Home by Christmas

If you start to watch this movie and think about axing it within the first 15 minutes (like I did)... please give this movie a chance to redeem itself. Trust me, it does. By the last quarter of the movie, I was loving it. The first third of the movie is almost unbearable, acting mostly but even script writing is almost absurd... but if you bear through it to get to the the second-act, you start to really relate to the heroine of the movie and feel her pain. Even what's happened to her up to that point seem almost believable, despite the first act. Even in desperate times during life, wonderful people seem to appear out of the woodwork, as in this movie and it really makes you believe in something wonderful, especially at Christmas time. I really ended up enjoying this movie, even though I almost gave-up on it early on. In the end I loved it.

If you love Christmas movies like I do, this is one of the best. It's a feel good movie with an interesting story. Linda Hamilton plays Julie, whose husband leaves her for a younger woman. Over time she looses everything and is forced to live in her car. Her daughter goes overseas for extended schooling but makes the decision to come home for Christmas. Now Julie scrabbles to find a place for both of them to spend the Holidays together. Julie makes new friends and slowly gets back on her feet. Her friend Max is a great character and they hep each other out. Julie's new relationship with Selma, a woman who has been in the same homeless situation, proves to be her lifesaver. It's a riches-to-rags-to-riches story, one of my favorites concepts especially during the holidays.

We enjoyed the movie until the very end. It was as if they ran out of time or didn't know how to finish it so it ended with so many loose ends. Other than that it was a good movie.

The comments above do a good job of explaining what this movie is about, so I want to focus on another aspect of this film.

This movie is about the type of situation most are terrified of even thinking of --facing an economic landslide out of our usual socio-economic level and being completely alone. This is one of the loneliest of personal disasters since others from our old life don't want to talk to us since they are so terrified of this happening to them that they don't want anything to even remind them of it. Watching this is a chance for us to even imagine what it's actually like to live our worst nightmare and know that we would survive. I'm pleased the network aired this film since I think it is a very useful self-empowerment tool.

I managed to see this film at the fourth attempt after being constantly interrupted with family matters but I am glad I got to watch it. The story is not new but what is somewhat unusual is that the Linda Hamilton character chose not to take her husband to the cleaners after finding out that he cheated on her. What happened is that through a series of believable disasters she finds herself alone (her daughter goes to live with her father) and she loses her home. I agree with a previous commentator, I think this is one of Linda Hamilton's best performances and my only gripe about this film is that it does not appear to be on DVD as I desperately want to add it to my collection. This is a moving but easy watching film and well worth taking the time to watch if you come across it on your TV listings.