Undercover Christmas

An overworked FBI agent(Shawn Christian)needs to "hide" a key witness(Jami Gertz)in an ongoing swindle investigation. Christian ends up taking Gertz to his wealthy parents home after being told his father has suffered a heart attack. This is a ploy of his mother(Tyne Daly)in hopes of seeing her son for the holiday. Predictably the agent and the witness pretending to be an "item" do fall in love. Also in the cast are: Diana Chaplin, Winston Rekert and Cameron Bancroft. Light hearted comedy worth watching. The main reason I watched is Gertz...man, that girl is HOT!

I loved it, laughed, just a pleasure! I read reviews that say the plot was already in other movies, I don't care, this movie stands by itself in a big way.

Brandi is a cocktail waitress whose boyfriend Scott is being investigated by the FBI for misusing money he and his family were supposed to invest for other people. Jake is one of the FBI agents. After Scott is arrested, the FBI persuades Brandi to testify, but Jake believes Brandi needs to be kept away from Scott. A family emergency leads to Scott bringing Brandi home to meet his parents at Christmas. He tells them Brandi is his girlfriend, and she is all too willing to play the role. Jake's parents wonder how these two could possibly be together. His mother does a good job of hiding her frustration. But his father, a judge, reminds his son once again what a disappointment he is. His sister Stefanie became a lawyer and continued working rather than staying home with her daughter. Jake was supposed to be a lawyer like his father. Jake's family has money, but they seem more interested in impressing people than getting along with each other. Brandi grew up with a mother who kept getting remarried, and she wasn't used to 'the good life'.

The movie started out as a comedy, but about halfway through the laughs stopped abruptly. The rest of the movie was unpleasant too much of the time, though some parts were nice. The ending was satisfying but, given all the various twists, it was hard to imagine this happening. Many different directions would have been possible. Both Brandi and Jake's family ended up learning important lessons.

I thought Tyne Daly would be the reason to watch. She was good, but Jami Gertz was the standout performer. Brandi was sarcastic most of the time and very funny when she was. She could also be sweet as she saw what life could have been like for her, even though these people didn't get along perfectly. She was great with Stefanie's daughter Ashley (Alexandra Harvey, who was pretty good as a slightly rebellious preteen).

I could have been happier, but the movie was good for a while, and the second half was not exactly a disaster.

Jamie Gertz, Tyne Daley lift this into memorable status. I found a bunch of Hallmarks and picked this one for the actresses and to see, at age 67, if these commodity entertainments can work on me. Well most don't but this did. I think acting and production values are above typical also.

Undercover Christmas was a fun,entertaining movie.Although the plot was not original,it did not lessen it's quality. The humor was clever,and the dramatic parts were touching. Jami Gertz and Tyne Daly were standouts,and although Shawn Christian did not get glowing reviews by at least one critic,I liked him in the role,and enjoyed several scenes in particular between he and Jami Gertz.