Chatham Orpheum Theater to host special screening of 'Merry Good Enough'

In “Merry Good Enough,” a new holiday movie from Marion native Caroline Keene and Dan Kennedy, family dysfunction takes center stage as the Raulie family reunites when their mother goes missing on Christmas Eve.

“Someone said they put the fun in dysfunctional, I felt like I wanted the fact that even though there is so much dysfunction, there's definitely still love to be a part of the movie,” Keene said in an interview with the Times.

The film is set to take the screen at the Chatham Orpheum Theater on Nov. 30 for a one-night-only advance screening before its release on Dec. 19. For one of the movie’s stars and producers, Comfort Clinton, the screening is a dream come true because she grew up visiting Orleans, where her parents now live full time.

“I have gone to that movie theater for years,” she said. “My parents and I have a tradition of going there every holiday season and seeing (a) movie and what's wild is that  (this year) I'll be in that movie … (The) little girl inside me is absolutely freaking out.”

‘Merry Good Enough’ vision was reverse 'Home Alone'

The film follows Lucy (Raye Levine) as she works to find her mother (Susan Gallagher) with the help of her siblings, Tim (Daniel Desmarais) and Cynthia (Clinton) and her love interest Sam (Sawyer Spielberg) after she disappears. Eventually, their father (Joel Murray) shows up to help find his ex-wife.

“I had this idea of like a reverse 'Home Alone' where this adult daughter wakes up and the mom is missing and all the kids are in the house and the mom is gone,” Keene explained. “That's kind of the story the movie is about. Not only where it should go but how each adult sibling is having a different reaction of how serious it should be.”

Keene penned the script while in college, but she never intended to write a Christmas movie.

“I had the idea to write a movie about a family going essentially through some tough things, but also some funny things,” she said. “I realized ‘Oh, it just happens to be set at Christmas.’ … It's definitely not like a traditional Hallmark movie, it's really more of a family comedy set (during) the holidays.”

Years passed since her college days, but in December of 2022, she would find herself filming her movie across Massachusetts and in Rhode Island. While she pictured the film taking place in Marion, most of the filming was done in Lynn, Peabody, Whelan, Danvers, Woburn and Boston.

“It was really incredible because we were (a) very small movie, but (people) we're so kind and generous,” she said. “We got a lot of locations for free, which was pretty incredible. I think shooting the movie in December, everybody was in the holiday spirit. All the lights you see are already up. We didn't have to do all this set decoration.”

Actress waited a long time to film story

Clinton said the filming process was surreal because Keene approached her about playing Cynthia years earlier when they met on set for a different project.

“It just felt like literally like our dreams were coming true … our visions were coming true because she and I had spoken about this for years and then finally it was actually happening last year in Massachusetts,” she said. “It was just the most incredible experience.”

Cynthia is the younger of her two siblings, but according to Clinton, she’s the fixer of her family. Her stern exterior often clouds her warm and caring interior, something which attracted Clinton to the character.

“The thing that is surprising about Cynthia is that she's actually maybe the most optimistic character in the family,” she said. “She may come off as sort of brutal, but her heart is actually in a place of wanting togetherness and wanting people to not be fighting and to make everything sparkle.”

In the trailer for the film, the Raulie family’s chaotic dynamic is revealed in snippets. In an exchange between Lucy and her brother, we come to find out how she and her mother and sister aren't exactly peas in a pod.

“I already told her … you and mom probably got into a fight and now we don’t know where she is,” Tim says to Lucy when she asks what he told Cynthia about the disappearance.

Movie focuses on mother-daughter relationships

For Keene, highlighting the mother-daughter dynamic was key, stating the film is “very much about mother-daughter relationships.”

“Those relationships can be difficult and I wanted to kind of explore that as honestly as I could,” she said. “It's not a dark, depressing movie, but I wanted to show that that tension can be really painful.”

Overall, “Merry Good Enough” gives an honest insight into being a family.

“I try not to be cheesy but this really is a movie where you will laugh and cry and everything in between,” Clinton said.

“I want people to feel seen when they watch the movie,” she continued. “There's a real sense of family dynamic(s) (during) holidays that maybe a lot of people can identify with but we don't talk about as much. Maybe it will inspire people to reach out to family members they haven't spoken to in a while or to tell someone how much they mean (to them)."

“Merry Good Enough” will show at the Chatham Orpheum Theater at 7 p.m. Nov. 30. Tickets are $15. For tickets to the Orpheum’s screening, visit www.chathamorpheum.org/.

Frankie Rowley covers entertainment and things to do. Contact her at frowley@capecodonline.com.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 'Merry Good Enough' movie tackles family dynamic without Hallmark feel