Letters to Santa

I disagree with the idea the mother in law is some kind of savior to the couple. She is a big part of the problem. She gets in the way for her own needs and wants.

The husband is putting his birth family ahead of his family with his wife and expecting her to just go along. It's not fair to anyone. Even the sister tries to explain to her brother the dad that not everyone is used to always putting your birth family first. She talks about how they tried to name the baby before it was born . All the husband could say I was in trouble with my mom about that. The mother in law finally gets it half way thru the movie . She finally stops meddling.

It was a good idea to discuss real issues in a Christmas movie. The holidays often brings out real conflict that really about other things.

This is a movie that can be skipped this season. There is so much anger from Rebecca Letters to Santa. At first I thought the premise of the movie was cute. Until very early on in the movie the secret is revealed. Rebecca and Enrique are separated and going to counseling. There is so much anger with Rebecca that she needs to deal with. She goes from being so angry to having fun like a light switch. I didn't like the anger and then the happiness. There was no chemistry with the leads. The acting isn't very good in this movie. I hadn't heard of any of the actors except Rebecca. I knew her only from the Big Bang. This one can easily be skipped.

6.7 stars.

I have mixed feelings about 'Letters to Santa'. It's a nice story about two kids who want their parents back together. Mom and dad are separated due to some unknown circumstances that we are not aware of until much later. She gives us her reasons why she told him to go live with his mother, but those aren't the actual problems. What also happened is he misspent some precious money and she felt somewhat betrayed. He didn't cheat or anything. The whole premise is very weak. If a marriage can break on something as flimsy as this, we are all doomed. But the rest of the film is not too bad. Yes, the parents bicker. Yes, there are slow parts. The children are endearing and the fitness woman is actually likable too, as is the "elf". The mother is a regular Latina seen in many films and she does fine. The lead female grows on you after a while, but she is an acquired taste, and my theory is that she is the reason for many negative reviews. The lead male is charismatic, but his personality is absent. For some reason he's not present and it's disconcerting, because beside his apparent lack of focus, he just doesn't show up for the part. I wonder if that's not the final straw for this movie. Cast two different lead actors and you probably have a winner here. What are the odds that both of them fail to entertain? Oh well, it happens.

This is a slightly unusual Christmas movie in that the lead couple is already married but experiencing a time of separation. The two kids are freely exchanged between their home where mom is living and grandmother's house where dad is living. This makes for an interesting mix of tone and emotions. There is some serious friction between the couple but they seem to care about each other and neither has reached the point where they really want a divorce. One source of their friction is that each is busy and stressed by their work worlds. We find out fairly deep into the movie the truth about another important source of their friction (although I agree with another reviewer that it doesn't make sense that this was a secret.)

The movie deals with a lot of family issues. The struggle by the kids is an obvious one. Money is another. Enrique's mom is a bit of a meddler. Enrique is helping his mom maintain the family restaurant after the passing of his dad. Rebecca is not used to the tight knit family that Enrique has especially given that he has a strong family loyalty. Opposite sex relationships at work is an issue.

The movie also has some light moments with some humor. The kids get a "magic pen" from Santa. Grandma starts reading their letters to Santa and tries to fulfill some wishes. There are lots of misunderstandings often humorous. Another factor that leads to some of the lighter moments is Rebecca's children's book which she is late delivering and has writer's block. Later in the movie, Rebecca starts to put some of the family's personal experiences into the book and the parallels are interesting.

I like the family tradition where one person can make a statement beginning with "True or False" to confront the true feelings of the other person. Even the kids do it. I would have expected a family with this tradition would resolve many problems before they get serious because of the resulting honesty and openness.

I am an avid Christmas movie fan but I find it easy to get angry at someone or something early or be turned off by a less than jolly tone. Somehow in this movie I avoided both and was able to enjoy a good story.

The only thing great about this film was Laura Cerón, who plays Camilla, Enrique'a mom.

I loved the Latin family...but felt it was pretty racist to think that Rebecca (Katie Leclerc) couldn't understand family because she was white and an only child.

I didn't really understand the separation at all. Couples fight about money all the time, this was a single thing and to go to separation because of it?!?!? If it wasn't for coincidences these two would be getting divorced. I saw no actual work on their relationship. And why aren't they talking together...I understand the mom not wanting people to know about her financial situation, but if you borrow money from a couple both of those parties should know the reason and if you can't tell them, then you shouldn't be borrowing from them.

I did like the kids book and I loved that the grandmother was really trying to make the magic pen letters come true...it's a sweet idea, but the movie overall I wanted to like more than I really did. I also really liked that the Brit could speak Spanish.

For me this was too melancholy for a Christmas film and I just got tired of seeing Rebecca's sad face.