Wishin' and Hopin'

So good to finally see a movie that made me laugh-out-loud. It brought back so many wonderful memories of growing up in the early 60's!! The cast, which is mostly kids, did an outstanding job. I could see myself, and so many of my classmates in their characters. No detail was left out.I could not believe they put bells on their shoes, something I did as a young girl during the Christmas season. I felt like I was reliving every Christmas production I had been in, including the mishaps. Thanks to Wally Lamb, Cast, and Everyone involved, for bringing this story to life.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Premiere in New London, Connecticut and now I am looking forward to seeing it on the Lifetime Channel. This film will be one of those Christmas Classics that we watch with our families every year .

Wonderful film to capture the spirit of the season and the feel of the times - well crafted, insightful story line about the inner lives of children delivered through the eyes and hearts of the kids. Even the parents are largely portrayed as how kids might see them. Of course Wally Lamb's book is a powerful inspiration but the acting, directing and every aspect of the film really does the book justice. Lamb has an amazing ability to get inside the heads of his characters and this film doesn't disappoint. Great fun - will help your kids understand how we baby boomers grew up! Loved the precise phrases of verbal kid disdain, "I know you are, but what am I?" Don't miss it.

Wishin' and Hopin' is an untypical Lifetime movie based on a nostalgic book about a Connecticut kid Felix Funicello a 10 year old at a Catholic school whose quirky family own a small diner and are related to a famous celebrity.

He gets to all sorts of scrapes at school with his friends and the film centres on the class preparing for the Christmas play at school when they get a new substitute teacher from Quebec as well as a new student from Russia.

The film did remind me somewhat of A Christmas Story? with all the nostalgia and the narration is provided by Chevy Chase as the older Felix.

The film has a barbed look back at school days of the 1960s, poking fun at Catholic teachers, the Monsignor is played by Meat Loaf! You encounter the kind of classmates I had at school and also see them on the verge of puberty although at 10 years old they were rather early for puberty.

I never really found this plot heavy and nostalgia only can take you so far. It kind of reminded me of shows like The Wonder Years and Chevy Chase's narration told me that Felix must had lived a hard life as its taken it out in his voice.

A very loving Christmas story, well directed and played by a fine cast. The lead character is especially enjoyable, as such a story demands, and there is not the usual Hollywood overplay on bad versus good characters. Everyone has their own personality as people do, neither dastardly nor saintly, just people/kids. My wife and her sister watched it with me, we are TCM and movie fans in general. All three of us thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I did, by the way, experience many Catholic Christmas school plays as a child. Our parish priest was not a heavy drinker, he smoked a cigar, some of the nuns were certainly way out there, and the kids mostly looked at the old round clock waiting for 3pm. Lay teachers were uncommon but I had one in 4th grade, not as colorful as Molly Ringwald, but just as devoted.

Full disclosure, have read the book by Wally Lamb - truly a great American writer - upon which the movie is based. The book is a highly entertaining, compulsively readable, heartwarming novel -- and I'm happy to report that the film actually does the book justice!

Was lucky enough to attend a theatrical screening in NYC, and can definitely see this becoming one of those Christmas movies that everyone waits for, year after year, to be broadcast on TV, such as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott and A Christmas Story...

The movie evokes the era quite wonderfully, the child actors are a talented group (and actually likable) -- standouts are the kid who plays Felix, the girl who plays his love interest/arch enemy (ah puberty), the kid who delivers his "NAACP" punchline perfectly throughout, especially at the very end of the movie, and the Russian student who resembles a 13 year-old Uma Thurman. Familiar faces include Molly Ringwald and the lady from Two and Half Men, and the the criminally underemployed Annabella Sciorra (great in her short stint - one season? - on Law & Order: Criminal Intent), who is lovely as Felix's mother.

An added bonus is that the movie has quite a few 'inside jokes' for anyone who has ever attended a parochial school, or who has any experience whatsoever with a "Live Nativity" or "Christmas Pageant."

If you are looking to kick off the holiday season, and pretty much smile from ear-to-ear for two hours straight, be sure to check out this movie. The best new Christmas-flavored movie to come along in a very long time...