Matchmaker Santa

Lacey Chabert is getting serious with Thad Luckinbill -- he's just invited her to his hometown for Christmas to meet his mother -- but it soon becomes clear to the audience that she should be with Adam Mayfield. Good thing that Santa Claus is on hand in the person of Donovan Scott -- he's played the role almost every year on TV since 2000. The result is a low-key and very pleasant Christmas fantasy movie.

As with the best of the Hallmark TV movies, the real pleasure for me is not the pretty people and the inevitable working of their romcom plots (although Ms. Chabert is particularly winsome in her role) but the presence of some fine players in key but minor roles. John Ratzenberger is on hand to play an almost incoherent auto mechanic and Florence Henderson is a mildly ditzy hotel clerk. The entire production is shot handsomely with lots of earth colors to produce a nostalgic sepia tint to the proceedings. The movie won't win any awards, but it should certainly please anyone who decides to tune in.