Mistletoe Over Manhattan

Awful story awful acting .. 1 star only positive thing is saying 'a Christmas miracle'

Mistloe Over Manhattan is a funny, insightful, heartbreaking, inspiring and revealing story. It brings back the truth of what the real meaning of family and the value that each person brings to the union, using Christmas as its central theme.

The message resonates throughout that we can be caught in our own selfish pursuit of success while seeking to find personal satisfaction; yet forget that it is right before us.

The story told is not unique in anyway, but one that I'm sure is shared by many. What a better place than New York which represents the hustle and bustle especially during the Christmas season. This is a great Christmas program for the entire family.

A real 'Jekyll and Hyde' film, where there are some very emotional issues (family break up) mixed with pantomime-style humour. The latter mostly misses the mark, although the former shines, especially the great performance from Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica). If you can overlook the silly moments, you'll get to appreciate the moments of familial tension and tenderness.

Her presence is the good motif to not ignore this film who, far to be original or great, is a fair remind of importance of family. Sure, the script has many holes and many situations are unrealistic. The acting is almost reasonable and the kids are good options. But sure, Tedde Moore remains the pure good point în this sense, including as compensation of not the best Santa, and the atmosphere of Christmas.

In short, you know the story and the motif of visit was used very often. But in this case the charme of ... .. and the moral are the significant ones. The result, real nice . Like the noble purpose of lady Claus.

Why is it that the makers of these movies seem dumb down good ideas? In this film a newly separated couple are trying to find a new normal now that their family unit is fractured by a pending divorce.

In the mean time up in the North-pole Mrs Claus is trying to get Santa Claus his Christmas Mojo back. Santa now thinks people no longer like Christmas and he isn't wanted or believed in. After sensing her husband is losing his Christmas spirit, Mrs. Claus travels to a place where she knows the spirit of Christmas still exists: New York City.

After her arrival in New York City she ends up becoming a nanny. Now what irks me is that this Hallmark film could of been much better. The screenplay to this is terrible. Hallmark should take a lesson from Disney-Pixar about how to produce a good family film. Pixar knows you can have a smart screenplay for a family film and make a movie that children and adults will enjoy. Hallmark however doesn't seem to notice that.

I do not fault the actors for this film. The screenplay lacks imagination. I also am tired of the cliché' of divorcing parents getting back together. This is something that never happens in real life. In 1993 the film "Mrs Doubtfire" showed you can have a happy ending to a film without having the parents getting back together.

I think if Hallmark invested in better screenplays that might have films that last. "Mistletoe Over Manhattan" is one those films that give Hallmark Movies a bad name...