12 Days: Mimi Branescu in Tuesday After Christmas

'Paul Hanganu loves two women. Adriana his wife and the mother of their daughter, the woman with whom he's shared the thrills of the past ten years, and Raluca the woman who has made him redefine himself. He has to leave one of them before Christmas.'

When I first began my 12 Days theme, it started as a way to count down the 12 Days of Christmas by undressing those holiday hunks from Hallmark.  Since then, I've expanded beyond just Hallmark hotties, and also to other holidays throughout the year. 

For some reason, I've been watching fewer Hallmark movies this year than I usually do.  Maybe it's because there are fewer new ones due to the actors strike this year, but I don't think that's the main reason.  It's not just the new movies that I watch, as there are still hundreds from previous holiday seasons that I have never seen.

I think in part it's my mood.  I often put on Hallmark films as 'background.'   They're like elevator music in the distance when I do work around my home.  This year, is my first year in my new digs, and there far less work to be done.  I'm renting, so there's no walls to paint, no kitchen cupboards to repair, less cleaning and maintenance. I do still spend time in the evening doing work for my job, but I've been on sit-com repeats, or episodes of Jeopardy as my background.

This meant searching for a some new films to include in the 12 Days theme and today, we're heading to Romania with Tuesday After Christmas.   The 2010 film was written and directed by  Radu Muntean and was selected for the Un Certain Regard section of 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

It's not filled with many scenes of festive joy, but I did find it entirely engrossing.  Paul, a banker in Bucharest, has been married for ten years to Adriana. They have an adored daughter Mara. The child has tooth problems which are being tended by Raluca, an attractive young orthodontist. Since first seeing her in the summer, Paul has been having a secret affair with her

As Christmas approaches however, tensions mount.  Paul loves both women, but Raluca tells him something that Paul already knows: that he must choose. When he says to his wife that he is in love with Raluca, she orders him to move out and to say nothing to Mara. The round of Christmas festivities then begins, with the couple pretending outwardly that nothing is wrong. Everything is put on hold until the Tuesday after Christmas.

Paul is played by actor Mimi Branescu who would have been in his late 30's when the film was made.  Even though Paul is no saint, in Mimi's hands, you feel for his holiday dilemma.   Mimi's also incredibly handsome and hot and although he doesn't have the typical look of a Holiday rom-com star, there's defiantly something incredibly sexy about him.  To a degree, all on-screen nudity is gratuitous, but I found Mimi's two nude scenes very natural and also important to the film.  Both make clear why the two women want him to be with them, and them alone.