A Town Divided by Christmas

By: Orson Scott Card / Narrated By: Emily Rankin / Directed By: Claire Bloom

Length: 2 hrs and 50 mins

Charming little rom-com, but hey! Whereza Christmas?!

At just under 3 hours, A Town Divided by Christmas was soooo sweet and poked fun at its pretensions (Hallmark Movie, anyone?). Ahhhh, but I see danged near every single review has dubbed it thus, but hey! Card does it himself.

Anyhoo! Spunky (Her last name is Spunk, but lord have mercy her parents gave her the first name of Delilah, and who on earth would go by THAT?!) and Elyon have been tapped for a research project that involves genes, statistics, and (For Spunky) good people skills as interviews are absolutely necessary. Elyon, tho’ a math/numbers whiz kid, has no, zip, nada people skills, and gosh, not even a sense of humor. He’ll be staying indoors and trying not to alienate the citizens of Small Town USA whilst Spunky will be doing some heavy duty leg work and taking swabs, all in an effort to see if certain behaviors have a genetic component.

What the pair come upon is a town (Well, two Episcopal churches to be more exact) that are at odds with each other over an incident that occurred over 80 years ago. Two baby boys, one baby Jesus to play for the town Nativity on Christmas Eve. Each congregation is SURE that THEY’VE got THE right baby, they’re right etc. etc. etc. And never the twain shall meet.

Along the way, the town’s only alderman joins Spunky whilst Elyon has his meals taken care of by Josette, a buxom young woman who’s full-throttle for Elyon.

So there you’ve the romantic setup: How can Spunky fall for the alderman, despite their growing appreciation of each other, when she’s set to go on to seek tenure SOMEwhere. And Elyon, who will DEFinitely be going on to greater things in academia, needs somebody who’ll be able to carry herself within THAT cutthroat environment (But does Elyon even need anyone else? Nary a social skill to be had in that young man!).

There’s far more Thanksgiving than Christmas in this li’l ol’ story, tho it isn’t really that category either. Rather, this is quite simply a sweet little tale that is heavy on intelligent dialogue and lovely in character development. If you’re looking for the Orson Scott Card trademark -science fiction- you’re certain to be disappointed in this. Heck, if you’re looking for a Christmas Listen, you might be a trifle disappointed as well.

-BUT-

if this year has you searching for a truly feel good little Listen, and if you want something that is sweet without being waaay too much saccharine, and if you’d like a Hallmark Movie withOUT being toooo over the top, give this a try.

Emily Rankin ain’t stellar, but she delivers likable characters and good-hearted folks who are into EVERYbody’s business with aplomb. A trifle gravelly for the males in this, but as the story starts to unfold, and as Spunky and Elyon get deeper and deeper into their project, as characters soon start making decisions, Rankin does just fine.

All is wrapped up with a bright and shiny bow, no Spoilers here, just in time to say:

Merry Christmas, everyone! And to all a good night!