A Christmas Star

Up and coming female astronomer in New York crunches data and figures out there is a 78% likelihood a yet undiscovered meteor shower event will take place on one of five days leading up to Christmas. And the prime viewing location is a peak just outside a small upstate community. So she gets clearance and takes a telescope with her to the location. (All filmed in Canada.)

Once there she finds a mixup with hotel reservations and is aided by a local family that own and run the hotel, she is put up and befriended by all of them, including a nice man who has been told his ranger job is being eliminated for lack of funding. As things unfold and complications with the Christmas festival and its bright lights make things a bigger challenge, the astronomer and the ranger begin to take a serious liking to each other.

My wife and I watched it at home on Amazon streaming. It is a cute story with attractive people, very much like a Hallmark movie. Just don't take any of the highly flawed astronomy seriously. Plus, they even got "reflector" and "refractor" telescopes mixed up in the dialog. But hey, it's just a movie.

This movie is as good or better as typical Hallmark romances. I, too, was initially drawn because of Daniel Lissing, but I found Sara Canning every bit as engaging. (If you liked this movie, you might try "The Christmas Temp" with Canning and Robin Dunne.)

"No chemistry" according to some reviews? Hogwash! The chemistry was palpable (do you not speak " body language").

Weak script? Hey, it is a tradition romance: the plot and outcome were predictable the moment both characters were introduced. We watch it for the personalities and their chemistry. Sloppy astronomy? Very obvious, but I suspend disbelief with these movies anyway, so only a minor irritant.

This movie was a keeper for me.

This is mostly an unusual story, although there is the ever-present Christmas Festival. Sara Canning and Daniel Lissing have good chemistry. The overall acting is mostly fair.

The climax is too sappy, even cheesy, a little too much for me and I like sappy.

From a technical standpoint regarding Astronomy, I give this movie tons of credit because one of the running themes through the movie is light pollution. Other technical aspects were very mixed.

The writers could have made this a better story with better word-smithing. The chemistry between the 2 main characters is also a bit weak. No believable spark.

The premise was a promising one and the setting was quite unique for a Christmas film. Have liked the leads in other things too, with more familiarity with Daniel Lissing. So this average rating and mixed feelings review has not been given as someone who hates Christmas or who had the intent to hate it, actually the complete opposite on both counts. Despite the basic formula story wise being not much new, there was still a lot of promise because of being intrigued by how it would work around the setting.

'A Christmas Star' was one of those mixed feelings sort of films. It is not a terrible film and there are far worse films out there. It is also not particularly good and could have done more with the premise and the setting, it also ends a lot weaker than how it starts. 2021 was a very up and down year for Christmas films, of which this is neither one of the best or worst, and of GAC Family's films of the ones seen it's not near as good as 'Much Ado About Christmas' but is much better than 'The Great Christmas Switch'.

Will start with 'A Christmas Star's' good things. It is nicely photographed and has a quite magical atmosphere in its best parts. Always love nostalgic festive soundtracks, and 'A Christmas Star' is no exception to that. There is nothing mean-spirited about it and there are moments of charm and heart.

Lissing does a nice subtly charismatic amiable job in the male lead role and most of the cast are fine despite having to work with stereotypical roles. The film starts off very well and really liked the setting.

Sarah Canning however came over as very stiff and the chemistry between her and Lissing is very uneven, with it generally needing a lot more spark. The dialogue has its moments but really could have done with more energy and too much is very forced and cheesy. The direction tends to be routine.

Furthermore, the story is the kind that starts off well but the second half is too conventional and silly and then rounded off with an unrealistically over neat cop out passing for an ending.

Concluding, watchable but far from great. 5/10.