A Christmas Hero

This film is about a veteran struggling with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and trying to get back to normal life after serving two years in the war in Afghanistan. He and his wife are breaking up, as he has skipped out on appointments for help from the Veterans department and groups. Now he shows up in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for a new job as a tour guide in its aviation museum, called the Air Zoo.

On the first tour he leads, he notices a young observant woman, whom he also sees later around the museum. She doesn't tell him her name, and when he suggests "Michelle," she says that's a good name. As they talk, she seems to know a lot about him, and he wonders how that can be. Eventually, she tells him that she's his guardian angel.

Well, since this occurs in early December, and Nick is invited the home of the museum manager for Christmas, it becomes a Christmas movie. This isn't a star-studded cast of great actors, nor are the writers, the director and others well known or anywhere near the top of their fields. So, as one might expect, the screenplay is somewhat slow and uncertain, the acting is fairly amateurish, and it's a minor film all around. It's quite typical for these video films made just for sale or that are put out on the Internet.

In a way that's unfortunate, because the public could use at a very good film about veterans from modern warfare struggling with and recovering from PTSD. My five stars are partly for the effort to tackle this subject in a film, but more so for the very good presentation and scenes of the Air Zoo museum. It truly is a world-class aviation museum, on the order of other air and space museums I have visited - the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D. C.; the Blue Angels museum in Pensacola, Florida; the SAC Museum near Ashland, Nebraska; and the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum at Wapakoneta, Ohio.

This movie had the longest, most boring intro I have ever seen, never want to hear "God rest ye merry gentlemen" again.

Past the intro, the movie was slow to really get into the story and the music was too prominent.

This is not what I would call a Christmas film.

As the other reviewer on here has pointed out, if you think this is another Lifetime or Hallmark romance, Christmas movie, "you are going to be bitterly disappointed". The idea for the story is a touching and welcoming one, which deals with issues around reintegration of military vets after service (and their struggles with PTSD), i.e. their transition back to civilian life. In this movie, the lead character, Nick, has returned from Afghanistan and is starting his new job at a (military aircraft) museum called the Air Zoo, and, as we learn, is struggling with PTSD. The writers draw on the Christmas Carol via Nick's Guardian Angel (named Michelle) who appears to act as Nick's Ghost of Christmas past and future, as a means of helping him with his struggles. Though the ideas behind the story/plot are noble, the acting and production of the film are not very good, I am afraid. The first 20 minutes are more like a promotional video for the museum combined with a sort of historical documentary of WW2 military aircraft and pilots. Don't get me wrong, this is the part of the movie that I enjoyed, as I learned a bit about female pilots during WW2. The main storyline, however, is not very engaging; it did not pull me in at all. I had to stop myself on multiple occasions from grabbing my iPad during this one, which is never a good sign. The script/dialogue was OK (though there were some holes), but this gets lost due to the quality of acting, and production quality in general, which makes this one difficult to watch at times. Michael Welch's portrayal of Nick is OK, overall. For the first 45 minutes or so, his performance was quite dull and stiff. The scene where he pushes his new boss away (when he is invited to their house for Christmas) is a good example of what I am talking about here; it was just awkward. I get he was portraying a vet with PTSD, but if I compare him to, e.g., Brandon Quinn in A Welcome Home Christmas (one of Lifetime's Xmas movies this year), which had a similar story, the performances are a world apart. To be fair, Welch's performance does improve considerably with the Ghost of Christmas past, about halfway into the movie; he has a couple of good scenes later in the film. Lauren Rys Martin's performance (as Michelle) was not much better. Like Welch, she had a very stiff performance overall and some awkward scenes. The supporting cast was not great, many I suspect are not actors. Overall, this is not a very good Christmas movie. If you are into WW2 history, you might check this one out. Otherwise, there is not much Christmas cheer in this one.

Started interestingly, and I could believe Welch as the repressed guy at the start, but I couldn't buy into his rages (I kept imagining the director offstage saying "Emote, darling, emote!). It was good as an advert for the air museum (which I googled while the movie was on), and if I'm ever back in Michigan (near Kalamazoo) I'll visit.

This is not one of those sappy Christmas movies...it's more about forgiving yourself and accepting help. It's kinda dark and painful. Some say the acting is bad, but they used veterans and real people. It was an insightful look into returning veterans dealing with their service and finding a life when home.