Enchanting Christmas

This is a modern fairy tale, it is for entertainment and musing, "What if..." and it does it very well. My wife and I, old retired folk, really enjoyed it, at home, streaming on Prime.

In addition to the story itself the cinematography is excellent, colorful and detailed, just ideal for this type of clean holiday movie.

Set in the snowy Rocky Mountains Brando White is very effective as Ben Jacobs, who is an ice sculptor. He is single with a nice and smart young daughter of maybe 11 or 12, Ava Jarque as Annie Jacobs. Both of them are really good in their roles with very natural, unforced acting styles.

Money is tight, Annie asks her dad for an ice sculpture, knowing he can't afford much for Christmas. She asks for a beautiful ice princess. The next day it is standing right outside their forest home.

The conceit of the story is that Santa is real and Christmas magic is real if one really believes. So the ice princess comes alive as a real person, and is played very well by Emily Sweet as Jade Frost. Young Annie believes but the real task is to get to where her dad believes.

Any potential viewer who has trouble with fantasy or who likes to nitpick a movie and find fault should not watch it. It is overall done in a Hallmark style but with a clear fantasy element. We enjoyed it as nice entertainment.

Ben (Brando White) lives alone with his daughter Annie (Ava Jarque) since the death of his wife. They have a strong bond and are happy but Annie wishes her dad could find a love, and Ben wishes he could make more money from his business making ice sculptures. Close to christmas, one of his ice sculptures, a princess (Emily Sweet), magically comes to life, causing unexpected disruptions in the lives of those she meets.

I sooooo wanted this story to be great as I love all things christmas and magic. Add in a princess and I am ecstatic. Sadly, the acting was wooden, and for most of the film the 'princess' had very little to say. Her communication was weird, childish grins and forlorn looks and direct questions to her were met with a downward glance and an odd grin. The script and direction were appalling, and add to that the lack of very basic skills of the actress, and you have a recipe for disaster. Ava Jarque and 'Santa' (William 'Bus' Riley) carry the entire film, which is a crying shame as the premise of the story is great. The sets were nice and it did have a bit of a feel of christmas, but sadly the uninspiring script and flat acting dropped the whole film a peg or two, but also there was zero chemistry between White and Sweet so I didn't feel at any time any romance. It is a great story to imagine though, so I'm grateful for that as I can make a better story in my head.

I gave it a 5 and that was mostly for Jarque and Riley as they did a great job.

We really enjoyed this show. The acting was very natural. I liked how Jade, (the princess) even though just come to life was bright and innocent with great interactions. It was nicer that having her look inept and not very bright. I also liked the addition of Santa helping out.

The interactions between Ben and his daughter Annie was very life-like and natural. It made it seem like he was a real father who cared about his daughter.

I also liked that there wasn't all of the angst and drama that is usual in the standard Christmas romance shows. All in all an enjoyable show to spend time watching.

Great job Silver Peak Productions!

Granted, I had never heard about this 2024 Christmas movie titled "Enchanting Christmas", from director Brian Brough, prior to sitting down and watching it as part of my 2024 Christmas movie marathon. But taking the movie's title and cover into consideration, I have to admit that I figured that it would be another run-of-the-mill generic and sappy Christmas movie. But of course, director Brian Brough could prove me wrong.

The storyline in the movie was a refreshing change of pace from the usual standard formulaic sappy Christmas storylines, yeah Hallmark I am looking at you. Writers Chad Reininger and Brittany Wiscombe put together a script and storyline that proved to be unique and different to make itself outstanding in the vast ocean of sappy Christmas movies. So thumbs up to the writers for that accomplishment. And I have to say that I was actually genuinely entertained throughout the course of the 91 minutes that the movie ran for.

The only familiar face on the cast list, for me, was leading actress Emily Sweet. The acting performances in the movie were good.

If you enjoy sappy Christmas movies and want something that breaks the standard generic form, yet still accomplishes being a sappy Christmas movie and then some, then you should definitely give "Enchanting Christmas" a chance.

While "Enchanting Christmas" certainly isn't going to become a Christmas classic, it is still a Christmas movie that I would recommend fans of the genre to check out.

My rating of director Brian Brough's 2024 movie "Enchanting Christmas" lands on a six out of ten stars.