Doc Hollywood (1991) - ★★☆☆☆

Michael J. Fox! Again!

One of the best Hallmark Christmas movies (and believe me, I'd know) is called Christmas Under Wraps. I've seen this movie maybe twelve times, and I want you to know that I have never been able to figure out why it's called that. But that's now what matters wright now. What matters, is that for me, Christmas Under Wraps is the prototype of one of the best tropes in all of TV and movies.

In the movie, Candace Cameron Bure (of The View fame) is a newly minted doctor looking for work. Instead of getting the prestigious position she always dreamed of getting in Boston, the only job offered to Candace is in a remote Alaskan town. Against her better judgement, she decides to take the job. If you're familiar with the Hallmark genre, you know where this is going: her big city attitude gets adjusted, she meets a handsome local fellow with a beat up pick-up truck, befriends an old man with a white beard and a reindeer farm, and generally becomes enraptured by small-town Alaskan life. The movie is replete with montages of Candace getting new, Alaska-suitable clothing, odd small-town medical maladies, and a haunting final shot of the old man—who apparently really is Santa—flying through the sky with his reindeer sleigh.

In short, it's delightful. Since the first time I saw that movie, the whole big city doctor opening a small-town practice thing has been one of my favorites. Don't get me started on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman!

Doc Hollywood is basically just that. Only that doesn't really make it very good. Without Santa, and without Sully throwing his tomahawk, I guess the whole idea loses a lot of its appeal.

Following the whole Hallmark thing, though, Woody's role in this movie is that of the classic Bad Boyfriend. There's always a good one and a bad one in Hallmark movies. Interesting, isn't it, that the good boyfriend in this particular movie is only 5'4"...?

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