I really enjoyed this holiday episode of “Doctor Who” and will review more in this year’s marathon.
Click here to watch “Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage” on Amazon
TITLE: Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage
FILM YEAR: 2008
DURATION: 103 Minutes
Directed by Michael Campus
Written by Ken LaZebnik
Producer: Marcus Wilson
Executive Producers: Steven Moffat, Caroline Skinner
Music by Murray Gold
Starring:
Jared Padalecki as Thomas Kinkade
Marcia Gay Harden as Maryanne Kinkade
Peter O’Toole as Glen
Aaron Ashmore as Pat Kinkade
Richard Burgi as Bill Kinkade
Geoffrey Lewis as Butch
Chris Elliott as Ernie
Richard Moll as Big Jim
Kiersten Warren as Tanya
Jay Brazeau as Mr. Rosa
Charlotte Rae as Vesta
Edward Asner as Sidney
Tegan Moss as Nanette
Gina Holden as Hope Eastbrook
A look at the inspiration behind Thomas Kinkade’s painting The Christmas Cottage, and how the artist was motivated to begin his career after discovering his mother was in danger of losing their family home.
One of America’s most popular painters, the late William Thomas Kinkade III, many Americans have owned a copy of his paintings, as he achieved great success with mass marketing of reproductions of his artwork.
Back in the ’70s, while Kinkade was just a young man living in Placerville, his family have gone through financial hardships. Mentored by Glen Wessels (another famous painter who taught as a professor at UC Berkeley and encouraged Kinkade to go to the university), the film is a semi-autobiography which is about Kinkade and his family going through hardships, an aging Glen Wessels who has one more painting left in him and celebrating Christmas with the Kinkade family and eventually saving them from losing their home by donating his final painting to the Kinkade’s, to sell the painting for them to survive.
With the community and also memories of having Christmas dinner with Wessels before his death, later in life, Kinkade would paint the famous painting, “Christmas Cottage”, which is about his memories of Christmas in Placerville.
On Kinkade’s website, he would say of “Christmas Cottage”, “A dream has come true with the release of Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage, the first in a number of inspirational movies about my difficult boyhood. As I re-live what were, despite many hardships, golden years, I realize that God must have had a hand in some of our miraculous escapes. The home payments we scraped together, the injuries we barely avoided, the holidays we somehow managed to celebrate – these are my small dramas”.
The film was released in 2008, Kinkade would pass away in 2012. Directed by the late Michael Campus (“Hiroshima”, “Z.P.G.”) and written by Ken LaZebnik (“Touched by an Angel”, “Star Trek: Enterprise”, “Providence”), the film is probably one of the few holiday films that features an all star cast from past and present.
It stars Jared Padelecki (“Walker”, “Supernatural”), Marcia Gay Harden (“Mystic River”, “Pollock”, “Into the Wild”), the late Peter O’Toole (“Lawrence of Arabia”, “The Lion in Winter”, “Troy”), Aaron Ashmore (“X-Men” films, “Killjoys”, “Locke & Key”), Richard Burgi (“Desperate Housewives”, “The Sentinel”), Chris Elliot (“There’s Something about Mary”, “Groundhog Day”), Richard Moll (“Night Court”, “House”), Kiersten Warren (“Desperate Housewives”, “Independence Day”, “13 Going on 30”), the late Charlotte Rae (“The Facts of Life”, “Hair”), Gina Holden (“Final Destination 3”, “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem”, “The Butterfly Effect 2”), Tegan Moss (“The X-Files”, “Charlie St. Cloud”), the late Edward Asner (“JFK”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “Elf”) and more.
Numerous stars in this film along with the director and Thomas Kinkade, are now deceased, but I look back at this film as something special, but at the same time, a holiday film that tries to find its footing and slips, because it wants to balance dramatic and serious scenes, with idiotic comedy.
First, let’s talk about the bad. Fortunately, the bad is not super bad or the type you are unable to tolerate, but the kind of bad that breaks up the pacing and I believe it may be intentional. As holiday films should have its happy moments, the decision to have scens built on Kinkade’s mother directing a play and incorporating town citizens in somewhat goofball roles.
Charlotte Rae plays the role of Vesta, a pianist/organist who is hard of hearing and each time Maryanne Kinkade or a volunteer tells her to play this song, she ends up playing something else. And sings out of nowhere, which upsets those who are involved in the play. Then you have Chris Elliott (surprisingly, in one of his not so wacky roles) playing a person trying to be famous amongst the community and a lot of infighting with people who want parts of the film or dislike their roles.
But it’s the most dramatic or serious moments of the film that captivated me. Maryanne trying to keep the home while working at the play, her two sons Thomas and Pat trying to hold jobs to help their mother, while Thomas works with Glen Wessels (portrayed by the late Peter O’Toole) who is suffering from dementia but yet an art dealer (portrayed by Edward Asner) who sells Wessels works, feels he has one more painting in him. While the sons try to appeal to their father (who comes back to town), who is pretty much broke and just drinks.
In many ways, you see Thomas Kinkade’s story of living in a small town, the community that was supportive thanks to his mother being involved in community events but also not knowing where he would be in life. In many ways, while Thomas Kinkade would become a successful painter, there is no doubt that Kinkade wanted to pay it forward by honoring his mentor, Glen Wessels.
These dramatic moments are things I enjoyed watching and to see how the Kinkade family persevered but also to see people who loved his work.
And this leads me to the next part, Thomas Kinkade’s painting. I know there are painters who are critical of Kinkade’s work, his model of monetizing on reproductions and whether or not you believe in his artwork, there are paintings that you will love or hate. Paintings that will speak to you and whether or not it vibes with you, is purely subjective.
Kinkade was a businessman and looking at his life growing up, I don’t blame him wanting to make sure that he and his family would be taken care of, even after his death. We see it more today, where people are looking for ways to monetize. For far too long, there are painters, artists and creative people who have gone broke and again, for him to choose a more commercial direction, I don’t blame him one bit.
But if what his life was like what was depicted in this film, in today’s age of people looking for ways to make more money and those proud for those who established their own brand and found a way to monetize it, I think this generation and future generations will be less critical than the generations before.
“Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage” is an entertaining and enjoyable holiday film (comedic parts fall flat but if I compare it with other holiday films, it’s not all that bad), but it’s a bit more than what you are typically getting from a Holiday film today.
Click here to watch “Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage” on Amazon
