Christmas Child

I had to do some math while watching this one to get the births and deaths and gifts of mangers right, but it was worth it.

I agree with some of the reviewers that the missing father issue was odd. And why the sheriff was so evil was not clearly explained (I wanted the sheriff arrested and locked up, to be honest, his nasty tone seemed out of place in the movie).

The lead is always a personable actor, but he looked too similar to the pastor, so distractingly the viewer might think they were related.

It was refreshing not to have a sappy, brain-dead, infantile Christmas movie, like has become the norm in 2020.

Christmas Child is better than a lot of movies I can name that cost ten times as much to make. I thought the opening scenes between Moses and Megan Follows were excellent and they had good chemistry and excellent dialog. Sadly, when Follows leaves the story, it seems to lose a lot of energy and slow way down.

While not full of holes, neither is it seamless or easy to follow especially from an emotional standpoint. The messages are highly positive but delivered in a slow way through the eyes of the troubled protagonist who seems to fail to appreciate what he is given. His emotional distance and alienation do not "develop" along with the story thereby keeping the emotonal tempo from moving upward to match what he is learning on his "Quest".

The final problem I had with it was that the return of Follows to the story (thereby wrapping up a major, major plot line) is given short shrift and bypasses the serious and emotionally fulfilling aspects. I have a feeling that this would have been handled at more and better length in the written version.

So, for trying to tell a good story and show with some realism a "slice of life" that is far more common and more real than typical Hollywood tripe, I give it credit. The actors are very good throughout and there are many moments that will make you think.

Reporter Jack Davenport was adopted as a baby and the adoption was sealed. He is now in his forties and his only living adoptive parent, his father, passed away several months ago. It is Christmas and Jack is finally getting around to going through his father's things. There he finds a clue to his birth in Clearwater, Texas so he uses a story in Dallas as an excuse to go to Clearwater to look for his birth parents.

This movie came out in 2004 and I have seen it several times since. I can't say that about very many movies, Christmas or otherwise. This movie is very different from the dozens of predictable romance "Christmas" movies that are out there. It presents an interesting story set at Christmas with positive messages and a positive outcome. I can highly recommend it.

A good friend bought me this film on DVD. While not being one I had heard of, watched it out of curiosity and turned out to be quite a surprise. It didn't particularly sound like much but with a story by prolific writer Max Lucado thought it might have something to offer. Then there was the Director William Ewing, a big production directorial honcho at Sony Pictures with a string of massive hits under his name. Ewing, gave up the fame and fortune to start his own not-for-profit production company! An admirable move indeed.

As soon as this film began the production values were obvious, cinematography by Spanish born Fernando Arguellies offering highly stylised visuals, fetchingly compiled music score and strong performances from a varied professional cast - telling the story of an adopted big city journalist searching for a connection to his past history. His search begins with only a mysterious photograph left to him by his recently departed adoptive father.

The adapted screenplay may have omitted some details from the original story or there may have been post production cuts (?) as there are a couple of odd situations (and characters) that transpire during his search - leaving some things a little up in the air. But the story was intriguing enough to keep the viewer interested, and apart from the odd bits it was highly entertaining (maybe it needs a second viewing to sort out some fine details, occasionally stories can be like that?). If wanting a rest from the endless comic book superheroes, car chases, and explosions, this thoughtful film is a refreshing contender.

It's Christmas time and reporter William R. Moses hasn't had a decent story to his byline for a long time. He welcomes a chance to go to Texas for a human interest story, but his real motivation is to stop in Clearwater, Texas to find out the mystery of his birth.

Moses has no family so to speak and was raised as a foundling. He's a little jealous of wife Megan Fellows with whom he will spend Christmas once again with her family.

In Clearwater, Moses does find the mystery of his birth and the reason why a whole lot of people are trying to keep him from finding out.

Christmas Child is a nice enough family holiday classic. With Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman playing the part of a preacher in the film, it was guaranteed from the start to have a built in audience appeal. Chapman was fine in the role, truth be told the part was no stretch for him. In the film his character and his wife adopt a young foundling child, in real life Chapman and his wife adopted three Asian orphans.

Christmas Child does have a heartstring tugging ending, but one that is totally in keeping with the spirit of the movie. There is one character in this film who gets one fabulous Christmas present.