Love's Christmas Journey

I think the thing about these movies that a lot of the negative reviewers miss is that they're for people who believe in God in general and, in this instance, Christmas in particular.

Don't like either of those? Then you're going to loathe this movie. It's a Hallmark movie so anyone wanting gritty realism and hard hitting drama is obviously looking in the wrong place from the get go. But, for those of us more open to just being entertained, these films - there's a whole series of them - are pretty good. Yes, they're completely sentimental and schmaltzy, and do have a liberal sprinkling of religious moments, but that's what the series is about. In this movie's defense if you can't have schmaltz, sentimentality and religion at Christmas when *can* you have it? Personally I just suspend my disbelief for the duration; turn my central heating off, put the real fire on, hunker down with a hot chocolate and cookies and let myself be swamped in Hallmark endings for a while. At a time when the real world seems to be imploding under a tidal wave of doomsday preppers, financial Armageddon and global unrest then this is a pleasant escape for a moment. Let's face it, the real world will still be there when the credits roll, so why not go AWOL for a mere 2 hours? I won't tell on you, promise.

I read the previous reviews and I realize why our world is in the shape that it is. What happen to dreaming a little and why does everything in the acting world have to be perfect. The purpose of the film was not really about the horrible guys in the movie, but rather the spirit that needs to brought back to all of us. I have lived a long life and this movie gave me a little hope in this difficult time in our lives. I am glad your wife made you watch the show, now stop and think about that wife and the love that you share and maybe, just maybe you will remember that it did not come with Oscar winning actors. Hallmark you did not let this person down, I enjoyed the wonderful story, it sparked the true meaning of Christmas in my heart...love and family.

Review Date 6/2/2019

I Have Reviewed OVER 500 "Christmas Films and Specials". Please BEWARE Of films and specials with just one review! For instance When "It's a POSITIVE" chances are that the reviewer was involved with the production. "If its Negative" then they may have a grudge against the film for whatever reason. I am fare about these films.

Love's Christmas Journey is a 2011 made-for-television Christian drama film based on a series of books by Janette Oke though there is no corresponding book for this film. While still mourning the loss of her husband and daughter, recently widowed Ellie King (Natalie Hall) visits her brother Aaron Davis (Greg Vaughan) and his children for Christmas. Ellie does her best to enjoy the holidays, even making new friends with Mrs. Thompson (JoBeth Williams), a local shop keeper, and handsome admirer Deputy Strode (Dylan Bruce). Settling in nicely with her brother's family, Ellie also meets Erik (Bobby Campo), a young man abandoned by his outlaw father whom Aaron has taken in as one of his own.

This film treads on "Little House on the Prairie" territory. I think "Little House: most likely covered the same type of story in 1/2 the time.

This film runs almost 3 hours. You are wise if you watch Part One then wait another to catch Part 2. The acting in this is fine but the story could have used more work. You can see the ending coming a mile away . However this film is just pleasant enough for me to recommend but it does capture nicely "The Christmas Spirit".

My wife somehow managed to get me to watch this unbelievably horrible film. Four hours of ridiculous scenery and props, terrible acting, awful dialog, and amateurish directing. Whatever is worse than "mailing it in," this is it. Where does one start? All the male characters are idiots. They do things that no self respecting man would do. The sheriff is the archetypal pansy. The family lives on a massive ranch outside of town -- with no livestock. We are to believe that the boy, raised in the wilderness, has never been taught about the deadly poisonous berries that grow locally, yet his aunt knows that a certain purple flower that happens to grow nearby is the antidote. At least 45 minutes of this monstrosity is characters exchanging goofy looks while smiling at each other. Tightly edited from four hours down to 90 minutes, this might have been watchable. Or not. I usually trust Hallmark to produce entertaining family fare. But this stinker was worse than water boarding. In fact, if the U.S. government were to take it to Guantanamo and show it to the prisoners, we'd know all of al Qaida's secrets after two showings. Easily the worst movie I have ever seen.

watching this made-for-TV travesty was like watching paint dry; combined with commercials, this stinker stretched out for more than three hours - hours of my life that i will never get back... with pithy writing for one of the protagonists ("I got sheriffin' to do."), and seeing Colby Chandler slip up on a western accent and wearing multitudinous freshly starched color-coordinated outfits, one has to wonder what was going through the director's mind when putting this abortive snoozefest... even worse, there was no plot resolution to the 'bad guys,' who disappeared off the storyline and the screen with not one whit of a scene adieu... two thumbs down for one of the worst xmas TV movies of 2011 - even if it featured 94-year-old Ernest Borgnine in what could very well be his last professional act