Christmas Angel

A down and out young woman finds a new lease on life when she becomes a Secret Santa's head elf.

Right off the bat, I did not like the male lead. I did not like the character or the actor. His dishonest and harmful brand of journalism and snotty behavior towards the fact checker that called him out on it showed that he was not a good man. And he even looked like kind of a immature smart-aleck. Since part of the plot was his eventual rehabilitation, though, the character and the actor grew on me. I guess I'm used to the Hallmark heroes who are almost always knights in shining armor from the get go, even though they may be disguised by grief or hurt.

On the other hand Bruce Davison and Kari Hawker-Diaz more that made up for the initial weakness of the male lead. Oscar nominated and New York Film Critics and Golden Globe winning actor Bruce Davison needs no praise from me on his acting. These little TV movies are blessed that he isn't snobby about the roles he takes. Gee, I guess he just loves to act and wants to work. About a half-hour into the movie, I realized that Kari not only reminded me of Sandra Bullock, but sounded like her too. And her character took me back to sad, struggling, and lonely Lucy of While You Were Sleeping. So she already had a head-start with me on the likability scale.

The idea of the movie, that, a modest humble man who is a **spoiler alert*** secret millionaire,**end spoiler** roams the city looking for people who need a helping hand was a real winner. I loved the idea that he recruited "elves" to help him find worthy recipient of his bounty as well. Of course our hero, rightly and satisfyingly demoted due to his shoddy journalism, (in real life he probably would have gotten a raise) and trying to win back his former position, threatens to expose "Nick" and ruin his mission. Their were quite a few genuinely touching moments in this warm hearted movie as well as some humor. The romance took second stage and mostly served to provide our heroine with closure and the resolution of her challenges.

A cute enough movie about how if you fall in love, it can save you from being grumpy grinchy selfish type. Some sad things happen, but the ending is heartfelt and warm. The side stories are all wrapped up by the end, which is nice. Not everything gets fixed, because love a and kindness can't save everything.

The story is rather nice and the movie could have scored higher, if it weren't for the male lead character. Davison was pretty good and Hawker did an OK job, but Clyde would better have been replaced by the dog as the male lead. It's performance was, at least, above average. Can one speak of a one dimensional character? Well, it's not even that. Both the actor and the character were virtually non-existent, noise at best. For that reason alone this movie hardly qualifies as a romance. Nice, but don't stay home for it. After this dismal performance I will probably never again take the risk to watch a movie with Clyde in it. And like Forrest Gump said: "That is all I have to say about that"

With so many Christmas movies on television at the moment sometimes a gem can be found among the dross. This film is one of the best seasonal movies of the past 10 years. It must be good because I can watch it again and again. It is perfectly cast with Kari Hawker and KC Clyde finding love in an unexpected way and Bruce Davison brilliant as the very wealthy cancer-ridden former property developer who regrets aspects of his past life and seeks to help those in real need at Christmas. The film lacks sentimentality which adds to its attraction.

This is a feel good movie where the female lead, Ashley, a regular woman who at the moment happens to be struggling a bit, gets the chance to become Secret Santa. Throw in some hardship in several backstories and a budding romance, and it is hard to miss.

Take away a star for K.C. Clyde, as Will. First off, his character needed some definite refitting. Add to it that it just didn't seem like Will and Ashley had that much chemistry. For me, the only indication that there was any connection for Ashley was the fact that Nick kept selling Will to her. He says something like "you know you love him", but that wasn't obvious at all other than the fact that she had no one else.

Still, Kari Hawker was a pleasure. I just saw her for the first time today in another movie which was so bad, it's amazing I was intrigued by this actress with a fairly small and unknown filmography. She played this part perfectly in my mind. She plays as a slightly insecure woman who really doesn't want any fame, yet she doesn't oversell the insecurities. She steps into the role Nick gives her reluctantly, but she applies herself completely, and rocks it. She's easy on the eyes, but isn't particularly seductive, and I mean that in a positive way.

The epilogue was a bit lackluster even though it was generally what you'd expect.

This has a bit of a Hallmark feel to it, but all the credits point to a non-American production. It would certainly play well on the Hallmark Channel and I would love to see Keri Hawker show up there in other things.