Tra le stelle del Natale

As someone who recently had an injury (eye stroke) that caused partial vision loss in my right eye, I can say that the depiction of Katz's eye injury is spot on. Her eye injury appears exactly like mine so it really lended an over all feeling that the director and FX department did their homework, not to mention the entire "science + Christmas" theme of the movie. My wife and I loved seeing two romances going on at once. The inclusion of a wheelchair bound daughter for Ryan Peavey gave us lumps in our throat several times. Such a sweet little actor! The overall plot was definitely out of the ordinary but that's what made the film so interesting. Not your typical Christmas rom-com but definitely worth watching!

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.

Wow, I am surprised to look at the overall rating and other reviews for this movie. But it is still early.

Perhaps it is the science nerd in me that peaked my interest. There was a lot of interesting science, and besides that the scientist, Kat, brings out a lot of the mythology around Christmas.

I also like the fact that we weren't "saving" anyone's job or business. And the mutual project worked on by the leads was not a Christmas pageant or festival, although I suppose you could say it almost was.

The constant banter between Kat and her brother gave it some spice especially in the dialog. These actors had more chemistry than Kennedy and Paevey. His David seemed a little too stiff, but Kat and David's relationship was still enjoyable. Andy and Celeste provide a second romance.

A cute kid almost always helps a Christmas story and I thought her handicap gave some depth to the overall story as she connected with Kat. One of the highlights of the movie was when the two of them visited Kat's NASA office.

Minor BTW - I really would have thought that a exhibit such as theirs would have taken advantage of a meet and greet with someone who actually worked on the NASA project, at least for opening night.

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.

I feel like this movie would've been better as the ones that Hallmark usually does during January (Winterfest I think? Can't recall) because it wasn't SUPER Christmassy. Definitely cute, but not super Christmassy. That said, I liked the chemistry between the leads and thought it also could've been even better if they'd written in some downtime for them to spend together. So like, outside of the project they were working on. But it didn't detract from the love story imo and I found their interactions super endearing.

The real charmer was Andy's character. Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing the actor that played him as a Hallmark lead one day. He's funny, cute and charming! As was the subplot with his romance with the sweet redhead girl.

It was nice getting to see Jess Kennedy in something since she left The Flash. And I'll watch Ryan Paevey in pretty much anything. So, not the best HM I've ever seen, but not too shabby either!