A Christmas Wish

Shame on you Lifetime. A fabulous story, acted out by the wonderful Hilarie Burton and you ruin it with the loud music. This is the second Lifetime movie I have watched this season that the music was so loud you could not hear the dialogue. Why would they do that? Very disappointed.

Actually really liked the premise for 'A Christmas Wish'. Unusual but if done right it had the potential to be entertaining and sweet. Things that Christmas films can be, though there are quite a lot too that are cheesy and over-sentimental. Lifetime are a very mixed bag when it comes to their Christmas output, and overall their 2019 efforts weren't too special. Just to say, whenever watching a Christmas film from Lifetime or Hallmark there have never been expectations for it to be a masterpiece, merely judging it on what it set out to do.

On that front, 'A Christmas Wish' is something of a mixed bag. As far as Lifetime Christmas films go, it's neither one of the best or worst. As far as their 2019 Christmas output goes, 'A Christmas Wish' is again neither one of their best or worst. It is somewhere in the middle on both counts, not a terrible film but not great either and could have done quite a lot more with its premise. A case of a good premise with very hit and miss execution, have seen too many of those kind of films overtime and it is a bit frustrating.

Will start with the good. One of 'A Christmas Wish's' better aspects is the acting, with two very likeable leads (especially Hilarie Burton) that to me had a lovely far from disconnected friendship and their romance charmed and developed without being unrealistically rushed or taking too long to get there. The supporting cast are well above average too, a standout being Pam Grier.

It is a genuinely charming film more than once, warms the heart and has touching moments, such as the interaction with the students. The film looks quite attractive, the scenery having a picturesque look. Parts of the soundtrack are pleasant. Didn't find myself bored or annoyed by the characters and thought that the same sex couple were handled in good taste actually.

Do have to agree with people though, though this is not the case of one aspect alone bringing the film down (there are very few films etc out there like that), that the music is over-scored and over-bearing. It could have been used less too and the balance between it and the dialogue was off. The dialogue wasn't really anything all that special though, much of it is very cheesy and sugary. Including an increasingly tired running joke that got repetitive very quickly.

For my tastes, 'A Christmas Wish' executes its premise too conventionally, meaning that it all felt too easily foreseeable and safe. Some of the story, as well as predictable, felt contrived and occasionally muddled from trying to do too much and with not enough time to fully explore it all. The ending is especially forced and left me scratching my head with confusion, some decision making coming out of nowhere.

Summing up, watchable if rather average. 5/10

I enjoyed this one. Hilarie Burton is a delight and the movie has some fun moments. Not sure why everyone is complaining about the music... I didn't notice anything like that. It's no award winner, but if you like the mindless Christmas movies, this is one of the more enjoyable ones I've seen lately.

We had to use captioning because the soundtrack drowned out the dialogue, especially when the characters were speaking softly. This is the second movie today where we had to pause, reverse, posy, and pause Judy to read the text on a smartphone-white letters on a pale blue background doesn't work, even with wide screen HD. Other than that, the story and performances were, . . . cute.

I honestly don't know how to take this movie. The premise is on the less common side. There's a wish box and Faith wishes for True Love. Then things go a little crazy. Faith starts having random encounters with guys. Many of them are the bump-into variety and several include having drinks spilled on her. Later in the movie she gets mad about all the guys "ogling" and touching her. This seems to me to be perilously close to not being PC to have that result from a "wish" which is apparently being fulfilled somehow magically. Faith certainly buys into that theory. Is that really OK to have a wish fulfilled in that way by some mysterious force, or the wish box, or by Pam Grier all dressed in red like Mrs. Clause? If you can avoid being insulted by it, it is kind of funny. I honestly don't know. I am insulted for Faith's sake and the sake of innocent women, but I also see the humor. Does that make me insensitive to see the humor, as the writers obviously intended, in having Faith "handled" that way ?

The Wish is so much a factor in the story that it is almost as if it were a character of its own.

The premise is slightly unusual, but many of the usual tropes jump in quickly. Faith has a very attentive male BFF. The audience quickly picks up on where this is going because it has been done so many times. There's a community program to save. There's a big community get together on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile there is another sub-plot that is much more altruistic. Stella's mom gets one of the wishes to fulfill (kind of like Make a Wish) and it turns out to be a lot more complicated than it originally sounds.

Hilarie Burton does a nice job as the lead who manages to take all the attention with a combination of frustration, hope, and sometimes humor. Faith goes along with it, but at times she resists blaming her sister for talking her into it.

I rate this 7 stars mostly because I'm not really sure how I feel and 7 is my default for OK, not great, but not bad.