Here’s a fun game for Fifers to play, if you’re watching the new, Fife-shot seasonal film Christmas in Scotland, which made its debut on Channel 5 over the weekend and is now up on the 5 website to view again.
Every time one of the characters visiting from the US marvels at the magical beauty and charm of the fictional Scots village of ‘Glenrothie’, try saying ‘Glenrothes’ in your head. It’ll give you a whole different perspective on this weird fantasy version of Scotland, no doubt aimed at US audiences.
Emma McKenzie (Jill Winternitz, from Netflix’s The Sandman) is a crack New York window display designer, who loses a big job doing a New Year display and ends up accompanying her dad Mike (Toby Rolt) to Scotland for Christmas, to rediscover their family history.
Mike doesn’t know whether Glenrothie is in the Highlands or Lowlands, but he can’t wait to sample those authentic Scottish delicacies. Namely the black pudding and jam on toast, apparently.
He and Emma drive in behind the wheel of a vintage Mini Cooper – that’s one specialist car hire company, I thought – and before long he’s being dressed in kilts and romanced by fun-loving local spinster Ruth (Jane MacFarlane).
Scottish stage favourites add charm
Emma, meanwhile, is at the root of one of the weirdest premises for a film I can remember. Tweedy, tradition-obsessed Laird Duncan (Lewis Howden) owns Glenrothie and won’t let it be gaudily decorated at Christmas, meaning neighbouring village Burnglennan (the place names appear to be assembled out of a hat) will win the local Christmas decoration contest.
Spurred on by the Laird’s granddaughter Rhona (Caoimhe Fisher) and local business owner Megan (Caroline Deyga), Emma is convinced to stay and use her special powers of fairy light arrangement to make the village’s first-ever prizewinning display.
Meanwhile Laird’s son Alex (Dominic Watters) handsomes his way around the place, apparently inevitably set to tempt Emma away from her jet-set life in New York. It’s all utterly corny and featherlight, of course, and based in only the vaguest sense of reality.
Yet Winternitz is a charming lead, and the presence of so many Scottish stage favourites (Howden, Deyga, Steven McNicoll, Pauline Lynch) adds to a sense of the playfully tongue-in-cheek. The Culross and Limekilns locations also look beautiful on film, of course.
And my verdict?
Three stars.
If you want to check it out to help get in the Christmas spirit while you’re putting the tree up, though, you’d better be quick about it – it’s only online for streaming until Tuesday the 12th December.
Conversation