Home by Christmas

Typical "Lifetime" movie; but ya know, a really feel good experience. Sweet performances, especially by Linda Hamilton as a down on her luck divorcée who becomes homeless, make the movie special. Sometimes on the brink of believability, these performances and the director's occasional fast pace put the plot beyond, towards a story that can easily be enjoyed. There are even moments when tears well into ones eyes without the realization that the heart begins to glow with the holiday spirit. Brenda Crichlow's overly optimistic performance is also surprisingly good. Beware that there are some even many predictable moments. However, they are handled so well by the seasoned Ms. Hamilton, Rob Stewart and the actor who plays Max (his father) that an audience can still receive a blip of unexpected plot. In one word this holiday season? Lovely.

If you start to watch this movie and think about axing it within the first 15 minutes (like I did)... please give this movie a chance to redeem itself. Trust me, it does. By the last quarter of the movie, I was loving it. The first third of the movie is almost unbearable, acting mostly but even script writing is almost absurd... but if you bear through it to get to the the second-act, you start to really relate to the heroine of the movie and feel her pain. Even what's happened to her up to that point seem almost believable, despite the first act. Even in desperate times during life, wonderful people seem to appear out of the woodwork, as in this movie and it really makes you believe in something wonderful, especially at Christmas time. I really ended up enjoying this movie, even though I almost gave-up on it early on. In the end I loved it.

But honestly ? was Linda Hamilton ONLY 50 when she made this film ? and would the good looking doctor really have fallen for someone who looked old enough to be his Mum. Sorry if that's unkind, but clearly the years haven't been kind, and her acting left a lot to be desired.

The story was a good one, and shows how easy it is to be down on your uppers very quickly.

The Christmas movie watching continues. Just finished "Home By Christmas" which stars Linda Hamilton. In this film Linda plays Julie Bedford (Surely Named After the town Bedford Falls from"It's a Wonderful Life). In this film in a short order a woman finds out that her husbands is cheating. She dumps him and after a series of misfortunes she ends up homeless. She is now one of the invisible people that all of us avoid when we see them on the street. Not letting her situation drag her down too much she hatches a plan to get herself back on her feet. Now what I liked about this film is that you (The Audience) see that you must count your blessings. Be grateful for what you have and not what you don't.

If you like Christmas movies the film is worth seeking out. I will say the surprise of this film was an actor I never herd of before. His name is Rob Stewart and he is very charming.

Made for Lifetime Television it most likely will repeat in November and December. It is also available on DVD at Amazon. It is part of a DVD package of 12 movies of Christmas.

The comments above do a good job of explaining what this movie is about, so I want to focus on another aspect of this film.

This movie is about the type of situation most are terrified of even thinking of --facing an economic landslide out of our usual socio-economic level and being completely alone. This is one of the loneliest of personal disasters since others from our old life don't want to talk to us since they are so terrified of this happening to them that they don't want anything to even remind them of it. Watching this is a chance for us to even imagine what it's actually like to live our worst nightmare and know that we would survive. I'm pleased the network aired this film since I think it is a very useful self-empowerment tool.