Tra le stelle del Natale

Under the Christmas Sky is one of my favorites so far this year. An attractive and really pleasant cast in a story that's a bit of a change from the usual formula. The leads were great together and the cute couple in the secondary romance were adorable. In fact, the casting was one of the best parts of the movie. The best friend was especially well done. Plus a story involving NASA, a planetarium and a bit of Christmas history is a big win for me. A nice change from the Christmas pageant/parade/small town plot.

I am a little puzzled by the negative reviews. Maybe people don't like science being included in Christmas? A shame. If you enjoy science and space exploration this will be fun for you.

This movie was not a Christmas movie at all. The set may have included some Christmas decorations but it was devoid of any Christmas feel. There were a few winter songs for background music. I barely heard one true Christmas song in the background but unless you are listening for it, you will not notice it. I never felt anything about the characters in the movie. I had expected a typical Hallmark romantic comedy. It did follow the typical formula for Hallmark but the plot was just so shallow. Save your time by NOT watching this movie. Die Hard would have made a better Christmas movie that this piece of tripe.

The movie follows two intertwined romantic stories, both developing in a Planetarium. Kat, a should-be astronaut, grounded after an accident, is teamed to work at creating an exhibit with David, the divorced father of a preteen girl on wheelchair,. Kat's buoyant younger brother, Andy, who is trying to find a role in his life, helps Celeste, a volunteer in charge of decorating the location. To add some zest to the otherwise ordinary amorous themes, this production inserts marginal references to space traveling and astrophysics, less than relevant Christmas content, and the necessary, superficially dealt with, human message that disabilities do not hamper human dreams. In reality, the movie is not about space traveling and little about Christmas. The main romantic story is bland. Ryan Paevey looks unexplainably subdued and Jessica Parker Kennedy alternates graceful moments with many others where her gestures, poses and expressions are awkwardly exaggerated. Being Italian, I do understand speaking with your hands, but her body language appears inappropriately on steroids. Andrew Bushell, as Andy, is quite vivacious and single-handedly offers moments of genuine warmth. Overall, the film is inoffensive, family-friendly and watchable, though way more generic than the window dressing tries to sell it for.

I know Hallmark is working hard to be inclusive, which I applaud, but I think they need some better scripts.

This was the story of Kat Butler, an astrophysicist who was in a car accident that left her with a blind spot in one eye that is preventing her from completing her mission to go to the space station for NASA to continue her research on the solar probe. (I was a little confused because there was no real mention of her austronaut training which I think you need to go into space for NASA.) She is sent home for another month of sick leave where she is surrounded by the love and support of her family, which includes her sweet and competitive...but teasing brother Andy. Kat ends up volunteering at the local planetarium and helps curator David put on a Sun centric Christmas display.

There were two romantic storylines going that of Kat and David and Andy with the planetarium's barista Celeste, but there was just so much going on I think that the romances really took a back seat. David is a divorcee whose daughter is in a wheelchair and is obsessed with space...so, Kat became her hero.

I absolutely loved Kat's very Canadian parents' Christmas decorations in their home! They had trees of all sizes all over their house and I not only loved it, but I aspire to it! In fact that may have been my favorite part of the film...although I do like Ryan Paevey who plays David. I think my favorite character was actually the brother Andy...even though he didn't have his adult life worked out he was very positive by nature. He is lucky that he has his parents home to live in.

I thought the sun Santa caricature really needed some work. But what I did really appreciate in this film (in addition to the parents' indoor Christmas trees) was the pagan traditions around celebrating the sun for winter solstice...and the idea to bring that to their Christmas opening of their sun installation.

So, to recap...I don't think I would recommend this to my fellow romantics as the romance gets lost in this film which has a little too much going on in it for a Hallmark holiday romance.

6.8 stars.

This film has everything needed for the makings of a fantastic experience. The actors are great, the plot has a ton of potential, the science, Nasa theme with the planetarium sets and even the part with how she is an astronaut...awesome, at least I thought it would be. It only started off ok, but then...there are so many moving parts with so much at stake, yet it doesn't quite come together to make an entertaining and fun experience for me. There are many failed aspects such as the clumsy dialogue and the awkward timing as if the whole production was pieced together by a bunch conflicted producers, writers and directors.

I love all the actors, oh my goodness what a shame and a waste of talent and great potential. On the upside, the editing and acting is actually polished, I enjoyed the new actors to the scene, many new players to see here so it won't kill you to give this a watch.

The kiss was good, but only lasts 5 seconds in a film that is over 5000 seconds long.