Holly’s Holiday (2012)

Title: Holly’s Holiday
Year of Release: 2012
Available On: DVD purchased from Amazon Smile
Rating: 3 out of 5 Jingle Bells

This one hits you over the head right away with one of my least favorite tropes: the sassy black woman best friend played by Gabrielle Dennis. Goddess forbid you not 100% buy into that one and create a character with, I don’t know, depth. Holly (Claire Coffee) is obsessed with perfection, so obsessed she doesn’t recognize that her co-worker, Milo (Jeff Ward), is super duper in love with her. When Holly takes a spill on a busy Manhattan street, a seemingly perfect man, Bo (Ryan McPartlin), helps her up and commences sweeping her off her feet. While Holly is intrigued and impressed by Bo being… Bo, he seems like a corny, presumptuous, way-too-over-the-top to me. Call me crazy, but I like my dates to have some flaws. Plus, Milo is so much cuter than Bo is! I already know at this point that Milo and Holly end up together, however, now we just get to wait and see how it happens. And how uncomfortable it is to watch.

Holly: Who, in theory, would be the “right one”?
Bo: Hmm, the “right one.” Well, she’d have to be ambitious, getting work texts on the weekend… [wink]

Blugh, barf. You see what I mean? That’s not cute to me. Bo also nearly has a conniption when Holly accidentally spills her wine on his linen tablecloth and breaks the (Austrian crystal) glass. How Holly can think that is sexy is… beyond me. And then he SHOWS UP WITH HIS PARENTS. These people are freaking me out. His parents used to be catalog models – or living mannequins – and lucky for us, Holly starts to be similarly overwhelmed by the sheer ridiculousness of it. When she comes out of the bathroom, Bo is telling his parents that they want a golden retriever, three kids, and a carriage house in the back yard for them! Holly tries to pump the brakes, but Bo is oblivious and inexplicably talks her back into liking them?

Bo also doesn’t have any boundaries, and he cancels Holly and Milo’s shoot without telling her – as a surprise? Because he supposedly has a new photographer who is better? He tells her to RELAX. I’d murder a man who told me to relax. And no matter how much Bo was trying to help, you don’t just fuck around with a woman’s job like that.

This one is all about Appreciating What You Have When You Have It.

And then there’s some magic, because apparently Bo is an actual mannequin come to life. Will Holly come to her senses and end up with Milo? Probably! Watch and see.