A Country Christmas Story

What is a Christmas movie? That is a question I kept asking myself as I watched this movie. Most of the Lifetime Christmas movie plots center around the spirit of Christmas opening the heart of some long-lost curmudgeon, characters discovering the true meaning of Christmas or the story of somebody overcoming obstacles to get home for the holidays. This movie has none of those elements. In fact, you don't even see a Christmas tree until 1.5 hour into the movie. The movie felt like one of those personal interest clips they play just before some unknown talent goes on a reality show like America's Got Talent. The last 30 minutes of the movie feels like a long ad for Dollywood. The story is a formula Lifetime relationship movie where the characters resolve their irreconcilable differences in the last 10 minutes of the movie and live happily ever after.

Worth watching when there is nothing else recorded on your DVR just to hear Desiree Ross' great voice or if you are a Dolly Parton fan. Otherwise, watch your other Christmas movies first!

A Country Christmas Story is about a biracial young girl from Appalachia with dreams of becoming a country music singing star. So she enters a contest to find Americas next young country star hosted by Dolly Parton at Dollywood. Although the movie is advertised as a Christmas story the viewer sees no scenes of snow, Christmas trees and decorations or anything else resembling Christmas until the conclusion of the movie. It was hard to believe this girl is from Appalachia, nobody in the movie spoke with a Southern accent ,it just did not have an authentic feel to it. Also , this girl is supposed to be a country singing talent, we see no scenes of her practicing her singing throughout the movie. The girl reveals the title of the song she penned herself that she was going to sing at the competition but we never hear her singing at all until the very end. The movie suffers a great deal because producers cast a young lady with no musical talent in the main role. We keep waiting for something to make this movie a little interesting, perhaps the charismatic Dolly can come in to save it, but alas,Dolly has a very tiny role in it.

This is like the third Dolly Parton Christmas movie I have seen, or maybe the second, and I always like them. While not being a big fan of country music, it was interesting how the film tried to educate the viewer about the presence of blacks in the genre. Yet strangely Charley Pride was never mentioned.

Grace is a 14-year-old who wants to be a singer and songwriter. Her mother is dead set against that because her mostly absent father is a musician who never made it big, and who doesn't help much with the bills. Grace has to secretly practice the guitar at her grandmother's house, since her mother wants to sell it.

Helping her achieve her music goals is her music teacher and choir director, the most interesting person in the movie, in my opinion. He is a failed singer/songwriter/composer himself from NYC. He also apparently comes from money, which was interesting in this Appalachian story.

Forunately, this film is free of all Appalachian stereotypes, but is it stereotyping black fathers? Some would argue yes, but it appears to me to be trying to avoid seeing race as that important. Nevertheless, it does focus some on if a biracial teenager will have any chance whatsoever in winning a country music contest.

Dolly Parton is the hostess of the final contest concert event, and she is always so appealing in personality. She gives special attention to Grace when she realizes her estranged parents are causing her so many emotional problems. This movie is foremost a story about a broken family.

It really doesn't even seem like a Christmas story until the end, either. Moreover, the song Grace wrote and sings doesn't sound like a country music one to me. All and all, though, it's a nice clean film for the whole family that encourages pursuing one's dreams, and not being afraid of obstacles.

This is an EXCELLENT movie would be NICE to see more like this one

I'll cut to the chase. This is yet another movie that unnecessarily portrays a black man as an absent father. He's abandoned his family to be a bartender while he works on his music. This story could've been written so that the father was an active member of the family and supportive of his daughter's musical aspirations. Instead it uses the damaging trope of the black father that's abandoned his family to create tension in the story.

Studies have repeatedly shown that the pervasive myth about black fathers being absent from their children's lives is just that. A myth. The CDC has found that black fathers are "more involved with their kids on a daily basis than fathers from other racial groups."

The presence of this harmful stereotype in this movie is a continuation of the subtle and systemic racism that makes it so difficult to be a black man in America.

How wonderful this movie would've been if it showed both a mother and father fully engaged in their child's life, encouraging them, and helping guide them to work towards their dreams. It could have portrayed a black man as a positive role model and rejected harmful stereotypes while still telling its story. Because it failed to do so, this movie does more harm than good.

More than anything, I am so disappointed that Dolly Parton signed on to this movie. She seems like such a wholesome and caring person that I assume her involvement is out of ignorance rather than malice. Regardless, her involvement is shameful.

Rating it 1/10 stars due to systemic racism.