A Christmas Blessing

Another winner from Great American Family. 2023 may be the year they caught Hallmark and even surpassed them for the top feel-good Christmas movies. The cast was well chosen and unlike in years past, the supporting cast was strong and played solid roles. Their performances enhanced the leads as Great American Family shook off the cast of boy meets girl and embraced older characters. They showed fulfillment in life. The music was good except for the Las Vegas lounge style version of "God Rest Ye Merrt Gentlemen" used towards the end. Scenery was Christmas like and a warm tender story worked well.

The movie revolves around helping the poor and or those who are down on their luck during christmas.

One thing that is done differently in this movie is that quite a bit of time is spent showing how this is done. You can see personally where donations are coming from. How exactly the process occurs with volunteer work, picking up stuff, food and present preparation and distribution.

Movies hardly ever actually show stuff, for instance whenever one of these movies revolve around a farm , they never show how exactly the farm runs or how they do what they do. Its always maybe a 60 second cameo on farm workings, Maybe two 60 sec cameos max As far as the whole lori thing goes, she did her time and her husband is still in, my grandmother, who bred like a rabbit to my grandfather (7 kids), told me she did not fall in love with her husband until she was in her 50s, so Lori has missed out on her true bonding love years with her husband, who is still in. On a scale of 1-10 for felonies, Lori is a 1. So lets move on. I was glad she came back with GAF instead of Hallmark. My wife and I just let our Hall mark membership run out after seeing a couple Hallmark movies with guys exchanging tongue saliva.

This movie was well acted. The message was nice. The script was tight.

I had to FORCE myself to watch this movie.

Why? Because I'm still really angry at Lori Loughlin and her family. Rich people taking advantage of things designed to help poorer people, getting caught, not really paying for their crime, AND BARELY apologizing. Unfortunately, that seems to be the current "American Way".

But since I do try to watch ALL the Christmas movies, here we go:

As another reviewer mentioned, the script was pretty good, but the "mystery" was easily figured out within 5 minutes. Okay, standard Christmas fare, pardon the reference.

As for the acting, LL sleepwalked through the whole movie. Was she always this bad? I used to watch her occasionally in "Garage Sale Mysteries", but quit watching a while back, thinking the show itself was too boring? Maybe it WAS her (lack of) acting? Hard to say now, post-scandal.

The rest of the cast were great, featuring James Tupper and the always-great Jesse Hutch, having to carry LL like the sack of coal she appears to be.

6 stars for the movie and supporting cast, minus 100 stars for LL's lack of performance.

I think this was a charming Christmas movie. As far as the crime that Loughlin and others committed there are thousands of other parents AND students who have used less than legal or moral devices to get an advantage in the admissions system! Was it wrong? Yes. Does it subtract from this movie? No. As far as other judgments of the movie... Out of the 100's of Christmas movies how many were cinematic masterpieces? Very few. Not the reason people watch them. If you don't like sappy feel good movies that are all 90% the same don't watch. Chances are you're not going to see "Its a Wonderful Life" caliber movies. Either enjoy them for what they are or don't watch! In fact 99% of modern movies in theaters are bombs!

This movie has a A+++++cast....several of the cast members are excellent actors and actresses! The main character inherits property and as often is the case, the buyer is ready and overly passionate about getting moved in. The twists and turns, stimulated my viewer mindset, keeping me engaged throughout the movie. I love warmhearted Christmas movies that promote the true meaning of Christmas and this one does just that. Many people suffer hard times, and Christmas often emphasizes those losses and struggles. This movie is a gentle reminder of what is important in life and how not to act when faced with the hardships of others. Great Job Great American Family for keeping it real. Thank you Cast for your sacrifice for being on a Movie that is sensible and has value!