Wish for Christmas

Wish for Christmas won't win any Oscars, but it is well made and has a thought-provoking premise. This story has been told many times, and better, but Wish for Christmas gets most things right. I'm a Christian, so it may sound ironic that my biggest complaint is concerning the faith message, or rather HOW it's told. It's always tough to work that message into a script so it flows naturally. Unfortunately it feels a tad forced here. The message isn't wrong, it's just told wrong. (Uncle Paul's big talk with Anna never feels real, even though he's speaking the truth.)

Overall, Wish for Christmas is well made, the acting pretty much holds up, and the message is clear. Reading through the comments here has been a hoot. Atheists seem to be highly triggered. That tells me the message is correct, even if the delivery is a little clunky. You could do a lot worse than Wish for Christmas.

Obviously taken from It's A Wonderful Life, it's turning out to be a bad wish for Christmas that young teen Anna Frick asks for and gets. Her father and mother Joey Lawrence and Leigh Allyn Baker are both attorneys and are most generous with time and money donating their services in a lot of pro bono work. But purportedly it's because of their faith. When their daughter begs off going to church Christmas Eve because she's on the dance committee for the Christmas school clambake also scheduled for Christmas Eve, they say no.

Like Jimmy Stewart who wishes he had never been born and gets an alternative universe, Frick's wish is that her parents never became Christians. Guess what, the next day they are money grubbing secularists and real shysters. Among other things they are retained as counsel to a bank that is busy throwing people out of their homes including the parents of a boy Frick has her eye on, Ryan Boudreau.

Gradually she comes to the conclusion she does not like how her world has changed. Given this is a Christian Christmas movie with certain parameters all of course gets righted in the end.

The cast is a likable one, a good ensemble has been assembled. Get the bathtowels ready folks though you're in for Johnstown Flood type crying jag.

The idea is interesting. The acting is acceptable. The story is a bit weak and the ending a bit anticlimactic. However it makes a good family, Christmas flick. Like a lot of Christian movies the foundational ideology and philosophy is assumed rather than built, which may leave non-Christian viewers a bit confused. Nonetheless, it's actually a bit better than many Christmas movies I've seen.

Please God haters..move along nothing to see it learn here. This movie was warm and endearing. The acting was fine and the message was sweet. Be careful what you wish for. Those that hate God will have nothing good ever to say so who cares what they say.

1) Not all atheists are evil. 2) Not all people who believe in god are nice people. 3) If you agree with either of those statements you will find this film vomit-inducing, I certainly did. 4) I wish you could rate a film zero