Una magia di Natale

I loved "If You Believe!" It was a refreshing look at the Christmas story. Ally was wonderful as was her 7 yr old counterpart Hayden... They made the concepts of faith, hope and joy of the season come alive. Ally shows her versatility as an actress in her character's transition from hopeless to joyful.

The story is a familiar one: A person who use to love Christmas and was a nice person, but through the years has become a person who hates Christmas and is a grumpy/mean person. This person is transformed to their old self again by something "out of the ordinary" appearing to them so that they and the people in their life can enjoy Christmas again.

I liked the familiarity of the story as well as the twist.



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This movie started out a little depressing, but I stuck with it because someone mentioned in another review that it's a great movie about listening to your inner child.

The reviewer was right, it's a great movie about inner child healing, listening to your younger self when you were a child.

The second half of the movie had a beautiful home and a red truck and lots of snow and a train station and a great relationship and a golden retriever! Lol. Everything you could once in a great Christmas movie.

(apparently I don't have enough characters in my review to leave a review so I'm just saying some more words here, lol)

I have only seen this movie once but was extremely touched by it. The original concept of having a character's past self being able to relate to the present self is terrific. I enjoyed all performances, but I have to say that Hayden Panettiere left a lasting impression. The movie comes to a satisfactory conclusion, leaving a "what-if-I..." flavour with the viewer. Using the Suzie character as part of the rest of the family created a more believable scenario than simply presenting her "as is". I wondered if we would recognize ourselves as children if in the same situation. I tended to think it would be impossible not to - but then again, having seen lots of photos of family and friends as children, I realize it might be possible to see a similarity without instantly identifying oneself in another. This turned out to be a gentle and satisfying little Christmas movie which left room for thought when it was over.

Although this is a familiar modernization of the Scrooge story, what really raises it far above the typical TV fare is Ally Walker's frequently touching performance. Her emotional range is proving to be quite broad and her performances are getting steadily better. Not to mention that she's among the loveliest of actresses.