Un ángel para Nicky

Alicia Witt does a lot of these Christmas movies, and she's one of my wife's favorites in them. There's a good reason. Her films are generally a cut above the average cliched Christmas plot. It's not necessarily that her plots are more original, but her slightly confused and sometimes disgruntled acting style gives her roles a lot of separation from the overly perky performances turned in by many other actresses who float through these films with plastic performances.

In this movie, Alicia is a down-on-her-luck single mom (of course!) who, with an assist and a push by an angel, gets the job as a department store Santa. Overlooking the fact that there is no way she could be mistaken for a male Santa, the movie moves along with a funny story concerning her employment coinciding with a predictable but satisfying story concerning a romance with store exec.

Nothing about this story is new or inventive, but it is a fun watch.