Recently divorced mom
Nell Blakemore (Anne Heche) attempts to make the first Christmas “without dad”
perfect for her two kids' Alden (Griffin Kane) and Emma (Ali Skovbye).
But a series of
mishaps threaten that desire in a funny, charming, warm hearted movie about a
group of diverse people who form a family on a crazy “Planes, Trains and
Automobiles” style Christmas Eve where everything that can go wrong, does.
“The Christmas Tree”
is A Children's Film Foundation Christmas-themed short film, in which a trio of
kids Gary (William Burleigh), Jane (Kate Nicholls) and Sam (Anthony Honour)
decide to embark on an epic odyssey to transport a large Christmas tree some 30
miles to a children's hospital in London and get into a variety of scrapes
along the way.
It is filmed in black
and white which adds to the atmosphere and is well photographed, there is
plenty of humour to keep things moving along and the cast includes Brian
Blessed and Geoffrey Whitehead as policemen. All in all a very enjoyable little
film.
Fifteen year old
Eddie's mother (Janet Dibley) falls very ill after a serious car accident so
Eddie (Joseph Phillips) and his brother Stewart (Angus Harrison) end up having
to take care of themselves and one night when they have run out of food and the
electricity has gone off, Eddie dreams that his mother asks him to find an
angel's halo so that she can be saved.
Neither Brenda Blethyn
as the Headmistress, Celia Imrie as the Librarian, Timothy Spall as Mr. Lambert
or Mel Smith as Eddies Uncle Richard help him in his endeavour so will Eddie be
able to save his mother in time for Christmas?
Emotionally frigid,
workaholic attorney Kate Jordan (Jen Lilley) reluctantly accepts an
end-of-the-year assignment to get a reputedly haunted inn and has three weeks
to get it appraised and sold by year's end.
When she gets there
the uncooperative manager claims a spirit who lives there will not approve, but
with Kate's possible promotion resting on accomplishing this task, she checks
in and as a result she meets Daniel (Thomas Beaudoin) the resident ghost who she
thinks looks suspiciously solid for a ghost.
Then he explains that
for the past ninety-five years, he inexplicably returns to life each December
during the twelve days of Christmas.
Kate has only one
logical recourse left open to her for their mutual benefit, and that is to
break the curse that binds him to the Inn, but she starts falling for the man
who is almost a century her senior which was very much not in her plans, but
then it is Christmas.
Kathleen Russell (Roma
Downey) is a hard-working single mother, who is saving to buy a house for
herself and her daughter, Zoey (Sarah Rosen Fruitman).
Whereas Sam Field
(Eric McCormack) is a businessman who has to pretend he has a family in order
to close a deal with the mysterious Javier Del Campo (Hector Elizondo).
Sam owns the company
that Kathleen works for, and as her boss, manages to convince her to help him
out by posing as his wife, for a price, which she thought would help her to buy
the house.
But Del Campo is more
than he seems, and it just might be Zoey who's making the real deal to get a
new home for herself, her mother, and Sam.
Steve and Cynthia Faber
(Dillon Casey and Susie Abromeit) are a newlywed couple celebrating their first
Christmas together who inexplicably invite their families to join them for the
holidays, but when Steve is laid off just before Christmas and Cynthia
discovers that she's pregnant, they both keep their news secret in hopes that
the celebration runs smoothly.
The film moves along
at a lively pace aided by a good supporting cast and it’s a fun film that’s
well worth a watch.
Con-woman Trish (Mary
Stuart Masterson) and her niece/ward Patsy (Lauren Pratt) are caught in the act
of trying to steal from a department store right before Christmas, by a
“by-the-book” department store security guard, Bert (Mark Ruffalo).
With the holidays so
close, Bert, a loyal store employee is assigned as the custodian of a
pickpocketing duo, and reluctantly agrees to be responsible for the pair so
that Patsy need not spend the holidays in social services.
Obviously as it’s a
Christmas movie so Romance ensues.
