The Search for Secret Santa

This is actually a decent mystery with moderate complexity for a TV movie in a 2 hour time slot. The acting is ok. The dialogue is ok and doesn't get cliché like some gumshoe mysteries. The romance between Sophia and Jackson doesn't really make sense. Sophia does what is one of my pet peeves about amateur detective mysteries - she constantly takes big risks many endangering her life.

This movie is not typical of a Christmas movie in the sense of the usual Christmas activities. The only Christmas connections are the Secret Santa present which is a nutcracker. The background score is a little more intense than I'd like especially for a Christmas movie.

Do the people who put this stuff on this website even read the description? Do they watch the movie? This one says "...Secret Santa gift addressed from B. To Claire.", Well, I watched it, and there's no Claire character in it or even mentioned.

The entire description, including the reference to B. And Claire, appears in several movie review sites. So it looks like somewhere sometime somebody wrote it, and it got distributed to many sites, and then somewhere along the line, apparently in the writing process, the character names got changed, but they never went back and corrected the description.

The movie itself was just OK; kind of confusing actually, trying to keep track of all the people's names she uncove4red in her search.

So, to begin with - I love ALL of these movies you guys make. And this one ESPECIALLY was heart warming. Beautiful - the story - the music - and especially the ACTING! SKYE COYNE was incredible as the lead - I would watch EVERY ONE of the movies she's in over and over again - she deserves to be in all of your movies. The charisma, reactions, and chemistry she shared, as the lead, with the rest of the cast was amazing. Her and Jackee's scenes were hilarious. Alex as the romantic lead was incredibly charismatic. I loved the twists and turns with his character as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this holiday movie. Thank you for making it!

The Search For Secret Santa (2022) -

It was a shame that this wasn't a better film, because Alex Trumble in his role of Jackson was cute and I felt that he deserved more. Although he was a tad overexcitable at times and very goofy at others. Skye Coyne was fine in her role of Sofia too, although the character was a big annoying, but not as frustrating as Perry the Newspaper Editor. Why do these films keep hiring Jackée Harry? In this role and every other character I've seen her play, she was absolutely farcical. She's so ridiculous.

The lesbian best friend Nancy (Grace Dillon) was not a good actor and Ernie (Eamon Hunt) wasn't that brilliant either. His character was so obviously dodging Sofia's questions about the Secret Santa gift too.

However, nobody was as awful as the criminals, who were like something from the Adam West 'Batman' (1966-8) TV series. They were so corny. The Boss even had an eye patch for Christ's sake! And the story really didn't need the crooks at all, so many other of these films have done it without that farce.

As for the actual gift in the Secret Santa box, there was NO WAY that it was an antique and those were definitely NOT real jewels decorating it.

Also, I assume that 'The Nutcracker' music is available in the public domain, because so many of these films use the tunes. It would be nice if they could be a bit more original sometimes. It's set at Christmas already, use a different, ordinary item for a change.

Overall, it was a bit too much 'Aurora Teagarden Mysteries' (2019-) and a bit less charming Christmas film.

The end was pure cheese too!!!! I won't be watching this one again.

4.24/10.