O Meu Melhor Natal

There are many elements in this film that are quite unlikely and it wouldn't be strictly fair to call it a romance as the outcome happens without any dates or any of the typical romantic connections that we're used to. However, both of the leads are accessible and appealing. I especially like the male one. The female still scares me having seen her in Starship Troopers.

It's a bit of a silly story, a merger between a huge conglomerate and a local newspaper, but it ties around Christmas with some morals and tree decorating thrown in, whilst also providing balance for those who aren't huge Crimbo fans. There are times when it seems a bit discombobulated in its sequence, which drops points for me, but Mr lead's chest rug kept me going.

Not the best example of the genre, but not so bad that I would consider turning it off.

For a few years now it has been a tradition of mine to watch a Christmas special or movie I haven't seen before on the wee hours of Christmas morning. This year, I was skimming through my PVR and thought the summary of this little movie sounded cute, reminiscent of You've Got Mail. So, I gave it a try.

I am glad I did! It was pure fluff and rather a poor man's You've Got Mail, but after the stresses of shopping, it was good to sit down and watch something lighthearted. Not for someone with overtly high expectations and/or looking for a deep storyline, but worth a try. I really enjoyed the storyline and the chemistry between the actors. The lovely shots from British Columbia were a bonus.

This film tries to be an update of "The Front Page" and fails. The actors are talented but the writing fails them. The entire cast however can not be blamed for the writing.

The biggest mess in this television film is that it fails to explain the major plot line. More On that Later.

Now this film is about Tom Lane is the star columnist for the media conglomerate owned San Francisco Sun newspaper. The company is thinking about increasing Tom's exposure by producing a new television show around him. Liz Madison is the advice columnist for the little read community newspaper, the Marin County Voice, which is a throwback to gentler times. Besides their journalistic occupations, one other similar aspect between Tom and Liz is that they are both currently single, with their friends and family doing whatever they can to find that special someone for their personal life. On November 2, the staff at the Voice learn that the Sun ownership has bought their newspaper, with the probable goal of folding it into the operations of the Sun. If this move does happen, the staff at the Voice will lose their jobs. To fight back, Liz decides to change her column to an editorial espousing the meaning of Christmas and the newspaper to the community. Because of the feisty and entertaining stance of Liz's new column, the circulation of the Voice increases so much so that the owner has second thoughts about folding it, which in turn would put Tom's new television show in jeopardy. To protect his career advancement, Tom decides to write a counterpoint column to Liz's, his about instilling some practicality into Christmas. The competing columns become a personal battle for the two columnists. But as Tom and Liz spew their mutual loathing for each other, their respective friends try to convince them of the old adage that there is a fine line between love and hate.

Now what makes no sense is that she is suppose to work for a small town News Paper however its San Francisco. Hello that is not a small town.

My biggest gripe is that Tom Lane Television show will not happen if "The Voice" stays in circulation. How does a newspaper impact a television show.

Now what saves this film from 100% garbage is the fact David Sutcliffe is very charming. I couldn't think of what I have seen him in before and then it hit me. He reminds me of John Stamos.

I wanted to like this film but I didn't. I did however like some of the scenes but I did not like the film in general.

I liked seeing David in something other than GG. He's a very nice looking man, and not a half bad actor; however, I'd like to see him in more mature roles concerning something more domestic or even more dramatic. Don't get me wrong, he's great at the roles he has been in - mostly comedy driven. I would just like to see how well he can extend himself as an actor. Like a lot of actors, they are only seen as that one main character they portray (for him it would be Chris on GG), and then those like me can't get past him playing anything else. Most actors will agree they get typecast when going out and auditioning roles. I'd just like to see David doing something a bit different.

"Tom Lane" (David Sutcliffe) is a popular writer for a large newspaper called the San Francisco Sun and hopes to branch out with a television show sponsored that corporation. "Liz Madison" (Dina Meyer), on the other hand, works as an advice columnist for a much smaller newspaper known as the Marin County Voice. Although neither of these two people know each other directly, that soon changes when Liz is informed that the Marin County Voice has just been purchased by the San Francisco Sun and that drastic changes might soon be made. So, to boost circulation and prevent anyone from being laid off, Liz makes a suggestion to her boss "Mr. Billingsley" (Scott Swanson) that, since Christmas is fast approaching, she be given the chance to extol the virtues of the holiday season in an effort to increase circulation. To everyone's surprise, her new column is a tremendous success which soon catches the attention of Tom's editor "Vicki Shaw" (Paula Devicq) who informs him that this directly impacts Tom's chances of creating his own television show and that, in order to resolve the issue, he needs to write his own column contradicting everything Liz says--and as their war of words begins to heat up, so does their attraction for one another. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was a rather lukewarm romantic comedy which benefited more from the performance of Dina Meyer than anything else as neither the romance or comedy was particularly impressive. That being said, while I don't consider this to be a bad Christmas film by any means, it was somewhat entertaining in its own right, and I have rated it accordingly.