Una canzone per Natale

I try to watch as many Hallmark movies as I can, so this one made it to the DVR.

I want to like Alicia Witt. I really, really do. But she seems to only play, lately, the sugary sweet, sappy, too nice for her own good kind of person. She usually does this voice that sounds like she wants to be looked upon as the weak and childish woman who needs help tying her shoes. All that's missing is a pout. I'd love to see her as a character with a stronger, more assertive voice.

Also, the writing for this seems more than a little formulaic. I rolled my eyes when, in the beginning, she reminded her mentor she came to Nashville as a young girl with her "guitar and a dream."

Really? Could we toss a few more clichés in there?

As others have mentioned:

If there are SO many people who remember her performing her song while still in high school, ten years before the other song came out, why aren't they slapping some signatures down on some affidavits?

AND - for someone who so desperately needs this sheet music, she's sure not putting a lot of effort into finding it. Her quest is interspersed in the story almost as an afterthought. "Oh, yeah, so long as I'm here..."

I reached a point in the movie where I think a clue was given as to what happened to it, but haven't gotten to the end, yet, so...

This is a great premise for a movie, lost sheet music, but it could have been more solidly put together. There could have been some funny moments created in this, involving her hunt for the sheet music.

Also, I'm not loving her hair in this movie. I know that's a petty thing to mention, but I'm starting to see more flaws in the movies, which detract from my enjoyment of them. In addition, I started seeing smile lines around her eyes, which is fine. Grow old gracefully, I always say, and never deny your age. It's an earned right. But, she's still playing people in their 20's and 30's and it's getting harder and harder to accept. How about Hallmark letting her be her age? Let's let her be a mom of older children, for a change, instead of the ingenue?

The first virtue is represented by the lead couple. The second one - the admirable job of supporting actors. Not the last - the atmosphere. Result - just a beautiful film about roots, romance and a song.

Alicia Witt shows her singing talent in one of this year's premiere's. I've always known her as an actor, since her days as a freaky little girl in Dune with a scary voice and puncturing finger and Cybill Shepherd's daughter in the imaginatively named Cybill, but since then she's proved her singing credentials in Nashville as well as her own albums and tours. Hallmark gives her the chance to sing and act and make a Merry Christmas.

Miss Witt plays Melody Jones, a country star(luckily she was in Nashville then wasn't it!) who is accused of plagiarising a song by her aging former partner who is no longer as successful as her, now alarms bells should be ringing straight away, so she has to return home to find the evidence that her Dad wrote the song with her. At home is her Mum, sister and niece(whose Dad is in the army and not returning home for Christmas - I have three out of three for army Dad's in Hallmark films this week, surely I get a collectors sticker for that!), her old music teacher, her old love interest, a town needing a Christmas song/production put on and the most amount of Christmas trees outside of a house and wreaths inside of a house that I have ever seen and as you know I have seen a fair few of these films).

Anyway, Miss Witt, sings amazingly well, treats her rival with honour and respect and generally makes you want her to sing Christmas songs to a family whilst snow falls outside and Mulled Wine flows freely forever! She finds the evidence, she finds true love, her niece even sings and so does her sister. The army Dad says hi via video link. Her career grows, Christmas is made right and everyone lives happily ever after but covered in a huge amount of Christmas trees - I mean, seriously what are they going to do with them all in January, it'll take ages just to take all the decorations and lights off. She's not going to have time to tour!

So, I've got Michael from Roswell, Riley from Buffy, Zoey from Cybill, a huge daytime TV star, a star from Fuller House. Hallmark continues to develop he careers of ex-teenage stars into a happily adult world.

For us, Alicia Witt's quirky style adds to every movie she appears in, and that alone gave us reason to watch this film. It's probably our second favorite (in a dismal 2019 field) of the current year's Hallmark Christmas films.

Luckily, Alicia was included to carry the film, because much of the plot makes no sense at all. Alicia, a country singing star, must return home to find proof that will defend her against a plagiarism claim. The movie focuses on finding the original music or notes written for her song.

However, while she returned home for this purpose, she doesn't work at it very diligently. Random scenes are interspersed, and they only return to the search from time to time to remind us that was supposed to be important. During the random scenes and search scenes, innumerable people remember her singing the song in public 10 years before the song she's accused of plagiarising, but no thought of getting these memories down as testimony on affidavits is ever considered. LOL

More cliches follow, regardless, we found this to be a watchable film, but probably now the bottom of the list of Alicia Witt's Christmas offerings, and I don't really plan on repeat viewings.

She does do some singing, and we discovered that she has "singer/songwriter" in her history. So the singing was real, and she did a nice job.

6/10 - one of the better Alicia Witt Christmas movies, but still filled with a few too many of the classic tropes