Christmas at Cartwright's

People are trying to apply logic to this film, but much like Father Christmas himself it's probably not best to.

Instead enjoy a better than average Hallmark film with regular player Alicia Witt in the lead role.

It's got a lot that's good about it, and although slow in some places, is an enjoyable way to spend an hour and a half.

7.3 stars.

The female lead is above average for me, she's not in my top 10, but she's in my top 20 for sure (there are so many leading ladies, so this is a good rating). The lead male I've seen a thousand times (not much of an exaggeration) in 'Heartland' as a regular, so he's very familiar. And I figured this movie is Canadian being he's in other Canadian productions.

The story is semi-original if you can believe it. It's a bit different, a woman Clause. And her name is Nicky, so no mystery there. Her daughter is endearing, she makes a third of what is magical about this film. The angel guy, well he's ok, but just because he looks funny and talks strangely doesn't mean they need to make him an angel that looks like an elf. It's a strange concept, and it's not cool in my opinion. Whatever, just my soap box.

The lead male is a great fit, the perfect good guy executive who loves the lead female because of her character and not her physical attributes. The way we know this is because he likes her also when she's disguised as Santa. The writers are showing us he has redeeming qualities, we can root for him as a gallant fellow.

The antagonist is her boss, who doesn't know she's her boss. It's complicated, you'll see.

50% of what is special about this movie is the leads, 33% because of the daughter, and the other 17% was entertainment value. I feel they had enough time to grow an enjoyable on-screen romance.

The bads: First of, Alicia Witt acts horribly, she is not the best actress but in here she goes over the top so much that it is kind of annoying.

Same problem as with Alicia, is fiona, just trying to hard to look mean and evil, they both feel cartoonish.

The plot is dumb, there is no way in heck that anyone would not notice her being a woman, and the "angel" angle does not make it more believable, it just tries too hard to be progressive it makes it so not believable

Now the goods.

Harry is a great actor, he makes it so easy to like him, and adds that umpf to the movie.

The whole plot would've been awesome if it was actually known that she was a woman, and Bill believes in her but Fiona hates her, and take that drama from the romance, and the only reason she gets the job is because of Harry, instead of the whole charade thing, or maybe Nicky lying about something to Bill, something like that

The whole rest of the movie, the teacher helping, the little girl seeing how wrong she was acting, Becky not knowing, the romance triangle, it all feels good and the whole "Down on her luck mom that cares for her daughter and did it all for her" just... it is heartwarming.

Then the whole Harry leaving could be used as the driver for Fiona firing Nicky. Voila, plot made a bit better(not much to work with but could've been a bit better)

This is a great film. I especially liked the actress playing Nicky. She seemed believable yet magical. Angel stories are always great and this one did not disappoint. The little girl was cute without being precocious. I liked how everyone at Cartwright' s loved Santa Nick, except the evil Fiona. It was fun to see Gabrielle Miller play a baddie after seeing her as the nice, but insecure Lacey on Corner Gas. Hallmark has the best films! I also applaud Patricia Heaton for producing this sweet movie. The store sets were really beautiful.The only thing that puzzled me was 2 stories that Bill told to Nicky. One concerned questioning his father about Santa and in the other he mentions being raised by a single mom...what happened to his dad? That was the only inconsistency I spotted. But otherwise I recommend this film.

Alicia Witt has a quirky charm, and she is excellent as the first Santa at a department store. I have to thank the wonderful film ' Bros ' for my addiction to Hallmark Films, and the goodwill that they deliver to many people. I am not sure this is one of my favourites, but it has a great premise. Women can be just as good as men portraying Santa, and Witt has the right approach in playing this role. As we all know these Christmas fantasies have a male lead as well, but sadly in this film I did not think the one chosen for this was not quite up to make the heartbeat, either for female as well as male viewers. But to return to Alicia Witt she is much less passive than some of the female actors in the Hallmark genre. I really believed she could bring magic to the children she meets, and her mentor played brilliantly by the muti-talented Wallace Shawn was a magical choice of its own. ' Real ' life should have more female Santas. Worth watching.