Once Upon a Christmas Wish

A nice movie however it was a little too korny for my liking. In typical Christmas movie fashion, there's always a bad part. Then a good part. They kiss and all is well.

The breaking out in song and dance was over the top more than I was prepared for. I don't mind a musical, when I know I am going to a musical. I didn't get the musical memo apparently so I was quite surprised when the whole town seemingly broke out into a show tune with choreography added in.

I enjoy watching Mario Lopez, I enjoyed his wife's acting prowess as well as their son. I really do hope that the next movie that they are cast in has a little less, okay, a lot less dancing.

I live near Long Grove, been going there for decades. I used to go there with my late mother, sister and other sister. It brought back a lot of memories of the Apple Haus, LG Confectionary Store, going there to get chocolate covered strawberries. Shows the church my brother was married in. Some of the scenes were filmed in my favorite stores. I'm curious how there were able to film in-between the famous bridge being hit. It's been hit over 60 times, one of which a few years ago almost completely destroyed it. No matter how many warning signs they post on the allowable height, people still try to go through it. Cute movie, but for me the town was the star.

The movies where I have seen Mario Lopez, whatever his role, he walks like he is in total command of everything around him. The very first glimpse of him walking down the street here reminded me of that. Perhaps it his experience as dancer. It does take long before Lopez' Brian Ortega is in the middle of a big dance number right in the center of town. The character Brian is apparently surprised by that. Something is up. Soon after we are introduced to the evil developer aiming to buy local shops. And the town can't make its budget. The last piece to add to the plot is Nina played by Mario's real life wife, Courtney Lopez, whom Brian has obviously had a crush on since grade school. Looks like they will be planning the town festival together.

Along with the frequent musical numbers, the acting has a "big" feel to it. Slightly overacted, but intentionally so. It's no surprise that the married Lopez couple fit together perfectly even dancing together. And Courtney can really belt it out when she sings. There is a nice closing number with both Courtney singing and the couple dancing.

The climax is overly optimistic, no cheesy, even for a Christmas movie. If viewers can keep from taking the story too seriously, I think the movie can be quite enjoyable.

BTW - Joey makes me think of one of the elves in The Santa Clause. His voice is just the same. The acting credit here on IMDb doesn't make sense since it says he is 56 years old. I think he is actually the son of the two leads.

I enjoyed this film that takes a slightly different direction than the run of the mill Christmas rom-com. Yes, it's a small town that is struggling and yes, there is an antagonist trying to build there and put the local shops and inns out of business. Yes, there is a Santa figure that adds magic to the mixture. And yes, the love interest is from the city. But the premise of old Christmas wishes long forgotten being sent off and then the spark of them coming true made for an enjoyable, albeit sappy/corny, holiday movie. I was not expecting the seemingly random song and dance pieces, which were good, but not enough or too sporadic/not interwoven to tag it as a true musical. The main very talented leads, married in real life, had good on-screen chemistry and for lack of better words, were cute together. I appreciated that the culminating conflict was actually a semi-reasonable one, rather than a silly miscommunication/misunderstanding that everyone outside of the love interests could see a mile away or resolve with any meaningful human interaction. Nothing to blow us away this holiday season, but an enjoyable and uplifting family friendly Christmas movie to help us feel the magic and spirit of the season.

I actually really enjoyed watching this movie. It was very charming, and gave me vibes of old Hollywood musicals (black and white film days). Simple, predictable story - maybe. But the singing and dancing added something that made it special. (Take into account I am a sucker for musicals, lol.) Ms. Lopez has a beautiful singing voice. The dancing was excellent. The acting was good, for the most part. The child actors were great. It's a feel good, warm and fuzzy, cute movie. I'll definitely watch this again. And I really hope Great American Family Channel will make more musicals for their holiday line up!