Christmas at Rosemont

A pregnant teenage girl needs to get to Denver, the bus she is riding must turn back because of snow at the passes. Having a snack at a roadside cafe she overhears a young man headed that direction, he has a 4 wheel drive car, so she begs him to take her with him. I seriously considered abandoning this movie after about 10 to 15 minutes but stuck with it and was rewarded with a very nice little movie about relationships. As fate would have it the two travelers go off road and get stuck in a snowstorm, they make it to a resort that it turns out has been closed for 18 years, ever since the owner's family, including a 1-yr-old granddaughter, went missing in a small plane crash. But they have sympathy for the travelers and take them in. While the two younger actors are both good, the movie is really made good by Brad Dourif who in the role of Abe is sort of the caretaker of the closed resort. But the better one is New Orleans native, Grace Zabriskie (about 75) in the role of Josephine, the owner of the resort. Things develop in an unexpected manner, in all an entertaining movie that branches into relationships as its primary focus. My wife and I watched it as an Amazon streaming movie.

A feel good family oriented film that conveys the right messages to a post modern society that has fluid morals. We desperately need more films like this to influence the psyche for the better. Kudos to the producers, well done!

The storyline is plausible. (after all, if one can win the lotto, anything is possible) The acting is top-shelf. Grace Zabriskie and Brad Dourif are the entertainment for this heartwarming film. We also get a bit of Michael Gross and Lochlyn Munro. Since it's filmed around Brian Head Lodge, Utah in winter, one can imagine the beautiful scenery. This is well worth a viewing, or two!

I watched this movie at Christmas time because of the present title, Christmas at Rosemont, AKA Rosemont. After watching this movie, I find that although Christmas music begins the opening credits and a Christmas tree is present, this story isn't much about Christmas. It is more about love and understanding. If you want to watch it as a novel christmas movie, do so. If you want to watch it to feel emotion and be human, by all means, do so. I gave it an 8. The story begins as a pregnant girl and a skateboarder begin a desperate road trip to Denver. The desperation is caused by a massive snow storm in their area. The two crashes through a snowbank and are left to walk to shelter. They come upon the Rosemont Lodge where they are met by shotgun wielding Josephine, (Grace Zabriskie) and caretaker, Abe (Brad Dourif). Josephine and Abe relent and allow Lisa (Ayla Kell) and Brad (Brendan Michael Coughlin) to shelter in the Lodge. Josephine is a self described 'crazy old recluse' and Abe, the alcoholic handyman for over 20 years at the vacated Lodge. Tensions warm after discovery that Lisa is very pregnant. Josephine cares for Lisa, and Brad share with Abe improvements that the Lodge could undertake to reopen successfully. Lurking behind the scene is an unidentified man who is hunting Lisa, and later is identified as Craig (Lochlyn Monro). He has tacked missing person fliers, and portraying her as being kidnapped. Later as he is identified, it's related by Lisa to Josephine that Lisa has fled from Craig because he has contracted to sell her baby. The Rosemont Lodge was once very famous, housing kings, presidents, and other famous lodgers. The Lodge has been shut down for over 18 years as a result of Josephine and her late husbands loss due to a plane crash killing there daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. Abe relates that it was most famous for Josephine's cooking. Josephine contacts Lisa's parents and find that they have no interest left in Lisa because of religious reasons. They do relate to Josephine that Lisa was adopted by them when Lisa was one, after she was originally abandoned at a hospital emergency room. Before going on and creating a spoiler, I'll say that later the movie involves a great confrontation between Josephine and Craig, Brad getting to Denver and again seeing his girlfriend in Denver, and an eye-opening discussion between Josephine and her old friend, Dr. Molina (Michael Gross). I loved this movie! The actors are not well known, with the exception of Dourif, but create true to life characters. It moves from tense and desperate, to defense, to understanding and love. Not a "hokie" Christmas "cookie cutter" movie, but a true representation of change, compassion and hope.

So I love this movie and I could watch it over and over. But it does have some alcoholic beverages in it such as a man drinking beer and a woman and man drinking beer. I would also like to say that some seems are kind of bloody ( when the woman gives birth) and an umbilical cord is shown being cut. But other than that this movie was fantastic.

We've seen all the snowed-in Christmas movies. Some include the pain of the travel problems. Some just basically cut right to snowed-in. Either way, the romantic leads get off to a rough start and "warm" up to each other after a while. This movie barely resembles those other ones. A 19 year old pregnant woman, Lisa, is running from something. Her bus gets rerouted back where it came from because of snow so she convinces a male stranger, Brad, to take her onward. They run off the road and after nearly freezing find a closed down inn. The owner is an angry older woman who meets them with a gun. Fortunately the male handy man calms her down so they take the couple in. So far, except maybe for the gun, it's kind of familiar. There are a couple of things the viewer can see coming, but it's not in the usual way. For one thing, the owner has a backstory that unfolds a bit at a time. Pieces come together and things get a little sentimental. Instead of baking cookies and building snowmen, one of the more interesting activities is a slightly sanitized scene of delivering a baby. The acting was good. Each of the couples had chemistry, even if at times it was like sandpaper for one of them. I like that not all things are tied up tightly and the viewer can decide at least one or two things.

This is a touching tale of love and good prevailing. The mountain scenery is gorgeous and the lodge beautiful. A nice story with excellent acting. Definitely worth watching.