Christmas in Canaan

This was a great movie. Well worth watching. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 10/8/21.

The vast majority of Christmas theme movies made each year have single season plots. They can be comedy romances, dramas or other mixed genres but they take place around a single Christmas season. The most common among these are the romances that just happen around Christmas. And most such movies are just fair at best.

"Christmas in Canaan" is an exception to all of the above. It takes place over several years. It's not a comedy romance. It's about family, friendship, caring, teaching, learning, and struggling together. The movie opens in 1964 in Texas farm country where most of the story takes place. It ends there around Christmas of 1975.

The plot addresses racial bigotry that still existed in much of the country after the Civil Rights Movement. It's a look at broken families and how they survive. The movie is based on a book by Country Western singer Kenny Rogers. This is a very good film for the whole family.

Leery of TV Christmas movies, I watched this one on the Hallmark Channel recently (December, 2010) with my finger on the channel changer.

But I'm glad I didn't leave.

First, it is a wonderful story, just what we need to remind us that, despite politicians, such as George W. Bush and Barack Obama, playing such hob with the economy, tough times don't last and tough people do.

"Canaan" is also another reminder that a movie can be good even with a cast of -- at least to me at this viewing -- unrecognizable actors.

Every player, even the youngest, was thoroughly believable.

The script avoided clichés or, if seeming clichés were unavoidable, used them to creatively further the story.

Sure, it might make any good-hearted person cry, but there is nothing wrong with that, especially around Christmas time.

I saw what I considered to be a few inconsistencies in the movie. However, even though I grew up in a small town in Texas, it wasn't close Canaan because Taylor (the other town mentioned in the movie) is close to four hundred miles from my hometown. And I didn't grow up in rural Texas in the sixties. It was the fifties. So that probably explains the few scenes that I considered had strayed from historical and social accuracy because I was busy being a teenager in the sixties and wasn't paying close attention to society or history.

Those perceived anomalies notwithstanding, I was awed by the performance of Emily Tennant as Sarah/Sissy. Even though she played the character of a teenage girl quite convincingly, some of her more dramatic scenes perfectly depicted a young woman much older and more mature than her years. Her body language and facial expressions, especially during the scene on the porch with the father after Rodney's mother had come to claim him, made me think that she was, in fact, the "momma" of the family instead of merely being the eldest child. There was no doubt that she intended to protect all her family from any harm she could possibly thwart. During the film, the character nurtured every other character in the family, and Emily's portrayal was magnificently and convincingly accomplished.

The writer, all the actors, the director and crew deserve accolades for a wonderful story.

This is a beautiful story of an unlikely friendship between two young men, who would have never been friends if not for a great dad. One is white and one black, a highly unusual friendship for the time. It depicts the hardships of blacks and the poor rural whites of that time.

There is a scene where because they are so poor, the dad(Billy Ray Cyrus) gives everyone pictures instead of real gifts for Christmas, because that's all he could afford. I cried watching it. It was so sweet.

The movie gets into some touchy areas, like the black struggle to vote back in those times. And the attitudes that went along with that struggle.

This is a really touching, beautifully made movie. I do highly recommend to all.