Jason Robards Can't Keep The Christmas Wife From Being Soporific

Thanksgiving is in three days, and I’m in the midst of Christmas Mode. That means reading and listening to and watching as much Christmas-related material as I can. Though I’m frustrated with Netflix for not having a specific Christmas category that I can browse, I managed to find a few seasonal picks that I hadn’t yet seen. One of those was The Christmas Wife.

This made-for-TV movie directed by David Hugh Jones and adapted from a short story by Katherine Ann Jones wasn’t one that I’d heard of before, but I am a fan of its star, Jason Robards, so I figured it was worth a shot. Robards portrays the recently widowed John Tanner, who isn’t ready to let go of his long-held Christmas traditions or face his son (Jim Eckhouse) and his family without his wife. He just wants a nice relaxed holiday at his cabin in the woods, but in order to avoid being crushed by the weight of his emptiness, he decides to look into a newspaper ad offering companions for all purposes.

John doesn’t want any kind of physical intimacy. All he wants is someone to talk to, but at first, he doesn’t seem to be getting his money’s worth with taciturn Iris (Julie Harris), who immediately puts a moratorium on questions, who isn’t interesting in eating dinner and who seems eager to escape John’s company as soon as possible. But in the gorgeous, secluded locale of the cabin, she gradually begins to open up, and John starts to see the possibility that he could learn to fall in love again.

When I glanced at the IMDb cast list before watching the movie, I imagined that the movie would probably involve John bringing his hired friend to a family gathering, but for the vast majority of the movie, he and Iris are the only two characters we see. This makes for a very quiet movie, especially toward the beginning, when he and Irish barely speak to each other.

Aside from a couple of phone conversations with his son and a game of poker with some buddies, the film features only three other characters. Don Francks is friendly but pushy as the man who is a little too eager to fix John up with a Christmas date. Helen Frost plays a woman who frequents John’s favorite restaurant and seems to have attracted his interest. My favorite side character is peppy waitress Dora, mostly because she’s played by Patricia Hamilton, whose performance as Rachel Lynde in Kevin Sullivan’s Anne of Green Gables miniseries is so entertaining.

This is a very short movie at an hour and 13 minutes long. While I was rather surprised at how brief the movie is, in the end I was glad about it, since the film has such a drowsy tone to it that I nearly fell asleep. There’s a good message to be gleaned about rolling with the punches, continuing to live despite tragic changes in one’s circumstances. But despite the skill of the actors involved, I couldn’t help finding this movie dull and a tad depressing. If you like one of the leads, The Christmas Wife might be worth a look, but I wouldn’t recommend it to most.