Fallen Angel

If you need our heart lifting then watch this film!! All cast members excel in playing simple human roles. There's nothing complicated or gimicky about this film, it just touches your heart and gives the message that there is always hope.

Joley Richardson, Gary Sinise and Jordy Benattar play their roles perfectly. I've read comments about Sinise being wooden but surely that's the point, his character is supposed to be cold and straight out of the executive machine. I think he does well to portray a man whose heart warms to what exists outside of the career ladder.

Highly recommended for all those romantics out there...

i saw this movie the other night and i found it to be pretty decent. however, there were some parts that i didn't agree with. for one, i would never believe that a father will abandon his daughter that he loved so much. another is that Gary Sinise's character would not speak to his father after he left. if i was him, i would come back and prove to him that i became a successful businessman.

Terry McQuinn (Gary Sinese)'s father takes care of the Wentworth family's summer place Serenity Cottage in Rosepoint, Maine. He recalls a time 30 years ago as a kid when Charles Wentworth brought his family for an unusual Christmas visit. On a snowy road after delivering gifts to the hospital, Charles killed a woman and child in an accident. He became despondent, and his wife leaves him taking their daughter. He would work at the hospital until he's gone. Terry constantly clashed with his father and struck out on his own. He returns home from California after 20 years when his father dies. He meets Charles' brother Warren (Gordon Pinsent). He reconnects with Charles's daughter Katherine Wentworth (Joely Richardson) after 30 years who arrives with her adopted blind daughter but she doesn't remember her time in Rosepoint.

The movie takes a bit too long to get to Joely Richardson and even longer to get her together with Gary Sinese. It has a slow sad tone. This is more of a relationship movie between Terry and his dead father as well as Katherine and her father. It's also a very haunting movie. If the movie has more Joely Richardson, this would be more of a tear jerker. This is a sweet melodrama performed well by excellent actors.

I just saw this last night and it moved me so I can't tell you. It was beautifully done. Gary Sinise is a hell of an actor. I just wished that they would have explained why his father did not show him any affection. That is the only thing that was off in this picture.

I've seen this movie 3 times over the years, at Christmastime. It has a melancholy tone that sets it apart from the usual saccharine, hyper, nasal, peroxided, alternate universe movies served up at Christmastime on TV. It ends on a heartwarming note.

I liked the backstory, the scenery, the inclusive casting, the weight Gary Sinese gave to the piece every time he was on screen (which is pretty much the whole movie).

The weakest part is the woman who is too coy, with Princess Diana doe-eyed silliness, and a manner of speaking that makes her seem mentally challenged.

The fact that I could watch it 3 times over the years speaks well of the overall product, however. It is rare for me to watch one of these Christmas moves even once, let alone 3 times!