Holly Star

While this has some talented acting and dry humor to prevent it from being as saccharine as other holiday romcoms, it never quite goes beyond the limitations of both genres. There just isn't enough there to go beyond stories and characters we've seen so many times before. There's the lead character, home for the holidays in her rural small town after struggling and failing to find success in "the big city." There's her best friend, who at best is a stock "weird" character and at worst comes off like an unfunny creation from a failing improv troupe. We have the grandmother who prefers drinking from a flask and dancing the tango over Bingo. And, finally, the nice guy who stayed in town after college and sees the good in the little town that the harried urbanite lead character might have forgotten about.

Holly Star is the kind of movie that tries to break the mold of the genres it works with while being completely constrained by them. As a romcom and holiday fare, it's easy enough to suss out the overall themes, even with curve balls like treasure hunts thrown into the mix. While it does its best to avoid the kind of sentimentality that is the Hallmark Channel's stock in trade, it never really escapes the tropes and cliches of other "home for the holidays" movies.