Once Upon a Main Street (2020)

• Year: 2020
• Released: 29 Nov 2020
• Country: United States
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13064420/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/once_upon_a_main_street
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: TV-PG
• Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
• Runtime: 87 min
• Writer: Don Perez
• Director: Polly Draper
• Cast: Vanessa Lachey, Ryan McPartlin, Polly Draper
• Keywords: christmas, holiday,

6.2/10

Once Upon a Main Street Storyline

Beyond their mutual animosity stemming from their less-than-pleasant recent first encounter, Amelia Lewis and Vic Manning seem always to be competing against each other, most importantly for a commercial property each wants to purchase in White Oak, Nevada for her/his dream store, hers a year-round Christmas store, and his a chocolate shop. As each bid has its merits – hers all cash, his above asking–the real-estate agent must consult with the property owner who has the final say. Amelia and Vic separately have the same idea to discover the property owner’s identity and make a personal plea directly to him (Elder Dubois, who lives an hour away in Castle Creek). They arrive there unannounced at about the same time to make individual pitches. Elder tells them that he is unable or unwilling to make a snap decision concerning the property. As Elder is all alone for Christmas for the first time since his wife recently passed and he’s long been estranged from his young-adult daughter Marjorie, Amelia and Vic offer to help him with anything until he makes up his mind; he suggests that they chair Castle Creek Commercial Center’s annual Christmas decorating competition. He and his wife always enjoyed doing that, but this year he hasn’t the spirit without her. The competition, which is a bragging-rights-only one against the nearby town of Crystal, always seems to end up being a competition between Castle Creek’s own merchants, which is probably the reason Crystal has won five years straight. The few things the Castle Creek merchants can agree on are the same Winter Wonderland theme year after year for ease, and featuring one merchant each year on a rotating basis. This year it’s the pottery shop owned by the most outspoken and demanding of the bunch, Rowena Marson. In turn, Elder invites them to stay in his home rather than spending money on hotel rooms. In working on the decorating competition together, they must bring the merchants together as a cohesive whole–which means cooperating themselves. In the process, Amelia and Vic start to fall for each other. Could their emerging feelings be able to overcome their suspicions about each other concerning the property and the kind acts toward Elder, which could be seen solely as wanting that upper hand?

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Once Upon a Main Street Movie Reviews

Not exactly a Christmas fairy tale

Have seen Vanessa Lachey and Ryan McPartlin in other things and their performances have always been on the mixed side to me. Lifetime’s 2020 Christmas output was also very mixed, none of the films being irredeemably terrible but none are my definition of great either. Some were surprisingly good, some were downright weak and most were average or just above. Have been seeing as many Lifetime Christmas films as possible and ‘Once Upon a Main Street’ was part of the quest.

‘Once Upon a Main Street’ is one of the watchable if average efforts, one of the 2020 Lifetime Christmas films to start off terribly (very nearly turned it off) but did get better as it progressed. As far as 2020’s Lifetime Christmas films go, ‘Once Upon a Main Street’ is neither one of the best or the worst. Personally put it somewhere in the middle and found myself very mixed on it, as there are a fair share of good things but the bad stuff is really not good at all.

Shall start with the good. The film also at least looks professional, with lovely scenery in particular. The music doesn’t intrude and doesn’t feel overused, also it has a festive sound to it. Too often not the case with Lifetime. The messaging is very honest and heartfelt and doesn’t get laid on too thick or feel treacly or sentimental. Some of the dialogue has entertainment value.

McPartlin is an amiable leading man and Patrick Duffy is always welcome, but the standout acting wise is the vibrant performance of Polly Draper who really brightens up the film whenever she appears. The film does get better later on, or at least in the middle act, where there is more energy, a lighter edge and more heart.

Was very mixed on Lachey though. She was feisty and charming later on but in the first third she did overdo the already over the top prickly-ness of her character, who comes over as excessively abrasive for no real reason. She and McPartlin do have moments with their chemistry, but it takes a while to get there and it would have made more impact that it had a lot of more development and if any changes were not so suddenly brought up.

As said, ‘Once Upon a Main Street’ does not start promisingly at all. The dialogue is cringe inducingly painful and the banter is incredibly repetitive and over-used, while the pace is pedestrian. Lachey’s character being so impossible to get behind is a big part of the problem as well. The final quarter is contrived and jumpy and the ending is badly rushed and too neat. The story is quite familiar territory and nothing new or insightful really is done with it and there could have been a lot more charm and heart on the whole.

Overall, mixed feelings. 5/10.

Vanessa is a shining star again.

Vanessa Lachey is feisty and charming as always and was a good match for Ryan McPartin. They both played pretty irritating characters at the beginning, but once they started to work together this was an amusing and romantic story which was actually quite touching at the end. They had one bad misunderstanding near the end which threatened to blow up all their hard-won progress. But lo and behold, they resolved it immediately with frank communication and a humble confession. Incredible. It was good to see Polly Draper again. She played a scary-crazy potter which added some tension and suspense. I wish she would be in more things. So far the beautiful Vanessa Lachey has proven adept at comedy and I have enjoyed her vehicles. Except one, but that wasn’t her fault. I hope to see her star in more TV movies.

Coma inducing

How many times have we seen stories about opposites attracting each other. Millions of times before, right? To spice their lack of originality, the “writers” decided to make the female lead as abrasive as blowing your nose using sand paper. And the male lead a beta male who loves baking… too cute…. and too unbelievable. The ending is as predicable as it can be…. And, oh my, Patrick Duffy looks too old, eve taking into account the makeup…

There is nothing here, even Vanessa Lachey is too artificial. Her face looks like it has been plastered with a one inch thick layer of makeup.