Once Upon a Christmas Wish

I enjoyed this film that takes a slightly different direction than the run of the mill Christmas rom-com. Yes, it's a small town that is struggling and yes, there is an antagonist trying to build there and put the local shops and inns out of business. Yes, there is a Santa figure that adds magic to the mixture. And yes, the love interest is from the city. But the premise of old Christmas wishes long forgotten being sent off and then the spark of them coming true made for an enjoyable, albeit sappy/corny, holiday movie. I was not expecting the seemingly random song and dance pieces, which were good, but not enough or too sporadic/not interwoven to tag it as a true musical. The main very talented leads, married in real life, had good on-screen chemistry and for lack of better words, were cute together. I appreciated that the culminating conflict was actually a semi-reasonable one, rather than a silly miscommunication/misunderstanding that everyone outside of the love interests could see a mile away or resolve with any meaningful human interaction. Nothing to blow us away this holiday season, but an enjoyable and uplifting family friendly Christmas movie to help us feel the magic and spirit of the season.

I live near Long Grove, been going there for decades. I used to go there with my late mother, sister and other sister. It brought back a lot of memories of the Apple Haus, LG Confectionary Store, going there to get chocolate covered strawberries. Shows the church my brother was married in. Some of the scenes were filmed in my favorite stores. I'm curious how there were able to film in-between the famous bridge being hit. It's been hit over 60 times, one of which a few years ago almost completely destroyed it. No matter how many warning signs they post on the allowable height, people still try to go through it. Cute movie, but for me the town was the star.

Needless to say that I had, of course, not heard about this 2024 Christmas movie from director Brian Herzlinger prior to sitting down to watch it as part of my Christmas movie marathon.

The storyline in the movie was fair, I suppose.

Now I am sure that writers Brian Herzlinger and Megan Henry Herzlinger, with the former also directing the movie, had nothing but good intentions when they collaborated on penning out the script for the movie. And I will say that the storyline definitely were fair, but it just came crashing down hard simply because of poor casting choice. I cannot for the life of me fathom why they opted to cast Mario Lopez for the main role. His acting is subpar, and throughout the majority of the movie he looked like a goofy moose caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic. He seemed oblivious to the cast around him and it was impossible to deter attention elsewhere, as the goofy moose was there all the time.

And I have to say that the randomly added singing and dancing performances by Mario Lopez and Courtney Lopez didn't work one bit either. It felt cringeworthy, awkwardly staged and very unfitting into the narrative of the movie.

The acting performances in the movie were fair, for the most parts. As mentioned above, I can't claim to grasp why Mario Lopez was brought in to spearhead this Christmas movie. Sure, I haven't really seen him since "Saved by the Bell", well maybe from an occasional appearance here and there, but I can't remember seeing him in movies. And his wife, Courtney Lopez, was also in the movie, but also not endowed with a particular memorable acting talent.

I will say that the movie was sufficiently Christmassy to appeal to the audience that gobble up sappy Christmas movies. But personally, I just couldn't get past the goofy moose that bumbled around on the screen. So "Once Upon a Christmas Wish" was not a particularly enjoyable movie for me. Needless to say that this is by no means a Christmas classic for me, nor is it a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time.

My rating of "Once Upon a Christmas Wish" lands on a three out of ten stars.

The movies where I have seen Mario Lopez, whatever his role, he walks like he is in total command of everything around him. The very first glimpse of him walking down the street here reminded me of that. Perhaps it his experience as dancer. It does take long before Lopez' Brian Ortega is in the middle of a big dance number right in the center of town. The character Brian is apparently surprised by that. Something is up. Soon after we are introduced to the evil developer aiming to buy local shops. And the town can't make its budget. The last piece to add to the plot is Nina played by Mario's real life wife, Courtney Lopez, whom Brian has obviously had a crush on since grade school. Looks like they will be planning the town festival together.

Along with the frequent musical numbers, the acting has a "big" feel to it. Slightly overacted, but intentionally so. It's no surprise that the married Lopez couple fit together perfectly even dancing together. And Courtney can really belt it out when she sings. There is a nice closing number with both Courtney singing and the couple dancing.

The climax is overly optimistic, no cheesy, even for a Christmas movie. If viewers can keep from taking the story too seriously, I think the movie can be quite enjoyable.

BTW - Joey makes me think of one of the elves in The Santa Clause. His voice is just the same. The acting credit here on IMDb doesn't make sense since it says he is 56 years old. I think he is actually the son of the two leads.

I was excited about this movie because I actually live in Long Grove, and it was really cool seeing the small businesses, landmarks, and scenery in the movie.

The movie itself was less than good. I feel like the concept was different and could have been more interesting if it was executed better, but something was just off with this one.

The acting wasn't good, which is weird because they are married in real life, but the chemistry was missing.

Efrain Figueroa who played the father was excellent though. Really enjoyed his performance!

However the random dancing and singing felt very disjointed and forced, and I found myself bored and glad it was over when it finally ended.