Truffa a Natale

Tony Danza, one of the most underrated actors in the business today, does a fine job portraying a bad guy who has the potential to be good, given the right circumstances. He finds that opportunity while on the lam from a failed department store breakin, ending up in a small town and meeting a widowed Lea Thompson and her cute daughter and taking a job as the village Santa Claus for 3 weeks. Solid supporting cast and plausible story line make for an excellent USA network film, seemingly shot in Canada with a mostly Canadian cast. Betty White is, well, a very good Betty White. Film isn't hokey, even if Danza does get off a line about the Lea Thompson character: "She's the boss." Come to think of it, there are times when she resembles Judith Light. All in all, good holiday fare.

"Stealing Christmas" has a very different plot, and a very good cast that includes some well-known TV actors of the time. Tony Danza plays Jack Clayton (also Oscar Barton), Lea Thompson plays Sarah Gibson, and Betty White plays Emily Sutton. White died on Dec. 31, 2021, at age 99, and had several Emmy wins from among many nominations in her career.

The acting in this film is mostly good all around, and while the production quality also is very good, there's nothing exceptional about any of this. The plot is somewhat odd and quite far-fetched, and the story doesn't quite fit well for a Christmas film. Some people might find the ending uplifting, but it just ends a quite far-fetched story.

While "Stealing Christmas" might easily have been just another cliched warm and fuzzy holiday tale, exceptional performances by Lea Thompson and Tony Danza raise the dramatic level and clear the way for a revelation of the underlying moral conflict. Betrayal of trust is the one transgression that has no redeeming value; Lea Thompson is the angel who turns Tony Danza's cynical heart away from the brink of betrayal, and touches his heart in a way that makes it impossible to betray the trust that has been placed in him by the simple hearted town folk--and the trust of Lea herself.

In an era of movies that myopically portray love exclusively in the form of passionate, nude bedroom scenes, "Stealing Christmas" provides a refreshing view of love between two people primarily as mutual respect, admiration, and most of all, acceptance of each others' faults.

I had watch 2 weeks for found him and still asking at myself is it him or not

Very, very nice. Deep and nice.

Took me some time to get into it. But I have easily get inside I continue to like the movie... So many nice dialogs and the love actions inside. All actors are so great. All of them just fit there. No fake ones. Idea is good.

To shame of bad endings. If I have wrote this, it wouldn't be like that. It will be something: he have took the money and run with her somewhere on the Hawaii :-). But this have a better ending.

As the actors are so great, not to much standard American Hollywood, this deserves 10 points from my side.

!The only problem with this movie is: you will watch it one time, not two times. It is to simple to watch two times. This is like a family movie... That is the reason way I prefer action and emotion together.