Christmas Lodge

Very sweet and inspiring movie with a great and positive message! This is the kind of movies should win in the oscars. A warm and brave message if charity, goodness and love! I really recommend this movie!

I Have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

When you watch a "Christmas theme" film you know what your in for. Now does this film break new ground? "No" but not every film maker wants to do that. Some of them want to tell stories about "Faith, hope and love" and that is what they did here and they made a film well worth watching!

Some people might be bothered by the overall religious themes in this but this a "Christmas Film" with a nice message that family traditions are important & that's is what makes "Christmas Special". You are almost not hit over the head with the message but the film is so good you won't care!

In this film Mary Tobin has wonderful memories of family gatherings at the Christmas Lodge. When she arrives for a weekend vacation, she quickly realizes that the lodge she loves has fallen into serious disrepair. With a lack of funds she is sets out to find a way to save the lodge.

I really enjoyed the film and its message about why traditions are important. Now it never tell you that outright but it shows you. The film is well paced and the leads are very charming. Michael Shanks is excellent and I hope to see him again in other films.

If your someone that grew up with large family gatherings for Christmas then you will enjoy this film. I also want to point out this film makes you want to celebrate life with your loved ones! So watch it with someone you love. If your a guy watch it with your girlfriend.

I have now watched this every Christmas for the past 3 years. The film just gets better to me.

Let me say categorically that Mrs. Shullivan and I had wonderful childhood memories of our own Christmas's past and so this film brought back feelings of our own family Christmas's that were very special. After reading some of the other negative reviews I can only ascertain that these scribes do not believe in the magic of Christmas, or maybe their own families are not very close so the film was not believable to them.

As for those of you who are purest Christmas believers, who enjoy being surrounded by family at this magical time of year, and who have some level of faith in living a Christian life, then this film "Christmas Lodge" should be on your viewing list. The two lead characters names are Mary whose job is to find private funding for restoring historic buildings, and the country Christmas Lodge owner named Jack whose lodge is old and badly in need of extensive repairs. Christmas Lodge was built by Jacks' great grandparents more than 100 years ago and the Christmas lodge has hosted many families over the past two centuries including Mary's family and grandparents when she was a young child.

Mary is played superbly by actress Erin Karpluk, who had a recurring role in the hit action/drama television series Rookie Blue. Jack's character is played by the seasoned actor Michael Shanks who has played versatile character roles in other films ranging from the biographical film Mr. Hockey the story of Gordie Howe, to the successful television drama series Saving Hope. Now Michael Shanks character is a widower and he has a cute pixie of an 11 year old daughter named Charlene, played with devilish charm by the youngster Michelle Creber. In walks Mary (Literally in the woods) in to their unsuspecting lives while Jack is slowly trying to restore Christmas Lodge to its past glory days with nothing more than spit and muscle and little capital funds to pay for the rebuild.

Now Mary's own family is very busy in the renovation industry with her father and her two brothers working independently on various renovation projects trying to maintain a living. Mary's grandfather has been bed ridden for quite some time but his past memories of Christmas Lodge and the love and Christian upbringing that he has bestowed on his extended family made Mrs. Shullivan and I warm and emotional. Call us saps if you will, but Christmas Lodge is a story of caring for one another and believing in the goodwill of all mankind. Grandpa is played by John Innes and his bedside visits and long chats with his granddaughter Mary only wish that our own parents and grandparents were still alive. They are very sensitive and touching scenes and add great value to the movies theme....especially near the end of the film.

The film has a romantic story line and the spirit of Christmas comes to a wonderful climatic ending with Mary's family at Christmas Lodge well worth waiting for as the film closes. So for those other reviewers who commented they could not watch the entire film I must surmise their past Christmas's were filled with stress and grief and this film is about hope and love.

Michael Shanks and Erin Karpluk are wonderful in the lead roles. This is a family friendly Christmas film. I give it an 8 out of 10 rating, and suggest that if you are a lover of the Christmas spirit that you won't be disappointed with Christmas Lodge.

The '4' is for the scenery, which is lush, and for Erin Karpluk, who turned in her usual competent performance despite the lame dialogue, and for the cute little girl and her dog.

The title is a cheap attempt to cash in on the season. This movie has little to do with Christmas except for the obligatory family-togetherness lesson. For family togetherness to work as a plot device, there has to be a smidge of conflict beforehand. But in this movie everyone was so nice, so bland, that their 'apartness' could have been cured with an invitation to dinner or a night of board games in any month before Thanksgiving and the 'project' brought them all together anyway.

As someone else mentioned, there was utterly no chemistry between the romantic leads. Even though both Erin and Michael Shanks are competent actors, it's hard to see why they would take roles that offered so little scope for their emotional range either as individuals, romantic partners, or family members. Everybody in this film suffered from botox of the emotions. Believing in God doesn't and shouldn't equal living your whole life in emotional neutral. If you can't know pain, you can't appreciate joy.

Frankly, it wasn't the religious expressions that turned me off as much as the blatant unreality of the basic setup. Even Christian business people can't simply walk away from 3 months worth of scheduled work to satisfy their ailing grandfather without suffering consequences to their business's reputation for years to come. That kind of blatant guilt trip ought to be unthinkable for an ethical elder of the family. And any grant-funding organization that steered a huge part of their budget to the family business of an employee's dad would be in serious hot water with everyone from their private donors to the IRA.

I had to wonder, too, what message the writers/director thought they were sending, because it came across to me like 'If you're a Christian and pray a lot, you can convince total strangers to allocate millions of dollars to give your family's company money to rebuild an old lodge just because your ailing grandfather once had happy memories there.' Silly me; I thought Christianity meant more than using God like a cash machine. Especially at Christmas.

Cut above the average Christmas movie, Michael Shanks and Erin Karpluk both do a great job, nice chemistry between them, you really want them both to find what they're looking for. The scenery is beautiful, but what really sets this movie apart is the emotional and spiritual depth, believable snd inspiring without being forced or cheesy. One star off for a somewhat rushed ending, felt like it could've used another 20 minutes. Still, one of the better Christmas movies, very enjoyable, highly recommended.