The Christmas Shoes

By the title and movie description, I thought I was in for two hours of a sweet heartwarming Christmas story. I was close. While this film is a heartwarming one, it's also quite tragic. The only thing missing was a warning about how sad and depressing some parts in the movie are. Kimberly Williams gives a stellar performance, and Max Morrow and Amber Marshall are perfect for the roles of the cute kids, much needed for the story. Although Rob Lowe was disappointing for the first time, in my opinion, I think this movie is a great one for families to see together. I think that there are many tough issues addressed in "The Christmas Shoes," giving parents an easy opening to talk to their kids about some of the harder things in life. This movie is realistic. Normally, it's easy to laugh at so-called "sad" movies, because in the end, everyone's happy, all ends well, and they do live happily ever after. Movie characters! But this film has a real-life feel to it. It's sweet, bitterly sad, heartwarming, and family-oriented. Definitely see this the next time it's on TV!

I absolutly loved this movie. All of the acting was great, every single character was well done! I have only heard the song on the film though, so I cannot compare it to that! But I loved this movie, and it will defeniatly be added to my Christmas movies list for the holiday season!!!

Rob Lowe plays a lawyer who is so obsessed with work that he misses a school concert where his daughter has a solo. He is also having problems with his marriage. Kimberly Williams is the volunteer choral director who finds out she has a fatal condition requiring a heart transplant for a cure to take place. Two families cross paths in a number of instances. Lowe's wife takes over for Williams, canceling an important job interview her husband worked hard to arrange. Williams' husband is the mechanic who ends up working on Lowe's car. Later in the movie, Williams' son, fearing his mother will be having her last Christmas, seeks to buy Williams a pair of special shoes which Lowe earlier found lying in the street, mysteriously intended to be delivered to a department store which did not order them. Lowe gets the shoes to the store (eventually) and later plays a role in helping the boy buy the shoes. The boy's teacher rents a room from Lowe's mother, who we know will probably die during the movie, since Lowe is visiting her grave at the movie's start, 15 years after her death. The boy faces numerous obstacles in his quest for the shoes, and while miracles do happen in the movie, not everything comes out the way you would hope.

A magical story about a pair of shoes that bring two strangers together. It's a tear jerker so it may not everyone's idea of a family Christmas movie, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Plot In A Paragraph: Two separate stories come together, in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, is dying due to a heart problem and her son Nathan is trying to buy her a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second story, workaholic lawyer Robert Layton (Rob Lowe) and his wife Kate are drifting apart and things come to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir and turns down a job with Roberts company. Robert and Nathan's paths cross as Nathan tries to raise money for the shoes and Robert tries to get a present for his daughter.

Rob Lowe is excellent as both the jerk and the guy who has seen the error of his ways. Dorian Harewood (who I must has seen in over 50 movies and TV shows, but none immediately come to mind) deserves special praise, as does Kimberley Williams Paisley and Max Morrow.

Too sickly for me I'm afraid. From reading the other comments I sense that many of the other users had read the book and obviously loved the story. I don't enjoy this type of film whenever it's set but to set it at Christmas time with a beautiful, angelic dying mother was just too much.

I'll be avoiding this one in the future.