Happily Ever After is a tall order in 2020. And in a Boston winter? There’s a reason this town runs religiously on Dunkin. So let’s add in a sweetener: Charlestown gets the Disney treatment in Godmothered, where commuters are nicer, snow is cleaner, and a Bruins tailgate is considered local news worthy of a field producer (so, so much more on that below). Somewhat of a copy, rotate, and paste from Amy Adams’ Enchanted (2007), the characters’ earnestness doesn’t poison their charm, and the central relationships between the women and girls onscreen are an organic escape from the sticky-sweet platter of Christmas rom-coms.
My streak of reviewing redheads continues. Courtesy: Official Facebook Page
In a race against time to save her hometown, fairy godmother-in-training Eleanor (Jillian Bell) travels to Boston to orchestrate a happily ever after in response to a little girl’s letter. Apparently no one taught this girl to date her letters, so we meet Mackenzie (Isla Fisher) as a fully-grown and fully stressed-out local news producer living with her sister and two kids in Charlestown. Eleanor commits herself to befriending the family and providing a way to process their unspoken grief, amidst warnings from her best godmother pal, the show-stealing Agnes (June Squibb), to hurry up before the point of no return.
I went in with low expectations, as I do with all holiday-themed movies, but was utterly charmed by the realism peeking out behind the magic. No one is drop-dead gorgeous; daughter Jane (Jillian Shea Spaeder) grapples with anxiety in all its ugliness; Channel 8’s Christmas party is cringy; Eleanor isn’t a natural with magic. Complete with enchanted animals, snowy antics, and an over-the-top Christmas parade, the film ends with a fresh take on what it means to engineer your own happiness in an unfriendly world. Still, it’s a Disney fairytale through and through, with an air-tight conclusion and lessons learned. Does it need to exist? Nope! But I’d probably watch it again, if only because it’s so nice to see a Boston-based movie that is not about the mob, or Harvard.
Now, because I can’t help myself…an inside-scoop on everything that’s so right, and so wrong, about Godmothered’s depiction of Boston local news, from a current Boston local news assignment editor:
Mackenzie is a producer for Channel 8 news. That’s not a news channel here. (As of 2020, channels 4, 5, 7, 10, and 25 will give you a version of the day’s events. Depending on where you are, you could catch ABC Providence on 6 or WMUR on 9). Her boss Grant (Utkarsh Ambudkar) is ECSTATIC when their ratings bump their broadcast up to 4th place. So which real channel didn’t make the cut? (My bet is 25. Sorry, Fox.)
The pitch meeting — as someone who participates in or runs these meetings, the idea that Hugh (Santiago Cabrera) pitches about a charity drive is probably the only one I would take! Not only are the other ideas not news and just poorly thought-out, Hugh’s idea about a feel-good holiday story is exactly what folks are looking for as the weather gets colder. And, it would do well on social media, which could translate into digital ad revenue and greater broadcast viewership.
In this market, with the exception of breaking news situations, a broadcast story is read by at least two people before it comes out of an anchor’s mouth. There could be a news writer or AP, then a producer, than an EP, and finally a good anchor will usually make time to glance over their scripts before heading to the studio. Our field crews also send in their scripts to be looked at before they record anything, or at least have a chat with the EP. So the whole, “you have to go re-write this after it aired because I didn’t like it” argument would only be valid if you have no newsroom workflow whatsoever. #5, remember?
I was far more fascinated than I should have been by the way the anchor screens A) moved and B) revealed the bustling newsroom right behind them. The anchors can’t “look” at the reporters delivering their standup without turning around, and the anchors are blocking the screen altogether. Why? Why would you design a studio this way?
When Eleanor wanders into the studio during a live broadcast, she encounters Hugh delivering a live report about the pumpkins she smashed a few scenes ago. He’s “on location,” but is actually standing in front of a green screen pretending to be in the field. This. Is. Not. A Thing. Who told them this was a thing?
The Bruins tailgate story, like much of the news world depicted in the film, is clearly meant to be satire. But the whole “I’ll take the game, you take the tailgate” as a form of team coverage? Unless this is a very famous player’s final game, or someone literally dies, yeah, this wouldn’t happen, even on a weekend. Too big of a market.
Sending a field producer, reporter, BOOM OPERATOR, and photog…for a snow day feature? First of all, our photogs do sound and camera and even ask questions often all at once, thank you. Some stations have Multi-Media Journalists who do all their own camerawork, editing, standups, writing, live shots, and web stories, and they are superstars. Second, if you’re hurting that badly in the ratings, might want to make better use of your staff’s time and your station’s money by keeping your producer in house to pull together elements, help each other with shows, etc. You know who sets up interviews, assists reporters remotely in the field, and coordinates transmission, while fielding phone calls from agitated viewers? Assignment editors :)
Yay for movies made in the Commonwealth! And congrats to the local folks who worked on it. With a slate of new films shooting across the state, I look forward to reviewing the next Beantown feature.