A Snow Globe Christmas

This time magic was gone : I was lucky to have 2 Christmas movies with Alicia in one week but this one is really not interesting : Alicia plays a sort of Scrooge who turns from bad to good by Christmas spirit but her transformation happens in a stupid tale : without knowing it, she has a black husband and two teens as child ! The small town is supposed idyllic but we don't see it ; Christmas is supposed to be a family Holiday but here it's rather belonging to a community (remember the Kranks ?) and the big drama is about a play ! So there's nothing to keep you awake and happy, with a crying eye and a moved heart ! The wardrobe and cinematography and the usual dynamism and smile of Alicia are worthy but sadly, this movie won't be a classic !

Apparently, the snow globe-alternate-universe-Christmas movie genera is here to stay. Unfortunately, this one is not as good as the 2007, one-word Snowglobe version.

In this edition, Meg (Alicia Witt) thinks the shows she produces misleads people into thinking dreams really can come true. After bonking herself on the head with a snow globe, she ends up in it's perfect snow-covered town. She never quite fits into this universe though everyone in town tries to accept her. It all starts to unravel when her negative attitudes impacts the town folks. Just as she starts to realize she likes her snow globe universe better than her real one, she returns to reality with another bonk on the head.

While there is a nice, semi-predictable twist at the end of this movie, its your basic Lifetime Channel Christmas movie fare that you will forget minutes after the movie is over.

A cynical TV exec looks at the perfect town inside a Christmas globe and rants about how the holiday movies she produces are as fake as the ornament. She throws it against the wall and it bounces back and knocks her out. But when she wakes up in a perfect snow-covered town, married to a local woodsman, she discovers it s not all just a fantasy.

The film is really a first class production. The story is a little bit of a retread of better films however its so well made you can't get mad. Alicia Witt seems to be in every other Christmas movie that gets made. It was also so sweet to see Donald Faison be romantic. This film is family safe. It so safe that if your single the film might even change your life. Watch and enjoy.

The only thing that's good about this movie is Donald Faison. He is quite funny. They made the lead so totally unlikable for so long in this dreadful version of a plot that has been done many times over before.

Though it rings of Family Man as many have pointed out, it bares a stronger resemblance to Nancy McKeon's Comfort and Joy. The film twists and turns in ways that are sometimes more frustrating than entertaining. However, the acting is good and the lighting is good and so is the sound. 2013 has not been a good year for sound and lighting in these types of holiday films. In particular kitchen scenes have been riddled with reverb, but not this film. They came through. The overlap with prior Snowglobe films is apparently coincidental more through casting than the story. There is no connection other than the name and a shared actress. It definitely tightens up at the end and makes for a good watch.