Christmas at Water's Edge

Keshia Knight Pulliam was a cute child actor in the "The Cosby Show". She must had had a good family because she is a child start that did seem to stay out of the tabloids during her teen years.

This is the first project I have seen her in that she wasn't a child. She was great in "Polly" and "Polly Coming Home" but again she was a child.

Her she is 20 Something spoiled rich girl. She can mean okay but she can not play "redemption". Her range of being an actor is not much. She is not very good. I think this film would have been better had they cast somebody with more talent than Keshia!

In this film she plays a wealthy collegian and an angel-in-training work together to organize a holiday concert for a youth center.

The story really has no major pay off and none of leads keep you interest enough to carry you to the end of the film!

I really appreciate a movie that captures the true spirit of Christmas. Many times we get caught up in the idea of presents and material possessions, that we forget that there are people who never experience a happy Christmas. And Christmas at Water's Edge reminds us of the true meaning of having family and friends in our lives. Filled with a great cast of notables such as Keisha Knight Pulliam and Tom Bosley creates a familiar setting for TV buffs who grew up with Happy Days and The Cosby Show. I thoroughly enjoyed the positive images all of the cast brought to the screen-especially for African Americans. Far to often television portrays the African American Family as entertainers as oppose to business people like the father portrayed in Christmas at Water's Edge. It was nice to see images of African Americans in another line of work.

Also, the story was inspiring and well thought out. The perfect story for young adults. Our young adults born in and after the 80's are of the "give me, and mine, mine, mine generation," that movies like this awaken them to recognize true meanings in life. Christmas at Water's Edge is a wholesome family movie worth repeating for years to come.

Michael Turner has money, but his success came at a cost. He doesn't give his family as high a priority as his work. His son Berto, who was expected to go to Harvard Business School, would rather go into the music business. His daughter Leila has found a purpose in life, helping out at a home for troubled teens, run by Harry. Leila's friends have trouble understanding why she doesn't have time for them any more.

Leila and her mysterious friend Tre discover that the teens at the home have singing talent, and they believe they can save the home (which is on a block to be demolished for one of Michael's developments) with a fund-raiser concert. Giving advice to Tre is Earl, who appears and disappears quickly.

This is a pleasant enough film, with some sad moments. But by some miracle, the situation will probably get better for everyone. After all, it IS Christmas.

The kids are quite talented at singing. The actors in this movie are pretty good, considering it's a TV-movie. Nothing that special, though I would never have recognized Keshia Knight Pulliam. She was so cute as Rudy, and now she's all grown up. And Tom Bosley does not disappoint.

I recommend this movie for anyone who likes a cute and inspiring story with little if anything that could be considered offensive.

Hey, we all loved 'Rudy' and gladly accepted the sub-par acting due to the fact that she was so young at the time. But that was a long time ago. For those of you that did see this movie, you most likely sat through it praying that Cliff Huxtable would make an irrelevant but much-needed cameo appearance to the film to give it at least some A-level acting. The plot was predictable, the emotional outbursts obviously phony, and the only thing comforting about this movie was to see the attractive face of 'Ray-J' Norwood step into a scene and make the young teenage girls and boys scream to the top of their lungs while watching it in their rooms (at least someone enjoyed it). On the plus side (and I include a plus side just because it is the right thing to do), it was nice to see Keshia Knight-Pulliam's return to TV and at the same time have a positive holiday movie that the whole family could sit down and enjoy.

"Christmas at Water's Edge" is one of the many TV movies made each year around the Holiday season - this one in 2004. Occasionally, one turns out to be a real gem, and it's not a secret because many people will have seen it and many have rated it very high. A little more often, there will be a very good Christmas movie - sometimes even two in one year. But, the vast majority of such seasonal films are in the middle, ranging from fair to good. They're okay for one viewing, but nothing to look forward to on a yearly basis.

Then there also are some films that one can't recommend at all. They suffer in multiple ways - poor or weak screenplays, confused or haphazard plots and stories, bad acting, poor direction and any number of technical weaknesses.

This one suffers mostly from a really bad screenplay that bounces all over the place. And, a forced story that seems to be emulating pieces of three great stories and movies - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," "It's a Wonderful Life" of 1946, and "The bishop's Wife" of 1947. The only problem with the cast is that most of them needed acting lessons. All of this is put in a plot with a spoiled college student who is visited by an angel to help straighten her out and learn the true meaning of Christmas. That will happen, so the story goes, by the angel and Leila organizing a youth center's holiday concert.

I also struggled to stay with this film to see if it didn't have something to redeem it; but, alas, it didn't. Nine out of 10 viewers would probably find this film boring, and unable to stay with it. But, maybe 10 percent will like it. It should be a signal to movie buffs that if a Christmas or holiday film isn't carried by a major TV channel, chances are it won't be very good. This film wasn't, and isn't. I only saw it because it was one in a multi-movie DVD I purchased.