Noël est au rendez-vous

Going into this viewing I sort of expected a Hallmark type of story, light and breezy where single man and single woman meet. But it is far from that, it is an examination of the difficulty overcoming a sudden loss.

Jeremy Piven is dad, David, an American working in York, England as an attorney. His daughter is high school student Olivia-Mai Barrett as Jules. They have a good father-daughter relationship but since losing mom two years earlier in an auto accident each of them has difficulty adjusting to life without her.

Jules is not doing so well in school, there is some tension in the household, but she still has a soft spot for dad's loneliness and in a misguided attempt to fix him up for Christmas establishes several "dating" accounts for him. Then she picks a boyfriend who she later finds cheats on everyone.

Some of the scenes are difficult because of the friction between dad and daughter but overall it is a good story of how they work to come to grips with life after mom. A worthwhile 90-minute movie.

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library. We visited York, the walled city, some years back and it brought back good memories to see scenes there.

The movie itself is bang average. But Jeremy Piven is really good in it!

This has a Hallmark type movie title where you expect the misadventures of a teenager trying to set her dad up, misfire and then succeed. But it is, in fact, a story about a father and daughter experiencing grief. The individual stories take a path that develop each character and explore their own response to the Mother/wife's death. The father and daughter story is poignant and not candy-coated. The father's loss is hard for the daughter to understand and Piven does a great job of not cheesing up his reactions. The character is sad, at a loss, and feeling alone. The daughter is equally complex, alienating a friend b/c she can't contain her emotions.

Some motifs could have been more effectively used. The father loves dancing, but it doesn't show up enough (or the loss of it) to make the ending meaningful. The memories of his wife don't include them.

The daughter being spurned by the boyfriend was sadly cliche as a way of finding out more about herself.

Still, i recommend it for their relationship, for the examination of grief and loss, and for the lovely settings and locations.

There's huge potential in Jeremy Piven, anyone can see that after watching Entourage. The story and the directing was OK, the acting was excellent, but the atmosphere was totally ruined by the poor selection of soundtrack. The songs should have supported the acting but they simply didn't match the scenes and the feelings, at all.

This film definitely deserves higher marks, I don't know why anyone would give it a 1??? I was going to give it a 9, but decided on a 10 because My Dad's Christmas Date was that good.It makes me laugh, it makes me cry. It's one of the best xmas movies I have ever watched. The acting is also wonderful the actors are nice and sweet. if you love xmas then you must watch My Dad's Christmas Date