Once Upon a Christmas Miracle

By far the best Hallmark Christmas movie of the decade. Fantastic characters and actors who portray them. Great story. Heart warming. Asks so many questions of yourself as a viewer and those questions are consistent with the questions the characters were asking themselves. I have already watched it multiple times and I will watch it again.

After watching so many Hallmark and Lifetime movies so far this season, I FINALLY found a great one. I absolutely loved it and at the end found out it was based on a true story which makes it even better. I also loved all of the actors - casting was great. That's the problem with most of these movies - there's no chemistry between the lead actors so the story isn't even believable. Not the case with this one. Highly recommend it.

A young woman (Aimee Teegarden) needs a liver transplant. Along comes an ex marine (Brett Dalton from Shield) who altruistically decides to donate to her. Is it just gratitude or is it love?

It's a nice change of pace from the usual Hallmark fluff. If it was a feature film there wouldn't be a happy ending. So it's nice this organ transplant theme has a Hallmark treatment.

His saintliness is pure Hallmark but surprisingly not implausible in the context.

If you choose one Christmas movie at least this is a little different.

Really did like the premise for 'Once Upon a Christmas Miracle', no make that love. It sounded so moving and you know a film does something right when its premise immediately connects with you even before watching like it did with me. This premise connected with me personally, being somebody who knows what it is like to have major, life-changing surgeries for any condition/illness (not just transplants), something that few other Hallmark films did and certainly the first Christmas film of theirs to do that for me.

'Once Upon a Christmas Miracle' wholly lived up to its premise and the high expectations had (actually did have higher expectations for it than most Hallmark Christmas films). While not a flawless film, it was very well done. Out of a very hit and miss year for Hallmark, 'Once Upon a Christmas Miracle' to me is a strong contender for the best Hallmark Christmas film for that year. Also one of their best Christmas outings in quite some time and one of their best overall, as well as one of their most emotional and personal.

Can see where people are coming from regarding the film's portrayal of the recovery process, which is portrayed in too quick and easy a way. Being somebody who can attest to how gruelling, slow and painful recovery after surgeries is after having a high risk spinal operation nearly a decade ago, that the film didn't want to make the atmosphere too heavy considering the kind of story it was was admirable but this was a subject that needed the pull no punches approach which didn't happen.

Maybe it is a touch slow at times.

Having said all of that, there is a huge amount to like about 'Once Upon a Christmas Miracle'. It is very professionally filmed and the locations are simply beautiful. A lot of Hallmark's Christmas films suffer from being over-scored, meaning being too constantly used and too loud. That isn't so big a problem here. The script is a lot less cheesy and schmaltzy than most Hallmark Christmas films and did find it very sincere, very affecting and that it never sounded awkward.

Furthermore, that the story departed from the usual Hallmark Christmas film formula and took on a more serious, a more personal and more true to life situation. There is nothing cheesy or over-sentimental in how this subject is handled either, it came over as truly poignant and well meaning and also with a good deal of warmth. Really did connect with the story emotionally. The characters were based on real-life people and that's why they felt much more like real people than most Hallmark characters and a lot more rootable than most. The acting is very good with two affecting leads and with very natural and sincere chemistry between the whole cast.

Summing up, very well done. 8/10

This story is exactly what you'd expect if you read the synopsis and even more so if you've read anything about the true-life couple.

Aimee Teegarden and Brett Dalton do a great job bringing Heather and Christ to life and the supporting cast is good too. Both Heather and Chris appear to be unselfish people who spend their lives making other peoples' lives better.

I read an anecdote about Chris that I wish the movie had tried to capture because it is just one more thing that shows the kind of person he is. His real job is as a code inspector and he once found the house of a 90 year old woman to have problems which I assume would have put the woman into an untenable situation. Apparently instead of writing her up and walking away, he organized a project to help her fix it up.

The movie story is a tiny bit thin, but the underlying story makes the movie worth watching.

PS. Still watching this movie probably about once every season it plays (it shows on Hallmark also in July) and I'm getting more tears now than the first time in December 2018.