Mein Weihnachtstraum

7.6 stars.

Let's get this out of the way first: the kid has all the great comedic parts in 'My Christmas Dream'. A tough act to follow. Of course, the director makes the young boy seem like an adult, way too smart for a 6 year old, and I'd venture to guess he's older than 6 in real life, but that's beside the point.

Danica McKellar gives us her usual stellar rendition of a female who can be hard and cold, but deep down is soft and tender. All of her roles are similar, featuring the same personality in most of her performances. She is driven, yet malleable, harsh when she needs to be, yet compassionate underneath it all, seemingly gullible, but sharp as a knife. I like this character in a Hallmark female, ergo, I like Danica's portrayal in just about everything. I think we are seeing her true personality in what she does on screen. Sure, it's limited to that, but I like it enough to give her a free pass. Yes, the story is not original, but you can taste the higher quality film that it is.

The rest of the cast take a backseat to McKellar and little boy, but it's a well balanced Christmas tale of what it means to treasure family and the dream of true love over career and aspirations.

Hello, Hallmark, it's the 21st Century. And guess what? Copying films of the '40s and '50s is a little passe.

My Christmas Dream stars Danica McKellar who, at age 40, is still playing ingenues. And as far as I'm concerned, she's getting away with it.

It also stars handsome David Haydn-Jones and Diedre Hall who must have a hideous portrait in her closet.

McKellar is Christina, the manager of a department star, McDougal's, owned by Victoria (Hall). Christina is doing a terrific job and loves what she does.

Victoria arrives at the store and makes an announcement: The store is growing internationally, and they are opening a new store in Paris. They need someone to run it. Christina is perfect for it, having studied in Paris for a year and always feeling as if it was home.

However, in order to get the job, she is going to have to dazzle Victoria with the annual Christmas display, a part of the window always kept hidden until December 23.

In the meantime, she has met Kurt (Haydn-Jones) and his son Cooper. It's obvious that Kurt wants a commitment from her, but Christina shies away from it. Meanwhile she's having him help with the display and hoping it impresses Victoria.

We all know what's going to happen. It is possible to have a wonderful career and be fulfilled. It isn't one or the other nowadays. The previous film with Candace Cameron had the same theme. We see these women giving up these fabulous jobs (although Christina's is a good compromise) to stay with a man. Of course, he's going nowhere, why should he.

These Hallmark films can be boring or lovely, depending on your mood. My mood is particularly in need of mind-numbing since the election, so I would up watching this one and part of another. I understand showing romance. But this is the kind of movie my mother would have written because her generation was interested in one thing and one thing only: marriage and a family. And if you didn't have that, as far as she was concerned, you didn't have much of a life.

It's not a good fantasy for young women, whom I assume watch these things.

Otherwise, it's pleasant and Christmasy.

Yes, it's a little by the book in terms of the Hallmark formula, but I really liked this film, and it's always great to see Danica Mckellar.

With a nice storyline and some sweet moments, this was enjoyable and romantic enough to pass a cold night.

Lovely.

I like this film, because I have spent so many years working in retail that it is enough to make you forget what Christmas is all about, so I can understand Danica Mckellar's character. However, I don't really rate her as an actress, there is something about her that is comedic, that takes away from the more straight acted element of the film. David Haydn Jones is gorgeous and I would let him paint me any day and he plays his part well too, but the star of this film is Christian Convery who plays the little boy, Cooper. He is absolutely adorable.

The main premise of the story, creating a Christmas display in less than two weeks is highly impractical and very unlikely, but I suppose it does it's work here as part of the magic of Christmas and a way to bring two people together, but I think I would have liked to have seen them studying the past a bit more to really make me understand why the MacDougall's history was so important.

Also, if Holly, the Assistant Manager can't cope with the Manager taking an afternoon off, what does she do when she's on holiday? Should she really be left alone to run the store?

Also, a lot of the props are just wrong, this is something that a lot of these films need to work on and once again they have the crappiest Christmas tree, that's already half dead.

It has a nice quota of Christmas and I'm a sucker for a love story, so it still wins for me.

Let me start by saying I have low standards when it comes to holiday films, as they all follow the same template while the actors are interchangeable. Also, I have a huge girl crush on Danica McKellar and have since I was a kid. I didn't think she could ever do wrong. Now I know even bias can't save My Christmas Dream.

McKellar's Cooper was downright unlikable, and unlike every other holiday movie where the character slowly evolves, she never quite got there. Haydn-Jones did a fine job looking pretty, but his role didn't exactly call for much other than being a father and love interest. The kid started out fairly whiny and annoying but eventually saved this film for me. So very cute! Not much chemistry there, but I really blame the lacking script. Their entire journey from introduction to reunion felt scattered and incomplete. It was almost as if they were only attracted to each other because they had to be...because it's Christmas and that's what good-looking people do. I don't really recommend this movie unless you have watched every other Christmas movie Hallmark airs.