Yet another Christmas movie obviously filmed in Utah. No effort was made to conceal the various styles of Utah license plates on the cars, and it is set in Mapleton, a real town just south of Provo. This one has quite a cast: Kristy Swanson, K.C. Clyde of The Best Two Years, Edward Herrman, Kurt Russell's best friend from Overboard, and Troy Bolton's dad from High School Musical (also filmed in Utah). Aside from these actors, the cast leaves a lot to be desired, particularly since the writer overloaded this movie with scenes for child actors to stretch their nonexistent acting skills. After fast-forwarding through most of the scenes featuring children, I was rooting for the relationship between Kristy Swanson and K.C. Clyde to turn into love (despite their obvious and awkward age difference), but even the ending robbed me of that: no kiss. Not even a date. So in the end, none of this movie's seven plot lines compelled me to recommend it to you.
A Family Thanksgiving
A dedicated lawyer (Daphne Zuniga) tries her hand at a different kind of life when she is magically transformed into a wife and mother. This movie is basically 13 Going on 30 for Christmas or The Family Man for a woman and on TV. It also has shades of A Christmas Carol, since Mira Sorvino plays Daphne's psycho-transformation therapist, a combination of Jacob Marley and all three Ghosts of Christmas. Just like in A Christmas Wish, I found myself fast-forwarding to the scenes between the two love interests to avoid the all-too-numerous scenes with children who are meant to be adorable but are actually annoying. At least one of these romantic scenes lends a decidedly more Lifetime Channel flavor to this Hallmark Channel movie.
On Strike for Christmas
Daphne Zuniga and David Sutcliffe play a married couple and parents of teenage twin boys who get at odds with each other when she feels under-appreciated and overused during the holiday season. So she does what the heroine of every Lifetime Channel movie does: she gets strong...in the form of going on strike from her mothering, wife-ing, and decorating duties. While I found myself wondering why all these women own businesses (other than that they're living in a Lifetime movie), I also found myself laughing, at least at the scenes featuring David Sutcliffe getting his domesticity going. Like most movies with David Sutcliffe, it's worth it for David Sutcliffe. Watch him don an apron and bake poorly with his sons. In the end, the message of this movie was shockingly anti-feminist: women apparently should slave away to make Christmas amazing for the men in their lives, even if it means losing our own purposes as women.
Troy Bolton's dad from High School Musical (also filmed in Utah). ebay amazing deals
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