The Christmas Card

This one, although still having the cliche and standard Christmas themes, is the best and most creative of them all. It should be the standard for made for TV Christmas love stories.

Christmas films can go either way, which has been my experience watching overtime primarily the festive output of Lifetime and Hallmark for curiosity sake. They can either be well-meaning, charming, warm-hearted and don't feel too heavy. Or they can be too over-sentimental, cheesy, contrived and bland. There have been many films of theirs that have fallen in both camps and in the camp where there is a bit of both. Saw 'The Christmas Card' because of my love of the holiday, because the premise sounded lovely and Edward Asner is always worthwhile.

Just like he is here. 'The Christmas Card' though does have many great things besides him. While it may not be a great film or a perfect one, of the festive films seen recently 'The Christmas Card' is one of the best and definitely in the former category of well meaning, charming, warm hearted and not feeling too heavy. If asked whether it is worth watching, my answer would definitely be yes without a shadow of a doubt without being completely esctatic about it.

'The Christmas Card' could have been better though. Ben Weber for my tastes is too wooden.

It also starts off on the slow side.

Once 'The Christmas Card' gets going though, it is a lovely film through and through. It is very professionally filmed and the locations are beautiful to look at. The music has presence but is not too loud or constant, melodramatic excess is definitely not a problem here. The direction is skillful enough while suitably understated. The script is very well meaning and doesn't take itself too seriously or get too treacly, while never treating things as a joke.

Story is heart-warming and moving, with more depth and seriousness than the usual Christmas-centric film. Without being too sentimentalised or heavy. The characters are worth caring about and the chemistry between them is natural. Lois Nettleton gives a sincere performance and Alice Evans and John Newton charm in their roles. Best of all is Asner, who plays his role with a heartfelt twinkle.

Lovely film all in all. 8/10.

We need more shows depicting life in the rural areas, depicting prayer, family, and love.

Ed Asner does a wonderful job as a Dad who wants his daughter to be happy with someone that respects her wishes. Great scenery, good story, and good family show.

The bond between soldiers may be overstated, but we should all respect our troops, whether we believe our leadership is doing the right thing overseas, or not.

The show also demonstrates how all the individuals respect each other, and how hard work can build a good life.

Love begins with respect, and dies without it. To me, that is what this story is all about.

Lord knows I'm a sucker for Christmas time and Christmas movies. Each year, I cannot wait until after Thanksgiving so I can begin the ritual of watching Hallmark each night. This movie warms my heart like no other one has. From the scenery at the log cabin, to the Spellman mill, a sleigh ride on a winters night and the singing in the church...it just doesn't get much better than this. This movie made me remember all the happy memories I had when my dad was alive...he loved Christmas and the snow, he couldn't wait to light a fire and relax while listening to Johnny Mathis music. I've watched this movie a dozen times and it never ever gets old...I love it so much so that I ordered it from Walmart and just watched it again on a cold winters day while waiting for a few inches of snow to arrive later on! My only wish is that the producers would have allowed us to see the family together that day eating Christmas dinner, sitting in front of the fire sipping hot chocolate with the Christmas carols in the background...I think they ended the movie without really wrapping it up for US, the viewers. They could have even made a sequel as I'm sure so many people would have loved. I think the actors cast in this movie were spot on... I loved each and every one, especially Ed Asner:) It's not very often a movie this good comes along, I'm so thankful for this one!

I thought it was a truly heartwarming picture with a lot of scenes that make a person feel nice and cozy inside. I love the reference to the Vietnam veterans which is another war that seemed never to end and the fact that the characters were very believable.

Ed Asner's performance as usual is fantastic and very realistic.

However, on the downside, I felt that the Faith character needed more strength in her performance and that it definitely needed a better ending. The ending was way too fast for such a build-up. I mean, there are some assumptions that viewers can take for granted but for there just to be a quick embrace after-wards was just too fast.

Goof: The question I had is how or why was the diner open on Christmas day so that Faith could buy Cody the meal that she was carrying at the end of the movie. Seemed a bit far-fetched.

Nevertheless, I hope to purchase this movie for my collection.