Mrs. Miracle

Warm, witty and charming. I liked that the movie showed the difficulty of facing your past, despite how painful it might be.

Doris Roberts shows up to save the day when a widower whose rambunctious twins terrorize a parade of baby sitters. OK, we've seen a lot of this before. The bratty kids motif is a little old now, but other things going on in this Hallmark offering make for a pleasant diversion.

What Christmas movie would be complete without a romance? Erin Karpluk and James Van der Beek have some great chemistry, and each has a past hurt, setting up a mutual healing process that is the primary theme of the movie. Mrs. Merkle (Roberts), when she's not a super nanny, is a match maker, and it soon becomes obvious she has some miracle talents up her sleeve to help everybody out to a happy ending. Think a matronly version of Peter Falk's Angel Max character.

While the plot is familiar, the acting is impressive, given this was a made-for-TV movie. The cast make a fine ensemble; scenes such as the first accidental confrontation between the two estranged sisters is handled very well. Issues such as forgiveness and letting go of hurts are dealt with sincerely.

A feel-good story; entertaining enough for a stay-in evening.

That James Van der Beek is a charming fellow. The script gives him that and not much else. But it's sweet and Doris Roberts is a treat!

This movie is one, a first for me, that I can truly say is BETTER than the book. (The book contains too many other subplots, especially the annoying, psychotic in-laws.) I can easily see why they were omitted to make the story fit into a two hour made-for-TV drama.....................

The movie followed the book closely, but did not give us enough Mrs. Merkle "Miracles". You were never quite sure what she was...Debbie Macomber should have taken a few more clues from the old Nanny and the Professor show and stolen a few more subtle hints as to Mrs. Merkle's powers...................

The book is the last by author Debbie Macomber I could tolerate reading....her writing has become trite and preachy instead of entertaining and interesting and are not worth the price charges for novels these days......................

If you did not like this movie, you will HATE Debbie Macomber's books written in the past 10 yrs (her earlier works were actually better)............................

"Mrs. Miracle" is a pleasant mixed genre film for the Christmas holidays. It has comedy, drama, fantasy and family. The plot combines a number of elements that have been used in various films.

James Van Der Beek plays the male lead, Seth Webster. He is a widower of several years who has twin sons. He hasn't been able to get over the loss of his wife, but he loves and dotes on his boys. The sons are a handful and Seth can't keep a housekeeper for long because of them. He apparently is able to work at home a great deal as an architect.

Erin Karpluk plays the female lead, Reba Maxwell. She's not interested in men since leaving theater work and starting her own successful travel agency. She is estranged from her sister who ran off with Reba's fiancé just before she was to be married several years earlier.

The film has a good dose of comedy throughout, and also is a serious drama with each of the leads not being able to reconcile their lives. But they both can see the problem in the other person.

The third character is Mrs. Merkle. Her character, played by Doris Roberts, resembles "Mary Poppins" and "Nanny McPhee" from those films. The twins, Judd and Jason, call her Mrs. Miracle. And, before this film ends, Seth, Reba and others will come to see the housekeeper as a real miracle worker.

This is an entertaining and good film from the Hallmark channel and its annual Christmas holidays programs.

Here's a favorite exchange of Mrs. Merkle with the twins. Mrs. Merkle, "Well, sometimes grownups need to be alone to talk things over." A twin, "What kind of things?" Mrs. Merkle, "Well, scientists have been trying to figure that out for hundreds of years. I'm not sure they're ever going to figure it out. But I have my own theory." The boys listen with rapt attention. Mrs. Merkle, "I think they're talking about what they want for Christmas." The other twin, "Ohhhhh!" Both boys nod knowingly.