Cheesy TV Christmas flick. Starts out OK but runs out of steam fast. The story is about a career-driven woman (Lindy Booth, adorable as usual) who seemingly dies and is brought back as an angel. Her first task is to help a single father (Paul McGillion) turn his restaurant business around by Christmas.
If the movie had stayed in the Highway to Heaven mold it started out as, it might have been slightly better. However, they decided to go the romance route. I saw no chemistry between the young attractive Lindy Booth and the older paunchy Paul McGillion, who apparently is also a mouth-breather. It was kind of gross actually. I'm sure I'm sounding shallow here. I could buy her with an overweight older actor if maybe it was someone like Kevin James, who is likable and has a fun personality. But McGillion is about as personable as frozen fishsticks.
Another unimpressive part of the cast was Paul's annoying friend, played by Teresa Pavlinek. I was surprised to discover this was not her first acting job as she was quite terrible. One bright note on the casting was Derek McGrath, an actor I had not seen in many years but have pleasant memories of from many television series in the 1980s, most notably that of "Andy Andy" on Cheers. McGrath plays the angel who guides Lindy throughout the movie and, besides Lindy, he's the only actor with any real presence or charm about him.
Look, it's a made-for-TV Christmas movie. There's a ceiling on how good this could possibly be. I'm sure my ceiling is lower than most others who might check this sort of material out. Judging by some other reviews here, I know that some will enjoy the movie far more than I did. But the romance between two people with zero chemistry and a rather predictable cornball story with a cheat ending just made this movie a chore to sit through for me.
