This is an entertaining and undemanding Christmas film that I enjoyed.With a simple story, a strong cast giving good performances and some nice messages it was a joy to watch.There are so many of this sort of film knocking around in the run up to Christmas that it's impossible to wade through the chaff to find the wheat, but this one I am happy to report is well worth checking out.
... View MoreI really enjoyed this heartfelt movie. As a TV-movie, I did not expect to be moved, but this movie brought out the waterworks in me.Ashley (Kari Hawker) plays a lonely, broke young woman trying to find a job before the holiday season. Her lonely neighbor, Nick Anderson (played by Bruce Davison), offers her a job to work as his assistant. She accepts the job and learns the true meaning of Christmas when she learns of Nick's past and his Secret Santa ways of the present. They form a father/daughter bond and it is very sweet to witness. Will Price (KC Clyde) plays a magazine writer, who threatens to reveal Nick Anderson as the Secret Santa for his own self gain at the magazine. However, the movie writers were smart to keep his cynicism to a minimum as to not spoil the goodness of the movie.Bruce Davison's performance was exceptional. He and Kari Hawker had great chemistry on screen, as do Hawker and Clyde. I highly recommend this Christmas movie. I can't wait to watch it again next year!
... View MoreMaybe this deserves a better rating as a typically sappy "feel good" movie or something, but it has no oomph in the romantic genre. The actor in the male lead, K.C. Clyde, is completely uninspiring; he has negative sex appeal. He seems more suitable for playing a dorky side-kick supporting role in a comedy or a snotty protagonist at a boarding school. Bad casting; it killed the entire movie for me. I was hoping the boy DIDN'T get the girl the whole time I was watching it. But even as a feel-good movie, it misses the mark. The basic premise was supposed to be emotional, but the way it was handled left me unmoved. Maybe I've just been watching too many of these Christmas-themed movies. My reaction to most of the scenes was rolling my eyes. I really wouldn't recommend this movie. People need to know that the 2012 production of the same name isn't a remake of this disaster; it just has the misfortune of bearing the same title.
... View MoreA nice movie I thought, with a good idea behind it. Personally, and this is only my own thought, (others will disagree I'm sure) that the character of Nick could have been used more and had more of an input further into the movie than he did. Yes, he was in it for the first hour(ish) but I sadly realised what was coming when he is talking with Ashley in his apartment, and says the line: "I won't be around for ever." So when he wasn't in it (I had tears in my eyes - it was so sad that bit) I kind of didn't want to watch the rest of it because his character is so integral to the movie.Bruce Davison is one of those understated actors who makes acting look so easy; it isn't. You know you're going to get a good solid performance in every movie he does, he is an awesome actor and picks his roles well, and as well as getting more handsome as he gets older, the characters he plays are always magnetic, they pull you in to the character's heart and you feel their emotion, their hurt, and a life story is painted for the viewer so easily and quickly you feel like you've known the character all your life. Nick Anderson, is such a role: quiet, unassuming but 'carrying a hurt' - this will move you.
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