My Favorite Christmas Melody

I was surprised that this was a Lifetime premiere. I may not always like their movies(more often than not I do), but usually they are fairly well done. Maybe they are suffering from what so many people accuse Hallmark of -- too many premieres.

The story is formula. Abby suffers a career setback in song writing and goes home for Christmas. There she joins a local music teacher, Travis, to save the school arts program with the best pageant performance ever.

The acting is fair to poor, although the dialogue and directing don't help. Mya and Rainbow Sun Francks seem to have a hard time connecting emotionally.

Early on, the band plays a number and Travis directs, but the actor has no idea what a director does. First his beat is totally off from the music itself, and his motions are just moving his hand back and forth with no down beat.

Almost all these movies start out with an obligatory antagonistic confrontation between the leads. This one is no exception. Problem is, the situation is badly forced. Travis isn't merely rude, he is overly insulting for no reason. I find it hard to believe anyone would go that far. Then the apology scene is lame.

The movie is sprinkled with plenty of music including what appears to be at least one original song and lots of repetition of "Deck the Halls".

Things at the end are mostly predictable. There is one twist, but an earlier clue gives the viewer a good chance to see it coming.