The Secret Gift of Christmas

This is virtually the same movie as A Gift Wrapped Christmas, and not just by the general story, practically scene by scene, it hits all the same beats. But A Gift Wrapped Christmas had genuine humor and a far more engaging lead in Meredith Hagner. This is essentially an interior remake, and you'd be far better served to set your dvr for the de facto original.

This is virtually the same movie as A Gift Wrapped Christmas, and not just by the general story, practically scene by scene, it hits all the same beats. But A Gift Wrapped Christmas had genuine humor and a far more engaging lead in Meredith Hagner. This is essentially an interior remake, and you'd be far better served to set your dvr for the de facto original.

I gave this an 8.

I'm not sure it deserves an 8, but I'm so happy to see Meghan Ory back in a Christmas movie.

I never understood why she wasn't doing them. She's so perfect for them and after a fantastic movie in Dashing through the Snow, she vanished from the genre.

Well, she's back, here playing a bubbly personal shopper with a flamboyant style all her own, tasked with working her magic on a gruff building contractor played by Christopher Russel.

It seems like every other movie has had Russell in it this year, but he's really shown his development as an actor as all the roles are very diverse.

This movie was probably not the greatest Hallmark movie of all time, the chemistry maybe not the best, etc., but it was fun to watch, and I would definitely recommend it.

Welcome back Meghan.

Needless to say that I had, of course, never heard about this 2023 Christmas movie from director Christie Will Wolf before now in 2024 as part of sitting through an ungodly amount of sappy Christmas movies all through December. And this being a Hallmark movie, and having a particularly girly and pink cover/poster, I must admit that expectations weren't grand.

But since it was a movie that I was unfamiliar with, of course I opted to give writers Christie Will Wolf, Barbara Kymlicka and Lisa Alford the benefit of the doubt. After all, every now and again, one of these sappy Christmas movies actually prove to be genuinely entertaining.

The writers put together a fair script and storyline, which actually proved entertaining. And the movie was just the right amount of sappy without going overboard.

I was familiar only with leading actress Meghan Ory and leading actor Christopher Russell. In fact, I had actually just sat through another Christmas movie with Christopher Russell in the leading role prior to watching "The Secret Gift of Christmas". The acting performances in this movie were fair. I have to say that Meghan Ory really stood out in this movie with her performance, and she carried the movie quite well.

"The Secret Gift of Christmas" is a movie that definitely will sit well with fans of the sappy Christmas movie genre.

My rating of director Christie Will Wolf's 2023 movie "The Secret Gift of Christmas" lands on a six out of ten stars.

7.9 stars.

The first part of this film was like a train wreck for me. I couldn't stop watching as I was intrigued by what appeared to be a failure, but it was still kinda fun. I love the actors, that wasn't the problem, but the way she acted, so gaudy and odd, almost like she was the weird second cousin of Mary Poppins or something. Couldn't quite put a finger on the mannerisms and oddness. Anyways, she does become endearing after a while, then I still couldn't stop watching because it was so darn entertaining and I had to continue this movie. But I had to go eat supper, so I paused it for a while and then came back to finish, and mostly it was great. The twist at the end, or near the end, was a bit deflating, didn't like how things went. Maybe it was just a simple misunderstanding, but was too juvenile to fit into the high quality portrait of a narrative that had already been painted. Nevertheless, I wink at the apparently minute discrepancy in an otherwise wonderful love story between a flamboyant personal shopper and a handsome father.

Was the main character played by Meghan Ory contractually obligated to laugh every 10-30 seconds? Also, who did she anger in the costume department because the wardrobe was abysmal.

The concept was good, and I fully understand that this a fluffy Hallmark movie, but I really think it would have been a better movie if she had toned down the happy, happy, happy by about 100%.

Christopher Russell and Ellie Cluett as the father and daughter were good, and of course who couldn't benefit from a personal shopper, especially at Christmas!

The movie was fine, there's definitely been others this year that I've enjoyed much more.