Home by Christmas

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.

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.

But honestly ? was Linda Hamilton ONLY 50 when she made this film ? and would the good looking doctor really have fallen for someone who looked old enough to be his Mum. Sorry if that's unkind, but clearly the years haven't been kind, and her acting left a lot to be desired.

The story was a good one, and shows how easy it is to be down on your uppers very quickly.

Home by Christmas starts out fairly predictable and depressing, with Linda Hamilton's character being cheated on by her husband and then going through a series of (certainly plausible) extremely hard and devastating times. But, as the movie progresses, there is a lot of laughter, lessons and a really nice and touching story that makes this movie thoroughly enjoyable. You really want to cheer the title character on and see if she can pull herself out of the situations that have befallen her. She makes some wonderful friends and the cast is very enjoyable to watch, as are the majority of the scenes with their interaction. The title, 'Home By Christmas', alludes to the fact that the mom is, once again, trying to provide a stable environment for her daughter to live in by the time she comes home for C-mas from a trip.

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.