I realized halfway through watching this movie that I had actually already seen it when a character delivered the line “I had a tenant once who was breeding ferrets—it was a situation!” However, I went back and confirmed that I never actually wrote about it. It’s all a blur of Christmas cheer over here, guys.
In a Nutshell
Darcy (you might remember her as Blonde Vintage Friend from one of my all-time most bonkers movies) works in a small bookstore in Philadelphia and has an apartment that is far too nice for someone who seems to only be working retail part time. She rides her bike to work, and her best friends are her coworkers, her landlady (who is the MVP of this movie, and who Darcy continues to call “Mrs. Henley” at all times even though they are clearly besties) and a man named Luigi who owns an Italian restaurant and sells her food at a discount. Darcy loves books and does not enjoy dates with men who do not read. So far so good. A handsome man keeps peering into the windows of the bookstore while walking his dog. Darcy finds this charming.
One night Darcy falls asleep reading in her comfy chair and forgets to set her alarm. In her rush to get to work, she barrels into a pedestrian with her bike. Turns out it is the handsome man with the dog, except now he’s in a coma. The paramedics hand her the man’s dog and say “OK BYE!” A helpful police officer (who is somehow not taking a detailed statement from Darcy for seriously injuring someone while on her bike) tells Darcy what hospital the paramedics are heading to. Darcy and the dog walk all the way there, but first we see Darcy pick up the mail and keys the handsome man dropped. We also see the handsome man’s phone wash down a sewer (sure!). When Darcy gets to the hospital, Nurse Nancy rightfully refuses to tell this random strange woman anything about the handsome man. At first I thought she was just closely following HIPAA requirements, but it turns out no one, including the handsome man, knows who he is. AWWWW SNAP, IT’S AN AMNESIA MOVIE Y’ALL!
Darcy goes to the man’s house and snoops around, as one does. She finds a business card and many cashmere sweaters. The handsome man wakes up and seems mostly uninjured except for his amnesia. Nurse Nancy tells handsome man that Darcy has his dog, so the man authorizes Nurse Nancy to call Darcy. Based on what she found while snooping, Darcy tells the man his name is William Anderson. The handsome man says “mmmmmmm but I feel more like an Aiden though” and so he does not have as much amnesia as we thought. It is decided that Aiden must be his middle name. Darcy and Aiden proceed to try to figure out who he is, why he bought an engagement ring, and why he has not decorated his sparse minimalist home for Christmas (an actual line said incredulously by Aiden: “I love Christmas! I know I love Christmas!”)
But Are There Obstacles To Their Love/Christmas Spirit?
Well, the amnesia is not helping things, that’s for sure.
Darcy spends a lot of time trying to figure out if Aiden has a soon-to-be fiancé since he had packed an overnight bag with an engagement ring in it before the accident. She is able to track down a ballerina in New York who is in a picture in Aiden’s room. Despite the fact that Darcy was in such a rush not to be late to her job just a few days ago, she spends a lot of time not working and going on jaunts to New York to try to track down the ballerina in person.
Darcy is apparently her own obstacle in life, because she doesn’t like change or taking on challenges. The owner of the bookstore has decided to move to San Francisco to be closer to his grandchildren, and he announces he will be interviewing general manager candidates to keep the store going after he leaves. Oooof, sir, I hate to break it to you, but with San Francisco real estate prices you will probably need to sell that bookstore. Fortunately, no one has figured this out yet, so there is much discussion about whether Darcy should apply for the job. She doesn’t want to because she knows nothing of business. Fair point, Darcy.
Books Books Books is the name of the rival book store in town. They have created an obstacle by trying to have a Christmas Eve party that is totally copying Darcy’s Christmas Eve extravaganza. The owner of Darcy’s store correctly points out to Darcy that “we don’t have the market cornered on Christmas Eve events” but Darcy is having none of this. Don’t worry though, she has plenty of time to plan a killer Christmas Eve party while not actually working her shifts at the bookstore.
I thought for sure Nurse Nancy was going to be an obstacle, because she definitely seemed to have feelings for Aiden outside of the caregiver/patient relationship. Alas, we never went there.
But Do They Find The Meaning of Christmas?
Aiden helps all of the kids in the hospital have a fun Christmas party because he is a Really Good Guy Who Loves Christmas. When he gets permission to leave the hospital for brief periods, he and Darcy spend time doing Christmas-y things like looking at lights.
Who am I kidding, we’ve got to use this time to talk about Mrs. Henley. So Mrs. Henley owns the building where Darcy lives, and she CANNOT CONTROL HER CHRISTMAS SPIRIT. She has decorated everything to the nines, and she apparently spends all day baking things and then standing in the hallway with plates of cookies waiting for tenants to come home. Like, this is objectively weird, but I also think I would kind of like to have a lady greet me with baked goods every single day when I arrived home. Mrs. Henley offers up all kinds of wisdom like “Have a tough day? Bite the head off this gingerbread man, it will make you feel better” or “Darcy, you’re tough as nails and twice as sharp.” We also find out that she used to be a ballerina herself back in the day, which is why she can identify the woman in the photo at Aiden’s house as a dancer. I really just want to hang out with Mrs. Henley and ask her questions about the 70s. I feel like that would be a fun way to spend an afternoon.
But Do They Fall In Love At The End?!?!?
OK, spoilers below, so if you think you’re going to be super invested in the mystery I’d say stop reading here.
….
I’m serious, I’m going to spoil it. If you keep reading you have no one to blame but yourself.
…
OK. So Darcy and Aiden and Mrs. Henley are decorating Aiden’s minimalist house for Christmas by having Christmas throw up all over it when a man walks into the house and is all “Uhhhhh Aiden, what are you doing?” It turns out that Aiden was actually staying in his friend William’s house in Philadelphia while William was out of town. William is the publicist with the ballerina girlfriend and all the cashmere, while Aiden is an art teacher in Ohio. William does not have time for the foolishness of Mrs. Henley’s holiday enthusiasm and is very confused by the whole thing. Once they get everything sorted, William calls Aiden’s dad. Darcy and Aiden have a romantic moment that is once again interrupted when his dad gets on the hone. We then see William drive Aiden to Ohio, where Aiden gets out of the car and has a child run into his arm while a woman looks at him lovingly from the doorway. “I REMEMBER!!!” Little heavy handed, but sure.
Darcy is sad over Aiden’s departure and throws herself into the Christmas Eve extravaganza. They were able to score a real victory over Books Books Books because the real William Anderson is the publicist for Darcy’s favorite author. To repay all of Darcy’s kindness towards Aiden while he was broken, William convinces this poor writer to fly across the country and spend Christmas Eve doing a publicity appearance. But wait! Aiden is there too–“I went to Books Books Books, and man it is dead over there.” His family wants to say thank you in person…BUT WAIT THAT’S NOT HIS KID THAT’S HIS NIECE, AND THAT’S NOT HIS WIFE THAT’S HIS SISTER! Darcy is so excited that he’s not actually married to someone else that she chooses to overlook the fact that it’s a little weird that Aiden went to an antique store in Philadelphia to buy an engagement ring for his sister. Yes, I know it was their mother’s engagement ring. I’m still not ok with it. Especially the way the sister excitedly held up her hand at the end as though she were an actual engaged person…that’s weird, sweetie. Calm down.
So yeah, Aiden is not engaged to his sister, but he does tell Darcy he’s considering a move to Philly. They kiss. Yay Christmas!
The actress playing Darcy is doing her best 90s Meg Ryan impression while teetering on the cusp of “oof, way too much.” I think she mostly kept it on the “adorable book nerd” side of things though. I thought for some reason I did not like the actor playing Aiden, but he was actually better than I remembered. They make a cute enough couple. I was rooting for them. Sorry, Nurse Nancy.
Should I Watch This Movie?
I would say yes. This movie is what would happen if While You Were Sleeping and You’ve Got Mail had a baby, except the baby is Canadian and there is no Dave Chappelle (I have never gotten over the fact that Dave Chappelle is in You’ve Got Mail; it makes no sense and yet is very pleasing). They did a decent job of unfolding the mystery, even if a person getting amnesia is pretty played out. Also, they made a sequel to this movie this year, and I have a feeling you will be tooooooootally lost if you didn’t see this original. Haha, just kidding. We all know how every movie ends. Maybe Nurse Nancy will make a comeback and try to move in on Darcy’s man, or maybe we will hear more about Mrs. Henley and Luigi’s date (oh yeah, that was a thing that was happening at the end)– stay tuned!
Deck the Hall(mark Movie)s 