Recap: The Spirit of Christmas (2015)

It turns out that I am willing to overlook a lot of things for a really handsome ghost.

Date: A wicked long time ago (1920s)

Daniel Jacob Forsythe (Thomas Beaudoin) is returning home to Hollygrove Inn, which is holding its annual Christmas Eve party. It’s almost midnight, and he’s exhausted from his long journey, having walked through the wilderness apparently. From the treeline of the forest, he sees his fiancée, Lilly, on the front porch of the inn and he’s thrilled…until he sees her embrace his brother. Betrayal, 20th-century style! And then, suddenly, he is literally bludgeoned to death from behind, dying before he sees his attacker. Merry Christmas, everyone!

In the 21st century, Kate Jordan (Jen Lilley) is an estates attorney that just can’t fall in love. Seriously, she’s tried. A lot. But nobody’s tickled her fancy, so when her latest beau breaks up with her over dinner, she’s just relieved that he’s not proposing like she thought. Will this mere mortal ever find love?!

At the office, her boss Oliver tells her that Henrietta Forsythe has just died, leaving Hollygrove Inn vacant; she had no heirs, so it’ll be going to a trust and they want to sell it ASAP to avoid taxes. Sell it by when? The new year! It’s only a few weeks to Christmas, so the pressure’s on Kate as executor of the estate. It won’t be easy though, as no local appraiser will look at it, because it’s totally haunted! Kate’s tasked with driving out to the inn to handhold the latest appraiser, and get this shit figured out. Oliver’s heading to the Bahamas, so this is all on Kate. She’s up for a promotion if she gets it right!

So, on December 12th, she shows up to the inn to meet Mr. Murphy, the appraiser, who is promptly peeling out of the driveway as she gets out of her car. Something has him spooked, so it looks like she’s on her own. She enters the inn and immediately takes note of this hunk.

She then meets the inn’s owner, Walter, a super nice guy who tells her that the inn will be closing for two weeks (from the 13th to the 26th, which is “tradition”) and that Daniel usually scares the appraisers off. I’m sorry, who? Daniel? Ah, yes of course, Daniel the murdered ghost from the previous century.

Not remotely deterred by ghost stories, she has to get the place appraised, so she’ll stay overnight (as executor, she has keys) even though Walter’s peacing out in an hour, and find an appraiser from the city so they won’t be swayed by the inn’s reputation. She’ll be leaving in the morning. OR WILL OLD HANDSOME GHOSTS INTERVENE?! After Walter leaves, she sets the inn’s alarm system and goes to bed.

The clock strikes midnight, and who should walk into the house, looking super fucking handsome, is the ghost model himself, Daniel. He punches in the alarm code; upstairs, Kate is awakened by his noises and goes to investigate.

(Here’s where I admit that Thomas Beaudoin is not exactly the most natural actor, especially with the old-fashioned dialogue they wrote for him, but he does loosen up in certain scenes. So, let’s just say that he’s very easy on the eyes and move on.)

“You’re trespassing,” Daniel accuses, startling Kate into a bookcase, which causes a vase to fall off the top and knock her out cold. She awakes the next morning on the couch, covered by a quilt. Girl has probably got a serious concussion. She finds Daniel tickling the ivories in the next room. He tells her to leave and when she refuses (mistaking him to just be a common sexy intruder) he fireman-carries her out onto the porch and locks her out (with the quilt, at least)!

Old timey ghosts? Not so polite.

Luckily, she had her phone so she calls the sheriff, who rolls up and does a fruitless search of the house. No sign of this guy anywhere, so he leaves. She sets the alarm and locks herself in her bedroom. This is no issue for Daniel, as he has keys to the place! He just wants to be alone to brood, dammit. She calls the sheriff again, who does not take this woman (who’s totally alone in this place!) seriously at all and just makes ghost jokes before leaving.

Kate’s starting to realize that Daniel may not be a standard-issue intruder, since he can seemingly appear and disappear at will, so she faces him and tells him she thinks he’s real. “But what is real?” he counters, which proves that even dudes from the olden days were insufferably smug and pretentious. Walter shows up, suspecting that Daniel’s up to his spirited shenanigans, and the weird-ass truth comes out: Daniel is a ghost, but from the 13th to the 26th, he is not a ghost. He gets a nice little vacation in corporeal form for two weeks, then goes back to a hellish nightmare of nothingness for the rest of the year.

Kate: “How does that even work?”
Daniel: “A curse.”
Kate: “You just said a curse out loud and meant it!”

She does not believe in ghosts, so it’s Proving I’m a Ghost time for Daniel! He brings her outside and when he approaches the boundary line of the property, holding her hand, he steps through and vanishes.

When she gets back in the house, he’s sitting on the stairs, eating an apple. She believes that he’s a ghost, however she’s definitely not leaving the inn now!

Much like Brad Pitt in Ocean’s Eleven, Daniel is always eating. When Kate asks about it, Walter explains that Daniel likes the sensation of eating, that it heightens his senses while he’s “alive.” Walter and Kate go for a private walk to discuss Daniel; he came back 95 years ago for exactly 12 days and has done the same every year since. He can’t go beyond the property line (obviously). Kate remarks, “There’s too many rules for this to be random. There has to be a purpose behind it.” I AGREE, KATE. But don’t expect the movie to explain them!

One small problem: Daniel has tried to solve his own origin story for years, to no avail, even with the aid of his cousin Harry (when Harry was alive, back in the day). He doesn’t even remember how he died. I would think a ghost would be the BEST murder investigator, but apparently I would be wrong. Walter exposits that foul play was suspected at the time, and that he was found out in the woods behind the inn.

A little backstory on our specter du jour: he was coming back from Montreal where he was a RUM-RUNNER during the Prohibition. He co-owned Hollygrove Inn with his brother, Charles, after their parents died. He met Lilly, who was new to town, and they immediately fell in love. When the inn fell into financial straits, Cousin Harry suggested the “Montreal job” to make some extra money.

So. The ghost logic in this movie is all sorts of jacked up. Daniel’s technically alive right now, yet he eats for the sensation not necessity (and extrapolating further, would also digest?!), and now we find out he doesn’t even sleep? MAKE MORE SENSE, SEXY MOVIE.

That night, Kate hears mysterious and creepy voices from another room and is spooked.

More backstory is revealed: Apparently, Cousin Harry spilled the beans when Charles put the pressure on. Charles didn’t want him to go to Montreal because it was super illegal and dangerous, etc etc.  Ugh, I feel bad saying it, but the dude playing Charles is straight out of community theatre and is SO TERRIBLE. With the exception of Beaudoin’s crazy Newfie-French accent slipping out constantly, the rest of the cast is solid and quite understated for the type of movie they’re in.

Weirdly, when I watched this on TV, there was a little scene where Kate walks in on a shirtless Daniel, but my torrented version doesn’t include it. INJUSTICE.

Enter an older foxy lady by the name of Molly, who’s a (newly divorced) pub owner in town! She’s very flirty with Walter, but Daniel wants nothing to do with her and leaves the room, until…

My reaction at “This is shaping up to be the worst Christmas since I died”:

First of all, I legitimately laughed out loud at “It is absolutely not DJ.” Secondly, here is the clearest example of how strong Beaudoin’s accent is.

He starts getting all braggy about his superior bartending skills to Molly, who asks that he prove it. He will! Tonight! “Bring companions,” he says! He’s positively delighted now that he’s got “a challenge! From a lady!” New territory for our resident non-ghost ghost.

Kate gets a call from Oliver. Get the damn inn appraised and get back to Boston!

That night, the little soiree is going well and Daniel’s drinks are appropriately old-fashioned and a big hit with the crowd. The sheriff shows up (he’s Molly’s brother) and basically tells Walter to stop dicking around and date his sister if he likes her. On a darker note, Molly airs the Forsythes’ dirty laundry to Kate and Daniel (who’s amusedly listening at first), apparently not more than a month after Daniel died, Charles married Lilly. They had a baby a little too soon after that. The rumour was that the baby was Daniel’s, and the marriage to Charles was a sham to cover it all up. The newborn died, and not long after, Lilly died in the inn. Daniel’s totally devastated by this news and storms out.

We find out now that before Daniel left for the Montreal job, Charles squealed on him to Lilly, and she was furious with him for leaving her. She made him promise that he’d come home to her for Christmas. Daniel never wanted Cousin Harry to tell him about Lilly’s fate after he found out about her marriage to Charles, so he was completely in the dark about everything really. When she hears this, Kate totally flips on Daniel and accuses him of abandoning his pregnant fiancée and getting himself killed, leaving her to perish in a loveless marriage. WHY ARE YOU SO MAD, KATE. Daniel’s (rightfully) angry that she’s dredging up this insensitively, that it’s not just a mystery to solve, it’s his life. Daniel tells her to kick rocks the next day.

She’s about to leave the next morning. Walter tells Kate that he thinks she’s so upset because she’s jealous (???) of Lilly. Hey Walt, nobody wants your shitty fanfic ideas! “It’s been quite awhile since Daniel has had the pleasure of having a fight with a beautiful woman.” He pleads with her not to give up on Daniel. She leaves anyway.

Daniel thinks he sees Lilly and just as quickly as she appeared, she’s gone again. He’s spooked by it.

MYSTERY! Kate comes back with a Christmas tree, determined to set things right, and searches the house for Daniel. Instead, she gets locked into the creepy room of the inn with a shadow lurking in the bathroom

She screams bloody murder and Daniel runs in with a comforting hug at the ready. And just like that, our handsome spirit and feisty gal are back in the good books with one another.

Buuuuut now they have to figure out who this other ghost is. Kate’s incredulous that Daniel had no idea. Um yeah, Daniel’s proving himself to be super useless at ghost shit.

One change of heart later, Daniel wants Kate to stay. When he spots the tree on the hood of her SUV, he remarks, “A fir tree is atop your auto.” I am delighted to add that this movie was filmed in Massachusetts during a very real winter, and during this scene, their hairdos are wilting from a genuine snowfall. You can’t fake that!

Anyway, Kate apologizes for saying mean things at the party. Kate and Daniel decorate the tree together and flirt like crazy. She tries to figure out the mystery of his ghost logic. My notes here: “Why 12 days? Why Xmas? IDK. Her mom’s dead.” I like to keep it short and sweet apparently. She has never been in love, nor has really loved someone, but Daniel believes she has a wonderful capacity for love. There are Romantic Moments happening everywhere in this scene and I love it all!

She promises Daniel that if her theory about him (basically, that he’ll cross over once his death is solved) turns out to be wrong, she’ll return every year to put a Christmas tree up for him. Try explaining THAT tradition to your husband and children, Kate! But aw:

Listen, I am 100% down for furtive hand touching in movies. It’s incredibly underrated and highly effective on me. More hand holding in movies!

Giving dudes a new reason to stay the night: Daniel telling Kate he wants to stay in her bedroom overnight to ensure her safety. But for the sake of her modesty, he’ll just face his chair THIS-A-WAY. They both lament the fact that she can’t afford to buy the inn herself. During the night, Daniel hears Lilly calling his name, but in the morning, lies to Kate that nothing eventful happened.

Walter shows up, shocked that there’s more than one ghost staying in this spooky-ass inn, since he chalked up any funny business to Daniel. While Daniel makes pancakes, they go over the facts. Daniel quit the Montreal job halfway through to come home to Lilly, leaving Cousin Harry with the head honcho, Conrad, and his gang. Could he have sent one of his henchmen to get revenge? Ooh, Daniel gets a handy little flashback and realizes he was bludgeoned from behind! Also, he left for Montreal on the 13th and arrived back at Hollygrove on the 24th. PUTTING TOGETHER THE PUZZLE ACHINGLY SLOW AT THIS POINT, YOU GUYS.

With horrible timing, Oliver calls Kate and demands she return to Boston immediately. Before she leaves, Daniel gives her his father’s pocketwatch, which hasn’t opened since Daniel came back from the dead. She promises him she’ll be back for Christmas. Romantic moments abound.

This recap is already too long and I DON’T CARE.

Walter and Daniel play chess; Daniel encourages Walter to ask out Molly since he obviously wants to get frisky with her. Daniel is also uncertain if Kate will really ever return like she said. Trust issues!

Meanwhile, Kate gets mysterious paperwork delivered to her office. Daniel arranges for the appraiser, Mr. Murphy, to return and do a proper appraisal of the place so Kate can get her job done. Oliver’s pleased and tells her that the appraisal’s gone through successfully, so there is absolutely NO NEED WHATSOEVER for her to return to a haunted inn since she now has less than a week to sell the joint, and also he’ll be announcing her promotion at the Christmas Eve office party. He exclaims, “Priorities!” and I guess this works in a reverse psychology way, because in the very next scene,  Daniel comes into the inn from outside and finds her tickling the ivories!

She hands him that mysterious paperwork: apparently she did some digging and found the birth certificate of Lilly’s baby. The father’s listed as DANIEL JACOB FORSYTHE. Aw, he did had a baby. Beaudoin does a good job of trying to keep his battling emotions in check here (pretty unsuccessfully, but who can blame him?). Nice moment, really. Continuing my good mood, Walter and Molly troop in with Christmas decorations for the Christmas Eve inn party they’re going to host since her pub’s still kaput. Daniel remarks quietly that it’s right that the party will be held there once again, that he’s missed it, “missed so many things” as he gazes at Kate in sheer adoration and love.

IT GOT ME. IT GOT ME GOOD.

Before the dance, Kate’s dolled up in a pretty party dress and Daniel is SMOKING HOT in a classy suit. She re-gifts him his father’s pocketwatch, except now it’s fixed and he opens it to see his (and his father’s name) inscribed inside. THEY KISS. Hallmark is all about blue-balling the audience with a single lame kiss at the end, so kudos to Lifetime for giving me more kissing!

Kate’s upset that they need more time to solve his murder and that they failed. Daniel disagrees; he’s amongst the living, thanks to her. Downstairs, they dance in slow motion and I love it. I love it without shame. The stupid sheriff cuts in, so Daniel goes over and tells Walter to go dance with Molly.

Umm, the first frightening moment of this movie is when Daniel is standing in the ballroom and suddenly a disembodied black-gloved hand slips into his. Creepy! Here’s where it gets a little weird. Basically what’s happening is that Daniel is staying in the 2015 party, but Lilly (to whom the gloved hand belongs) transports Daniel’s mind (??) back to the Christmas Eve Party of Murder so he can see what really happened that night. You can see that Charles and Lilly are surrounded by the 2015 partygoers.

He gets an insider’s perspective on their conversation that he saw from the woods, and the subsequent embrace that she shared with Charles (he was actually chewing her out for being so naïve about Daniel while she was anxiously awaiting his return. While “The Twelve Days of Christmas” plays in the background, Charles tells her it’d be a miracle if Daniel shows up for Christmas).

Lilly’s voice asks Daniel to consider who would’ve done it. HE DOESN’T KNOW, LILLY. But Conrad would’ve sent someone after him that knew his route…suddenly, Daniel sees COUSIN HARRY’S GHOST standing in the ballroom surrounded by 2015 people, holding a bloodstained rock. Distasteful party gift.

Cousin Harry disappears upstairs and Daniel follows in pursuit. To sum up what happens next, Daniel tells Cousin Harry he knows he murdered him. Cousin Harry reappears to tell his story: Conrad was afraid that Daniel would squeal about the job, so he threatened Cousin Harry and his family (including little baby Henrietta, who you will remember as the final heir of this place that’s just passed away, bringing us full circle!). As long as Daniel’s still in this weird purgatory, so is Cousin Harry, but Cousin Harry doesn’t really understand why Daniel can’t cross over. So…Cousin Harry has literally been haunting this place for almost a solid century now but refuses to show his face to Daniel or resolve this matter mano e mano so he can move his own ass on to the afterlife? GET OUT.

Daniel forgives him (see, Harry!!!) and sends his spirit packing, nicely of course. Kate’s like, great, but why haven’t you now crossed over too? The dawn of realization: “it’s Lilly’s Christmas miracle.” GHOST LOGIC DOESN’T MAKE SENSE IN THIS MOVIE. Kate’s not sorry about him remaining in the real world because she wants him to stay with her, even though it’s seconds from midnight and he’s about to peace out until next year.

She tells him that she’ll wait for him and return year after year. This makes me sad and I would normally go into a long rant about it, but it’s just sad and sweet enough that I don’t have the heart to fight it. Then this happens and I’m confused.

Does he have chloroform breath? Lilly’s waiting for him. Hand in hand, they walk outside and approach the property line, which normally zooms him right back into the house. She tells him he’s free from this place, but when she sees his hesitation in leaving Kate, she reminds him that the choice is his. She disappears across the line and we’re left with bated breath what he’ll do!

The next morning, Kate awakes on the couch, sad, and is a bit brightened when she sees Walter finally macking with Molly outside. Oliver calls to tell her the inn’s been sold…to Walter and Molly. Um, that is an exceptionally risky decision on both business and personal levels, but I will allow it. Walter wants to finally set Daniel free.

Kate goes outside and sees the silhouette of a man emerging from the woods. It’s Daniel…returning?! I have no idea what’s happening, but they do that thing where they run at one another and make out. How is he back? “Twelve days isn’t nearly long enough. I want more. I want you.”

WHERE WAS HE?!

THE END

I love everything about this movie without reservation.