Magical Christmas Shoes

The usual Lifetime Christmas movie (bad script, bad acting) with an unknown Canadian actress Erin Karpluk, an annoying actress who talks too fast. Christmas shoes, really? And her window displays for the Candy store were awful. I wish Lifetime and Hallmark would stop making these awful movies.

This film was better than some of the Hallmark Holiday movies that been released this year. The leads have great chemistry and the plot was interesting and kept me engaged from start to finish. It was great to see Erin Karpluk back on my screen as I remembered her from "Being Erica" Definitely a movie to watch again next year.

Starts out as a formula Lifetime Christmas movie and then through the magic of the shoes slowly evolves into an introspective exploration of how the shoes made her the person she is today. If this story sounds familiar, its because it is. The second half of the movie feels like a lost episode of Being Erica with the shoes serving the role of Dr. Tom and supporting actors sounding remarkably like Erica's friends. Being Erica fans craving for one more episode will enjoy this Christmas knockoff. For those who didn't see the show, its something a bit different from the formula Lifetime Christmas movie to fill an evening.

Despite it not being one of the most inspired of titles, the premise did sound quite charming. Also saw 'Magical Christmas Shoes' for two other reasons. One was my love of Christmas. Two was that it was part of my Lifetime (and Hallmark) Christmas film completest quest, despite their 2019 output being such a mixed batch with some good, some mediocre at best and some somewhere between average and decent. A better standard than Hallmark's 2019 output.

'Magical Christmas Shoes' to me was one of the good ones. Was a bit unsure about it at the start, not uncommon with Lifetime Christmas films in the better faring category, but once the film started to warm up and find its footing it got a lot better. From personal view, 'Magical Christmas Shoes' when seeing it some months back was among the better 2019 Lifetime Christmas films quite easily, better than most of their films this year and certainly better than much of Hallmark's 2019 Christmas output.

The film does start off on the slow and formulaic side.

Some of the dialogue is also pretty bad early on too, sounding a little stilted and corny.

However, as said, once it got going (and it did so not too far in) 'Magical Christmas Shoes' got a lot better. Visually, it looks good in particularly the scenery which is nicely complemented by the photography. The music is pleasant and not intrusive, not always the case with Lifetime (even more Hallmark) films. The script is far from perfect, but is sweet and raised a number of smiles while not being too heavy on the sentiment. The story isn't perfect to begin with, but is mostly very charming and warm-hearted with an authentic atmosphere.

While the characters are familiar in type, my way of trying and failing to avoid the word cliched, they to me had personality and ones that didn't come over as stale or annoying. The central relationship didn't feel rushed, so less of a chance of out of the blue motivations, or take too long to unfold, and was amiable. Erin Karpluk and Damon Runyan are fine in the lead roles and well supported by everyone else.

Overall, well done and charming. 8/10

My son's family just came home from two plus years in Belgium which still has a lot of Dutch tradition, so some of the things in this movie were familiar like candy in the shoes. The Dutch traditions gave this movie a slightly different flavor from so many of the Christmas romance movies around. The premise of the story was similar to those of many of these movies, but at the same time it felt a little different. Certainly, the relationship of the lead male, John, with his father and how that progressed through the story is a very well used trope. The themes of be-yourself, take-risks, and do-what-makes-you-happy are in many Christmas movies. While save-the-store is well used, this had a slightly different take on it. The meddling arrival of the hated ex is another well used trope.

John and Noelle clicked from the beginning. I find I like this kind of movie when the leads have plenty of screen time for relationship building and that was the case here and I did enjoy it.

The conflict involved a couple of other well used tropes, but I didn't see it coming, so I give points for that.