Alex Ranarivelo has done a great job directing the romantic film Holiday in the Vineyards. The movie revolves around the story of Carter Baldwyn, the heir to a renowned wine company, and Valentina, a realtor who has been trying to back local winemakers. Holiday in the Vineyards has a wonderful cast, including Josh Swickard and Sol Rodriguez, which adds charm to the movie. The film has a festive vibe entangled with romance elements, which can be paralleled with the film Your Christmas or Mine. Will Carter be able to ensure that the local essence of Huckabee Vineyards is maintained? Will the differences between Valentina and Carter be resolved? Let’s find out!
Spoiler Alert
Why Does Carter’s Mother Send Him To Los Santos?
Carter is given a task by his mother to go to Los Santos when she learns that the vineyard there is up for sale. She wants to make sure that the Baldwyn family is the one to acquire the land so that they can further expand their business in that area. She asks Carter to conceal his identity when he goes there so that no one will be able to recognize him there. He is asked to go to Los Santos so that he can get to know the final amount that would be offered by the people there, so that they can jump in and offer more during the bidding to grab the vineyard. Carlos’ mother is overly ambitious and does not even want to miss out on a single piece of land to expand their vineyards. She is extremely dominating and instructs Carter to do as she pleases, as she believes that he will be the sole heir to her entire property and should know the ways in which the business will blossom. However, sending him to Los Santos changes his perspective on life forever!
How Does Carter Conceal His Identity?
When Carter reaches Los Santos, he comes to a meeting held at the Huckabee Vineyards. He learns that the local people there were trying their best to ensure that the vineyard would not go into the hands of the Baldwyns. When he meets Valentina, the realtor, he tries to seek information from her about the bid. When she asks him about his identity, he tells her that he was a visitor in Los Santos and was just there for some wine tasting. He conceals his real identity and tells her that he is a carpenter. Valentina offers him to stay at her place and mend her penthouse. He immediately moves into her penthouse in the hopes of finding out some secret information from her about the estate. He tries fixing her walls but fails, and later he is helped by a local winemaker, Moe. He thinks that Carter was just trying to impress Valentina and had therefore lied to her about his profession. He mends the penthouse with Moe’s help and, in turn, offers to help him with wine tasting, as Moe thinks that he has a good knowledge of wine. He helps Moe improvise on his wine by giving him tips and tricks about making it correctly.
How Does A Romance Blossom Between Carter And Valentina?
Valentina notices the bond that Carter has developed with her two sons, Santiago and Fernando, within a very short span. He helps them with skating and even builds them a slope where they can practice. She also develops a bond with him when she shows him a collection of wine that her late husband had. She is amazed by the amount of knowledge that Carter has about wine, and he teaches her the proper way to taste wine. Valentina’s friend Cindy encourages her by saying that she should not give up all hopes in life after losing her husband and should consider Carter. They are seen sharing merry moments together, and she confides in him that the people in the village were pooling in to buy the vineyard so that they could continue the legacy of the local wines of the Huckabee Vineyards. Carter passes on that information to his mother and asks her to spare the land, as he believes that many people’s emotions are attached to it. He is also seen spending a magical night at a local wine-tasting event with Valentina as he confesses his feelings to her. They are also seen sharing an intimate kiss, which signifies that Valentina has finally been able to break off her outer shell and has learned to trust someone after losing her husband.
What Happens In The End?
When Valentina learns that the local winemakers were outbidden by the Baldwyn company, she is heartbroken. While she is confused as to how the company could possibly know the bid amount that they had offered, Carter accepts that it was he who had passed on the information. He reveals his real identity to her, and she thinks that all that he has done for her and her sons in the past few days has been a facade. She loses her faith in him and walks off, leaving him heartbroken. He thinks of ways to mend the situation and asks Moe for his help. On Christmas, a success party is thrown by the Baldwyns for acquiring the vineyard in Los Santos. Carter pre-plans to deliver a speech on that day and invites Valentina and other friends to the party. He announces that even though the Baldwyn group has acquired the vineyard, he would like to open a parallel branch for the brand, endorsing the local wines of Huckabee. He stated that his grandfather, along with his business partner Huckabee, had dreamt of creating a great wine brand someday, but the business somehow could not become a success. He took it all upon himself to make sure that the local wine of Huckabee would become a grand success, something that his grandfather had always dreamt of. When he confronted his mother, she also seemed to be proud of him for being able to make business decisions all by himself. Later, he approaches Valentina and apologizes to her, only to reunite with her and live happily ever after.
Final Words
Holiday in the Vineyards has a perfect romantic plot, making the 1 hour, and 40 minutes fly by in a jiffy. The importance of being able to handle the decisions of one’s own life has been depicted in the movie. The moment that Carter realized that he could no longer be a puppet in his mother’s hands, his life was transformed, as he instantly regained the lost respect and the love of his life. He had taken the responsibility of making things good all upon himself, as he believed that he was wrong in passing on the information and breaking the dreams of the local winemakers. The beautiful storyline of the film makes it unique in many ways, as it makes us reflect on a lot of mistakes that we often tend to make in life by being unable to make our own decisions. However, I believe an in-depth depiction of the sentiments of the people associated with the vineyard would have added more layers to the film.
