We Need a Little Christmas

I've seen this movie a few times already. It's sweet and different from the usual feel good Hallmark movie.

I love the actor who plays the son, Gavin. Aziel Dalman. He is just the sweetest boy and perfect for the role he plays. I think he's the star of the movie.

It's a great movie for the holidays and I'll be watching it every year now.

Another plus is that it did not have the gratuitous snowball fight or kiss at the end of the movie. Hallmark proved that they can stray from the usual predictable script. I hope they will produce more original material. Lately Hallmark has been doing just that.

Erica Durance was very convincing as a woman (Julie) juggling a lot of challenges and emotions. She had to deal with being there for her son, who lost his father, while dealing with her own pain in losing her husband, all while trying to keep her business (and self esteem) afloat. Her character's frustration was believable, and the writers made sure to show that she wasn't perfect (who is?). Still, having a huge pile of unopened mail sitting on a table, in full view of every client who comes into her office, was a bit much, especially when her assistant pointed it out and offered to take care of it. That scene really bugged me. But her jealous overreaction to Irene's growing connection to Julie's son seemed more realistic.

At first, I thought Lynn Whitfield might be overacting a bit as the perpetually upbeat neighbor Irene. But then I realized that her character has a theatrical background and it made a little bit more sense.

I thought Julie's growing attraction to Peter (played by Patrick Sabongui) was also believable. He seemed like a nice guy.

Gavin, Julie's son, was played by Azriel Dalman and I thought he did a nice job of playing a conflicted and confused little boy.

Overall, I thought it was a solid effort.

The movie was decent. Th3 acting was good. There was nothing in it that made me want to watch it again in a hurry. Th3 neighbor was great and the lead male and f3male worked. Didn't see chemistry but wasn't necessarily their fault. The writing left more areas trying to incorporayeneighbor but didn't build chemistry. I would have hoped they acted more bonded like watching Christmas on my mind or one of my other favorites. Christmas in homestead worked it all. Need to pickup the pause in these or justspend logical time building chemistry versus trying to get the viewer to assume they have it. Spend more than 10 minutes to make the movie.

Have tissues ready for this ending. Absolutely loved the message in the movie. Such a sweet movie that's not about the woman getting a man in the end and ending the movie with a kiss. Which 90-99& percent of Hallmark movies tend to do. This movie is about much more than this. I would recommend you giving this one a watch at least one time. Irene and Julie Julie's friendship is so sweet and it just shows no matter age, race, background, etc. You can love your neighbor and truly be friends.

This is one movie that would sit down and watch every miracles of Christmas. The actors worked really well together.

No spoilers here, as that would be unfair to the new viewers of this heart warming story. The actors all played their parts convincingly and with sincerity.

No one would dispute that the story of a widower raising her young son alone and coping with family emotions around Christmas has been over done more than we would like to see. Having said that, I thought I had the film pegged right as just another "tug at your heart strings" drama under the guise of Christmas. But I will be the first to admit that I was wrong. I will also admit that this film did in fact tug at my heart strings and in so doing I shed a few tear drops, and they were happy teardrops. Very happy teardrops.

The gist of the story really is about friends helping friends, and so I thought this Christmas themed film should be more appropriately re-titled the Beatles hit song "With a Little Help from My Friends".

I give the film a praise worthy 7 out of 10 IMDb rating.