gmt":"2013-12-14T13:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=4636"},"modified":"2013-12-14T09:25:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-14T14:25:59","slug":"tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"TV Review: UP&#8217;s &#8220;Marry Me for Christmas&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Marrying UP.<\/strong> <strong>UP TV<\/strong>, which bills itself as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Christmas Channel,\u201d presents the world-premiere film <b><i>Marry Me for Christmas<\/i><\/b> <strong>tonight (12\/14) at 7:00 PM ET<\/strong> with <strong>encores at 9:00 PM ET and 11:00 PM ET<\/strong>. The movie will also air tomorrow night on UP&#8217;s sister channel<strong> ASPiRE tomorrow night at 8:00 PM ET<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"UP Original Movie: Marry Me For Christmas\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jFTheWdN_20?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p>The romantic comedy-drama stars <strong>Malinda Williams<\/strong> (<em><strong>Soul Food<\/strong><\/em>), <strong>Brad James<\/strong> (<em><strong>For Better or Worse<\/strong><\/em>) and <strong>Karon Riley<\/strong> (<strong><em>Necessary Roughnes<\/em>s<\/strong>).\u00a0 The ensemble cast also includes<strong> Jason Weaver<\/strong>\u00a0 (<em><strong>The Ladykillers<\/strong><\/em>), <strong>Tamara Bass<\/strong> (<strong><em>Boston Public<\/em>),\u00a0<\/strong> <strong>Carl Payne<\/strong> (<em><strong>For Richer Or Poorer, The Game<\/strong><\/em>), <strong>Greg Alan Williams<\/strong> (<em><strong>Necessary Roughness, The West Wing<\/strong><\/em>), <strong>Deetta West<\/strong> (<strong><i>Between Sisters<\/i><\/strong>), <strong>Chrystale Wilson<\/strong> (<em><strong>For Richer or Poorer<\/strong><\/em>) and <strong>Victoria Rowell<\/strong> (<em><strong>The Young and the Restless, Diagnosis: Murder<\/strong><\/em>).\u00a0 The movie is produced by <strong>Swirl Films\u2019 Eric Tomosunas<\/strong> and Malinda Williams. <strong>Roger Melvin<\/strong> (UP\u2019s<em><strong> Sugar Mommas<\/strong><\/em><i><\/i>) directs from a script by <strong>Rhonda Freeman-Baraka<\/strong> (UP\u2019s <strong><i id=\"yui_3_7_2_1_1387022499937_1796\">Saving Westbrook High<\/i><\/strong><i id=\"yui_3_7_2_1_1387022499937_1797\"><\/i>).<\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_7_2_1_1387022499937_1793\"><strong>Synopsis (from the UP press release):<\/strong> <em>Smart, stylish Marci Jewel (Malinda Williams) is the owner and creative director of an up-and-coming ad agency and thrilled with her single life in New York \u2013 except during the holidays.\u00a0 While all of her cousins are married and having babies, Marci remains the lone holdout in the large Chandler family clan who has put marriage and motherhood on hold for the sake of her career.\u00a0 As the family\u2019s epic Christmas celebration is about to start, Marci learns that her favorite cousin Dana (Tamara Bass), her husband Frankie (Jason Weaver) and their family are leaving the country for five years on missionary work.\u00a0 So at the last minute, Marci promises to come home for the holidays for the first time in years.\u00a0 With a deadline looming for a new client, she drags her employee Adam (Brad James) in tow to Atlanta and does the only thing she can do in the face of unbearable pressure from her ailing mom Stephanie (Victoria Rowell), aunt Myra (DeEtta West), uncle Donald (Greg Alan Williams) and cousin Preston (Carl Payne):\u00a0 fakes a fianc\u00e9.\u00a0 While caught up in the family\u2019s frenetic search for the perfect Christmas tree, unexpected wedding planning to her employee, pressing work calls and more, Marci learns some unexpected lessons about love, trust and family, particularly when it comes to her new faux fianc\u00e9 Adam and old beau Blair (Karon Riley).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong> Very reminiscent of the <strong>Sandra Bullock<\/strong>&#8211;<strong>Ryan Reynolds<\/strong> 2009 hit <strong><em>The Proposal<\/em><\/strong>, this pleasant-enough entry puts both a yuletide and African-American spin on the story of a successful business woman (Williams) bringing home an employee (James) who poses as her\u00a0fianc\u00e9 for a family from which she feels a persistently\u00a0 subtle pressure to find someone to tie the knot with. The film detours from the plot of <em>The Proposal <\/em>by introducing a former love interest (Riley). The above press release describes Blair as an old beau of Marci&#8217;s but their relationship actually reminds me of Ross and Rachel or Niles and Daphne in the early seasons of<strong> <em>Friends<\/em> <\/strong>and <strong><em>Frasier.<\/em><\/strong> In the course of the film it becomes clear that, like those characters, Marci and Blair have spent years being attracted to one another but never found quite the right moment or courage to tell each other. So, of course, even that significant tweak to <em>The Proposal <\/em>outline<em> <\/em> is familiar territory to anyone with a TV. But, while there&#8217;s not much new or particularly groundbreaking here, the familiar pieces are mixed and matched with skill. The dialogue is crisp, witty and believable. The cast and characters (with one notable exception) are likable and all the performances are good. In the end, you&#8217;re left feeling satisfied. <strong>Recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><b>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Marrying UP. UP TV, which bills itself as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Christmas Channel,\u201d presents the world-premiere film Marry Me for Christmas tonight (12\/14) at 7:00 PM ET with encores at 9:00 PM ET and 11:00 PM ET. The movie will also air tomorrow night on UP&#8217;s&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3632,13,16,24,31],"tags":[35,6068,6070,6074,6079,6078,5138,6076,6072,6071,6069,6083,6082,6081,6073,6075,6077,5130,6067,6080],"class_list":["post-4636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-christmas","category-family-matters","category-humor","category-movies","category-television","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-aspire","tag-brad-james-for-better-or-worse","tag-carl-payne-for-richer-or-poorer","tag-chrystale-wilson-for-richer-or-poorer","tag-deetta-west-between-sisters","tag-diagnosis-murder","tag-greg-alan-williams-necessary-roughness","tag-jason-weaver-the-ladykillers","tag-karon-riley-necessary-roughness","tag-malinda-williams-soul-food","tag-rhonda-freeman-baraka-ups-saving-westbrook-high","tag-roger-melvin-ups-sugar-mommas","tag-swirl-films-eric-tomosunas","tag-tamara-bass-boston-public","tag-the-game","tag-the-west-wing","tag-up-tv","tag-ups-marry-me-for-christmas","tag-victoria-rowell-the-young-and-the-restless"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TV Review: UP&#039;s &quot;Marry Me for Christmas&quot;<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TV Review: UP&#039;s &quot;Marry Me for Christmas&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Marrying UP. UP TV, which bills itself as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Christmas Channel,\u201d presents the world-premiere film Marry Me for Christmas tonight (12\/14) at 7:00 PM ET with encores at 9:00 PM ET and 11:00 PM ET. The movie will also air tomorrow night on UP&#8217;s&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-14T13:37:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-14T14:25:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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The movie will also air tomorrow night on UP&#8217;s&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2013-12-14T13:37:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-14T14:25:59+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html","name":"TV Review: UP's \"Marry Me for Christmas\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-14T13:37:23+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-14T14:25:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-ups-marry-me-for-christmas.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TV Review: UP&#8217;s &#8220;Marry Me for Christmas&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4636"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4639,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions\/4639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}