In the bitter winter
of 1944 in the depths of the Ardennes Forest, an American Army Captain John
Myers (Craig Olejnik) and a Belgian girl named Alina (Ali Liebert) meet and
fall in love during a brief 24-hour Christmas truce amid the Battle of the
Bulge.
When the fighting
resumes and they have to go their separate ways they promise to reunite on the
first Christmas Eve after the end of World War II, providing they're both
alive.
A smart, sassy,
34-year-old Kristin (Shiri Appleby), who is estranged from her family and alone
on Christmas Eve goes to sleep alone on Christmas Eve and wakes up Christmas
morning seventeen years into her past to relive the worst Christmas of her
life.
So once she gets over
the initial shock she realises she has an opportunity to change her imperfect
past, so she styles herself as an older mentor to her younger self (Hannah
Marks)
Paramount to these
changes is mending the broken relationship with her mother (Elizabeth
Mitchell), something that seems impossible.
But if she can’t fix
her past then maybe she could do something about her less than perfect future.
The film has an
altogether credible cast that makes this film well worth watching if for no
other reason than that.
But the story is
excellent and well-structured and although the main target audience of this
family safe Christmas movie will be women past their teens, men should not be
put off by that because it’s very good.
Beth Baker (Sarah
Lancaster) is an out-of-work actress trying to make it in New York on the stage
in New York City, but after 10 years of not succeeding and without her friends
around at Christmas she decides to take a break from her struggling actress
profession to spend Christmas in her small and quaint hometown she escaped from
10 years earlier.
And on returning home
she finds a place far different than the hamlet she left and the magic of the
Christmas season soon starts to massage her bruised ego as she finds performing
possibilities and even romance.
It’s the 1940’s and Christmas
is approaching and 9 year-old Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) wants only one thing
for Christmas that year: a Red Ryder Range 200 Shot BB gun.
When he mentions it at
the dinner table, his mother (Melinda Dillon) immediately reacts by telling
that he'll put his eye out.
He does little better
when he raises it with his father (Darren McGavin) or his teacher (Tedde Moore)
but all the while he fantasizes about what it would be like to be “Red Ryder”
and catch the bad guys.
When the big day
arrives he gets lots of present under the tree including a lovely gift from his
aunt that his mother very much approves of but will the BB gun be among them?
This seasonal drama is
about the Puerto Rican Rodriguez family living in the area of Humboldt Park in
west Chicago who face what may well be their last Christmas together.
The Rodriguez family
is headed by jovial bodega owner Edy (Alfred Molina) whose recent secretive
behaviour has convinced his hot-tempered wife Anna (Elizabeth Peña) that he is
having an affair which prompts her to unceremoniously announce at the family
dinner table that she wants a divorce.
This sets the tone for
the whole film which goes on to reveal all the flaws and weaknesses in the
lives of everyone around the table.
Freddy Rodríguez, Luis
Guzmán, Jay Hernandez, John Leguizamo, Debra Messing, Vanessa Ferlito and
Melonie Diaz make up the very able supporting cast in this enjoyable Christmas
offering.
Alastair Sim stars as
miser Ebenezer Scrooge in this quality retelling of Charles Dickens' “A
Christmas Carol”.
The classic tale in
which he is taught the true meaning of Christmas by three Spirits who visit
him, revealing to him the truth about his own miserable existence, what
opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current catalogue of cruelties, and
the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways.
Scrooge is faced with
his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own
future will hold, death or redemption.
The Spirits are played
by Michael Dolan (Past), Francis De Wolff (Present) and Czeslaw Konarski
(Future)
The other key
characters and portrayed by Michael Hordern (Marley), Eleanor Summerfield
(Flora), Mervyn Johns and Hermione Baddeley (The Cratchit’s), Glyn Dearman
(Tiny Tim), Roddy Hughes and Hattie Jacques (The Fezziwig’s), Brian Worth
(Fred) and Carol Marsh (Fan).
An oil company is exploring
two Arctic sites for oil and they needed to blast through the bedrock at the
first site and the shocks were so strong that they rocked Santa’s village.
Santa (Art Carney)
realizes that any blasting at the second site will destroy his home so he enlists
the aid of Claudia Baldwin (Jaclyn Smith), whose husband Michael (Paul Le Mat)
works for the company, so that she and her children can convince her husband
that the first site is where the oil that they are searching for is.
Along the way, Santa
explains all his secrets about delivering presents all around the world.
June Lockhart stars as Mrs. Claus, Paul Williams as Ed the Elf and Mason Adams is the suborn old boss Sumner Murdock in this Christmas movie that is so bad its good.
