A SWEET AS CHRISTMAS is a family friendly holiday story. The story centers on young Becky. She’s healing from the death of her mother and trying to save her grandmother’s sweet shop during Christmas. There are solid themes about grief, healing, and learning to move on.
It’s easy to like Becky. The tone is family friendly. There’s a small town feel to the storytelling and a simple, innocent sense of style.
There’s a lot to really like about the script, but at the same time, one believes there’s more room for development. The areas to revisit are tension and focusing the jeopardy or stakes more on Becky.
First, the opening establishes Becky’s world. She’s a loner, socially awkward, and insecure. She tries to hide this from her father.
There
…show more content…
Mathers. On page 34, Mr. Mathers is described as having his mind ticking over – which has to be more visual as the audience can’t see this description. Regardless, for a moment one thought maybe there’s something magical that he does to prevent Kelly from singing, allowing Becky the chance to have the role of Mary, but this never materializes. However, it’s something to consider, as adding a bit of magic in a holiday script is a tried and true formula.
There’s an area of the script that could use more clarification. Robert clearly doesn’t like Simon, but his reasoning doesn’t seem well understood. It seems like its about his wife, but there’s not enough information to understand it, since Robert married her and Simon is grieving over the death of Lexa.
Becky is easy to like. She has inner conflict about the death of her mother and her father abandoning her. When she overhears her father say he’s not coming home this is the perfect opportunity to create more tension. Maybe she runs away. Also, make sure to have a strong father-daughter scene in the resolution.
Becky is a girl who doesn’t really like conflict. She’s doesn’t stand up for herself and it would be nice if she eventually was able to do this. This would create a stronger character arc. Finally, Becky’s voice sounds a bit older and one might want to revisit some of her dialogue (example page