A Perfect Christmas List

Ellen Hollman has great stage presence but I don't think the character fit her well- especially with how she played her romantic interest. Liked her as the author and the daughter. Home Improvements "Al" played a nice dad but was not a major character. Marion Ross played the grand mother in a supporting role and it wasn't quite right. The mother's role was the most unusual and maybe the most memorable. The greatest take away from the movie was the friendship developing between mother and daughter.

I might not mind watching the movie again and I did not fall asleep. The most memorable scene was mom and daughter in a musical dance scene dressed in mini skirt Santa outfits collecting money for the orphanage.

It's a toss up between which is worse, the acting, the script or the background music.

I put this as background while I was setting up the Christmas Tree and i'm so glad I didn't put 100% of my attention of it because this was bad.

So, same plot as always: granddaughter goes home during the holidays because Grandma had an accident. Grandma forces daughter and granddaughter, who had been apart for a while, to spend time together while doing the typical activities of the season.

This was sad. I mean, the story itself was cute, it was about family and the romance was only the secondary plot. But, there was no chemistry, bad acting, bad direction. The whole thing was bad. Besides, they commit a felony during the movie and we are just gonna let it slide?

If we compare, Hallmark movies are Oscars worthy compared to this.

Movie based on an old sitcom trope, as a partly-overheard, misunderstood conversation leads to hijinks, and hopefully, a happier, closer family if it all works out in the end. Unfortunately, it just isn't very funny overall, and the acting isn't the best, especially considering the presence of Marion Ross and Richard Karn. Karn was particularly underused. Not that the writing gave anyone much to work with. The few touching bits, an orphanage scene and a fun supermarket musical bit, are diluted by scenes where the cast just seems bored or uncomfortable. One bizarre scene in the middle of the film should have been cut entirely. The mother and grown daughter dress in black and commit felony theft of the top eight feet of a newly planted gigantic pine tree at a mall. It may have been intended to be funny, but it comes off as being so out of place as to be very jarring and even disturbing. The family acts like it is perfectly normal to commit felony theft and they never mention it again. It doesn't seem to fit in. Surely they could have padded the run time with something that didn't make the family seem like antisocial psychos. I docked this film about two stars for the scene, leaving it with just three. That's how badly the two minutes or so ruins the intended spirit of the movie. Blows it to smithereens. I was half expecting them to maybe kidnap or steal from some orphans, too. Take away that one scene, and it's a solid 5. All in all, like many of the made for TV Christmas movies, it seems fine for having on in the background while baking cookies, wrapping presents, etc. It certainly doesn't deserve your undivided attention.

This is a nice family movie with plenty of humor. It is mostly a formula movie, but I like the formula.

Marion Ross is her usual self. Quite good, at least given this material.

Beth Broderick has some really good scenes as her character must deal with some unpleasant realities, other than what she believes about her mother.

Yanellie Ireland does a great job as a deaf child abandoned by her parents who lives in a children's home.

Michelle trying to put the mother's needs first is, of course, hilarious.

Who is that handsome soldier in the photograph?

Is this appropriate for family viewing? Pretty much. You just have to be prepared for some of what might be called "adult themes", but nothing that older children shouldn't see, and probably not a problem for most young children.

The one thing I disliked: Christmas music should not be rock and roll from the 50s or even 70s soft rock performed by cutesy female vocalists. And I am not open to new songs about Christmas. A couple of the old favorites are here, with "Silent Night" as pleasant background music, and "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on a saxophone outside the grocery. The sax player is part of a memorable scene involving a concert everyone seems to enjoy, though some of the instruments are heard only by the movie audience. The real "performers" work at the grocery and are playing non-traditional "instruments".

It's a nice experience for the holidays.