Passions sous la neige

'Tis the season for magical Christmas shows where we are whisked away from our dreary lives for a couple of hours of love and joy and hope.

The movie is actually 5 mini-stories woven together by a freak snow storm on Christmas eve - an aspiring writer (Eric Szmanda) looks for encouragement from an off beat aunt (Mary Tyler Moore); a woman's philandering husband (Jason Priestley) is "stranded" away from home; a would-be maid of honor (Poppy Montgomery) watches her friend's wedding self destruct; a divorced mom (Jennifer Esposito) agonizes over her young son going to his father's home for Christmas Day and a widow (Camryn Manheim) tries to block out last Christmas when her husband died. In each story, the snowstorm leads to some interesting changes to the character's lives.

The cast won't have to book time off for award shows but they all played their parts adequately and let us walk away feeling that all is right with the world. Two hours of non-demanding escapism to a happier place, ideal to relax with on a lazy holiday evening.

Sometimes you just need a cliché to get you through the X-mas days. I have now searched high an low about the lines, that Mary Taylor Moore's character said about family: about none of them understanding who you are.

Maybe the film is unrealistic and some of the actors did not deliver their best, but it actually put me into a little merrier X-mas mood - isn't that what counts? I actually love X-mas, just not with my family, but with my second family = my friends.

Or maybe it is the snow just having a magically, positive effect on a Scandinavian who does not have snow during most X-mas'es in the home country?!

I don't know how anyone can give this movie a good review. It was terrible. Extremely cheesy, unrealistic, over-acted, embarrassing to watch. I love Poppy Montgomery, Jennifer Esposito (especially after "Crash")and the guy from CSI and I was so embarrassed for them that they were in this mess. It is about a freak snow storm that turns earth magical white Christmas . It shows about 6-7 different stories around the US that include a woman battling to keep custody of her son while the jerk of a father makes her life a living hell, a young man searching for the approval of his mother and estranged father - when his crazy aunt comes in early for their Christmas dinner to give him a new perspective, a young woman who is the maid of honor at her best friend's Christmas Eve wedding and the drama that ensues when it looks as if the wedding may be canceled due to weather not to mention the hidden feelings the young woman has for the groom-to-be, another woman who is trying to escape Christmas after her husband died last year at the same time, a conniving husband who is cheating on his wife while he tells her he is tied up at an airport, and finally the weather man who brings it all together during this once in a lifetime event. There was potential for this movie to be a cute yet somewhat cheesy hallmark type, and hey, since it is the holiday season I was fully prepared for that. But the movie was muddled by cheesy theme music, over done facial expressions and emotional outbursts. In the end some of the stories intertwine in a twist that's about as sneaky as an bull in a china shop. Sorry to be so harsh, but to me it seemed like this movie was 98% cheese and 2% absurd.

Billy (Josh Randall) is not a meteorologist, but he reports on weather conditions for the cable channel 24/7 Weather. He says few Americans will see snow this Christmas. Then something amazing happens. He can't understand why clouds are forming so suddenly all over the country. Neither would someone with training. This is a Christmas miracle. Snow starts falling all over the country, and even the world. It snows for the first time ever in Key West. It snows in Italy, Morocco, Malaysia ... Hawaii??? Even Madagascar, where it is supposed to be summer. And with the biggest weather story in years, he loses his teleprompter. So he has to go see pretty Joey (Michelle Krusiec) who writes his material.

Stacey (Julie Ann Emery) is marrying Jim (David Sutcliffe) in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Paula (Poppy Montgomery), is her maid of honor but wishes she could be the bride. The question is which man should she marry? One possibility is the cello player.

Pilar (Jennifer Esposito) lives in Los Angeles with her son, but her ex-husband in San Diego demands that she let the boy spend Christmas with him. He even visits a judge who is supposed to be enjoying a day off to make sure it will happen.

Bev (Camryn Manheim) is from suburban Chicago and she goes to a sugar plantation in the South where it is unlikely to snow. Flashbacks show her happy life with husband Howard.

Luke (Eric Szmanda) wants to be a writer and his family regards him as a failure, except for his weird Aunt Lula (Mary Tyler Moore), who has an interesting romantic history involving celebrities. While waiting on the others to arrive, Luke tries learning to cook and listens to the stories.

Marjean (Caroline McKinley) is missing her husband Warren (Jason Priestley) for the second Christmas in a row. Though he claims to be stuck at the airport in Cincinnati, he is really with his girlfriend in Baltimore.

This miraculous weather event inconveniences the various characters but ends up improving the lives of many of them, while making others (who deserved it) miserable.

I only saw two really outstanding performances among the leading actors. I've never seen Mary Tyler Moore so quirky and ditzy. Eric Szmanda was okay alongside her. A movie about just them and the family might have been quite enjoyable.

And Camryn Manheim showed real anguish and bitterness. While the movie could have been a quality production with only her storyline, it would have been quite depressing. I should single out the three other actors that joined her: they played the driver who brought her to the plantation, the priest at the nearby church she stopped in just because it was pretty (though she didn't seem religious), and the bartender who played the piano.

The other performances and story lines were okay, though the parts with Warren, Marjean and bimbo seemed out of place and not well-acted at all, while still funny. And this story provided most of the bawdy humor that kept this from being a G-rated fantasy. Aunt Lula supplied the rest.

It was, for the most part, a corny fantasy of the type we see so much of at Christmas. I enjoyed it.

This horrible movie was on at Christmastime this past year. I thought I was going to shoot myself just watching it. The acting was terrible and Mary Tyler Moore was so clichéd that I was hoping her character had a terminal illness. Poppy Montgomery looked good as always, but the two guys vying for her affection were awesomely annoying. Everything was complete smarm and overly convenient. I have seen episodes of Walker that looked like Hitchcock compared to this drivel. And instead of turning off the lights and enjoying the evening, my wife stayed up to watch the whole thing.

If you've ever felt lower than a Hallmark TV movie, then you have experienced crushing rejection.