A Country Christmas Story

A Country Christmas Story, is a not-to- be-missed film about a young Appalachian girl who pursues her dream to become a country singer and journeys to Dollywood. Stars Dolly Parton, Brian McKnight and introducing Desiree Ross.

This film is way above average. The film created a world that I wish did exist. The film has a charming lead Dolly kind of plays a guardian angel in this film. The end of the story might surprise many of you. The film is great entertainment. Even thought the film is classified as "A Christmas Movie" its really about a girl with a dream and a mother who disproves. It could take place in October.

The film is runs a brief 90 minutes so you will never be bored.

This time of year I love channel surfing for Christmas movies...and most seem to be written from the same outline with a twist here or there and offer very little challenge when it comes to picking up on the foreshadowing and predicting the finale ... I usually find myself mentally jumping ahead to the ending when I am no more than 1/3 or 1/2 way through and almost always being correct on all major details...the attractive girl with history, the attractive guy with history, a third party that facilitates their unlikely and usually acrimonious meeting, a slow to start to their awkward romance that explodes 3/4 of the way through into a passionate, feel good relationship, only to implode 10 minutes later with accusations of lying or withholding pertinent facts only to conclude minutes later with a reconciliation that is sappy sweet, mostly unsatisfying and almost always offering the viewer a corny gleam of hope that Santa is indeed alive and well... A Country Christmas Story is different; first of all, it is not very Christmasy; it could just as easily have been set during another time of year; but I found that it thoughtfully offered up dialogue on issues that are not seasonal nor frequently confronted from the eyes of a child and played that theme out with some great acting, several original country tracks worthy of more listening and a satisfying, believable and Santa-less ending...

I'll cut to the chase. This is yet another movie that unnecessarily portrays a black man as an absent father. He's abandoned his family to be a bartender while he works on his music. This story could've been written so that the father was an active member of the family and supportive of his daughter's musical aspirations. Instead it uses the damaging trope of the black father that's abandoned his family to create tension in the story.

Studies have repeatedly shown that the pervasive myth about black fathers being absent from their children's lives is just that. A myth. The CDC has found that black fathers are "more involved with their kids on a daily basis than fathers from other racial groups."

The presence of this harmful stereotype in this movie is a continuation of the subtle and systemic racism that makes it so difficult to be a black man in America.

How wonderful this movie would've been if it showed both a mother and father fully engaged in their child's life, encouraging them, and helping guide them to work towards their dreams. It could have portrayed a black man as a positive role model and rejected harmful stereotypes while still telling its story. Because it failed to do so, this movie does more harm than good.

More than anything, I am so disappointed that Dolly Parton signed on to this movie. She seems like such a wholesome and caring person that I assume her involvement is out of ignorance rather than malice. Regardless, her involvement is shameful.

Rating it 1/10 stars due to systemic racism.

What is a Christmas movie? That is a question I kept asking myself as I watched this movie. Most of the Lifetime Christmas movie plots center around the spirit of Christmas opening the heart of some long-lost curmudgeon, characters discovering the true meaning of Christmas or the story of somebody overcoming obstacles to get home for the holidays. This movie has none of those elements. In fact, you don't even see a Christmas tree until 1.5 hour into the movie. The movie felt like one of those personal interest clips they play just before some unknown talent goes on a reality show like America's Got Talent. The last 30 minutes of the movie feels like a long ad for Dollywood. The story is a formula Lifetime relationship movie where the characters resolve their irreconcilable differences in the last 10 minutes of the movie and live happily ever after.

Worth watching when there is nothing else recorded on your DVR just to hear Desiree Ross' great voice or if you are a Dolly Parton fan. Otherwise, watch your other Christmas movies first!

A Country Christmas Story is about a biracial young girl from Appalachia with dreams of becoming a country music singing star. So she enters a contest to find Americas next young country star hosted by Dolly Parton at Dollywood. Although the movie is advertised as a Christmas story the viewer sees no scenes of snow, Christmas trees and decorations or anything else resembling Christmas until the conclusion of the movie. It was hard to believe this girl is from Appalachia, nobody in the movie spoke with a Southern accent ,it just did not have an authentic feel to it. Also , this girl is supposed to be a country singing talent, we see no scenes of her practicing her singing throughout the movie. The girl reveals the title of the song she penned herself that she was going to sing at the competition but we never hear her singing at all until the very end. The movie suffers a great deal because producers cast a young lady with no musical talent in the main role. We keep waiting for something to make this movie a little interesting, perhaps the charismatic Dolly can come in to save it, but alas,Dolly has a very tiny role in it.