A Viagem do Amor de Natal

Review Date 6/2/2019

I Have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

Love's Christmas Journey is a 2011 made-for-television Christian drama film based on a series of books by Janette Oke though there is no corresponding book for this film. While still mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, recently widowed Ellie King (Natalie Hall) visits her brother Aaron Davis (Greg Vaughan) and his children for Christmas. Ellie does her best to enjoy the holidays, even making new friends with Mrs. Thompson (JoBeth Williams), a local shop keeper, and handsome admirer Deputy Strode (Dylan Bruce). Settling in nicely with her brother's family, Ellie also meets Erik (Bobby Campo), a young man abandoned by his outlaw father whom Aaron has taken in as one of his own.

This film treads on "Little House on the Prairie" territory. I think "Little House: most likely covered the same type of story in 1/2 the time.

This film runs almost 3 hours. You are wise if you watch Part One then wait another to catch Part 2. The acting in this is fine but the story could have used more work. You can see the ending coming a mile away . However this film is just pleasant enough for me to recommend but it does capture nicely "The Christmas Spirit".

This movie, although I am sure was made with good intentions, turned out to be a huge fail. With a great storyline.. and what could have been a wonderful cast, the acting, and direction turned out to be an epic failure. I find it hard to believe that the director was... satisfied with the portrayal or the characters. I found the Christian values worth while, and the "message" had a target of going directly to heart but, with the poor delivery, and acting.. the movie bored me to sleep. It was all I could do to force myself to stay awake. I always feel badly about writing a low review however, in this case... someone had too. I will not hold this movie against the past movies..

I think the thing about these movies that a lot of the negative reviewers miss is that they're for people who believe in God in general and, in this instance, Christmas in particular.

Don't like either of those? Then you're going to loathe this movie. It's a Hallmark movie so anyone wanting gritty realism and hard hitting drama is obviously looking in the wrong place from the get go. But, for those of us more open to just being entertained, these films - there's a whole series of them - are pretty good. Yes, they're completely sentimental and schmaltzy, and do have a liberal sprinkling of religious moments, but that's what the series is about. In this movie's defense if you can't have schmaltz, sentimentality and religion at Christmas when *can* you have it? Personally I just suspend my disbelief for the duration; turn my central heating off, put the real fire on, hunker down with a hot chocolate and cookies and let myself be swamped in Hallmark endings for a while. At a time when the real world seems to be imploding under a tidal wave of doomsday preppers, financial Armageddon and global unrest then this is a pleasant escape for a moment. Let's face it, the real world will still be there when the credits roll, so why not go AWOL for a mere 2 hours? I won't tell on you, promise.

I read the previous reviews and I realize why our world is in the shape that it is. What happen to dreaming a little and why does everything in the acting world have to be perfect. The purpose of the film was not really about the horrible guys in the movie, but rather the spirit that needs to brought back to all of us. I have lived a long life and this movie gave me a little hope in this difficult time in our lives. I am glad your wife made you watch the show, now stop and think about that wife and the love that you share and maybe, just maybe you will remember that it did not come with Oscar winning actors. Hallmark you did not let this person down, I enjoyed the wonderful story, it sparked the true meaning of Christmas in my heart...love and family.

While I am a Catholic I am not into Christian movies even tho I watch them when I have the chance only for the cast members. And since LOVE'S CHRISTMAS JOURNEY has at least two actors I really like and it's available on Youtube, I knew that some day I would have seen it despite I haven't seen the previous chapters.

Ellie King and Aaron Davis are two young adults that go in a Western town for starting a new life with their children and Aaron finds a new job thanks to Mayor Wayne (Sean Astin) and during their time there they'll have to deal with some outlaws that hate Wayne because he arrested them when he was the Sheriff and also with preparations for Christmas.

I agree that while 2 hours and 46 minutes are too much for a TV movie and I would have appreciated if it was trimmed. But as it is, it's great entertainment and nothing more, nothing else. The performances by all the cast members were great, and I especially liked Astin and Ernest Borgnine's performances. And the ending too was great, with the Christmas party and all the lights.

Overall, a must see for fans of Christian movies and for everyone else, good entertainment that it's available on Youtube if you want to give it a try.