- HOLIDAY SWITCH (DVD MOVIE)
It s a week before Christmas, and Paula (Nicole Eggert) is struggling with bills, life with her blue-collar husband Gary and her two daughters. So when Nick, her high school boyfriend, returns to town a wealthy art gallery owner, Paula begins to wonder where she would be if she had stayed with him and not Gary. When Paula makes a holiday wish to see what life would have been like had she made another choice, she is magically transported through her washer/dryer to a parallel life where she is Nick s wife. At first, this other life seems the answer to her dreams, as she shops and dines out with her newfound wealth. But she soon realizes that the grass is NOT always greener on the other side. Her relationship with Nick is in shambles, and she misses her real husband Gary and her two girls. When she sees Gary and her kids living a happy life with another woman, she wis! hes for just one more Christmas gift--to have back the life she didn t appreciate.Is the grass really greener along the road not taken?
Holiday Switch, a charming and well-acted TV film, examines that question through the life of Paula (Nicole Eggert), a harried housewife whose sweet husband, Gary (Bret Anthony), is struggling to make ends meet for his family. Paula is never caught up on her laundry, she has the worst haircut ever given to a human person, and she longs for an easier life, a little pampering, a husband with money and influence. Is that so wrong? When she bumps into her high-school boyfriend, Nick (Brett Le Bourveau), a successful art dealer, her fantasies run wild. The next thing Paula knows, she wakes up in a different reality--in a much ritzier zip code. In the manner of
It's a Wonderful Life or
Sliding Doors, Paula is suddenly plopped into a parallel universe--the luxe life with Nick that she thinks she's always wanted. The first day ! is fun--Paula gets to play dress-up and drench herself in jewe! lry, fur s, great designer clothes, and every luxury she can imagine (though, oddly, she is still stuck with that bad haircut). But before long she realizes the dangers of wanting something just beyond one's reach--and not being grateful for what really matters. Eggert throws herself enthusiastically into the role of both Paulas, and her gradual realization of what she loves and misses about sweet old blue-collar Gary is conveyed with subtlety and nuance. But Paula's new, fractured life doesn't seem to be a dream she can awaken from--and Paula's heartache is palpable.
Holiday Switch is set at Christmastime, so that the themes of family, gratitude, and the value of love over material possessions ring even more true. You see, Paula? You really have had a wonderful life. --
A.T. Hurley
