Un voeu pour Noël

Ridiculous premises, terrible acting, generally poor script

The only reason I watched the whole movie is because I have a crush on Olivia d'Abo, shh. The acting is strained, except for Olivia. Just skip this one, the story's been done much better in a dozen other movies.

Review Date 9/14/2016

I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 400 Christmas MOVIES.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I AM HONEST! I REVIEW Christmas MOVIES AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN!

This film is another rip-off of "It's a Wonderful Life". This film is hard to like when the star looks like Adrienne Maloof.

In this film Sharon and Dustin Holden (Olivia d'Abo and Anthony Starke) were high school sweethearts. They went to the same college and graduated together and got everything they ever dreamed of: great kids, great jobs, and the loyal golden retriever, "Jerry" (Jon Voight). But Sharon's career consumes her world. In an effort to rekindle the joyous family life they once shared, Dustin insists on taking a Christmas vacation to their old stomping grounds, Farthering Pines.

When they arrive, they're greeted by Jack Carter (C. Thomas Howell), Robert Jones (Jonathan Silverman) and their lively families. Despite the festivities, Sharon just can't seem to pull herself away from her work. Frustrated by juggling both her family and work life, Sharon wonders aloud how life would be if she and Dustin did not have children. The next day, she wakes up to find that her wish has come true! Her life has been turned upside down: Dustin is back to his old job-obsessed self, and her children are nowhere to be found. At first, she enjoys this new version of her life, but upon seeing how happy the Jones and Carter families are, she recognizes this isn't the life she wants. Can Sharon find a way to get her family back? Will she realize the true meaning of Christmas? Will the Holden family reunite before the clock strikes midnight?

If you never have seen "It's A Wonderful Life" then you might like this

Bad acting, bad dialog, cardboard characters who are also unrealistic, too many platitudes.

In act 1, before the wish, we have the ideal family despite the workaholic mom who rightly denigrates herself as a terrible mom. Yet somehow, she manages to spend quality time with her kids. And her teenage girl has none of the usual tension with her mom. Both kids act like the workaholic mom is a hero. In this section, the acting isn't great but it isn't as horrible as what's to come.

Act 2 made me wonder if this was a parody. This Dustin is the most one dimensional of all the characters. He acts like the only thing in life is to spend outrageous sums of money on his wife. All of these movies where a wish is granted to change a life path presents the main character with the problem of having the old memories and thought patterns despite a completely changed circumstance. In this case Sharron becomes creepy as like a stalker of other people's kids. Of course, to her, they are her kids, but not to them. The fact is that these same kids have become spoiled in this other family and that is supposed to be part of the morale of the story. In this act, all the acting is terrible.

I won't say much about Act 3 other than that the acting goes back to being only slightly poor.

I like Olivia d'Abo, her performance is good but held back here. The movie is severely limited by lack of story development, script, and poor casting. I don't understand why they didn't cast C Thomas Howell as her husband. They are near enough in age and he would have had a better part. CTH was basically wasted here. The daughter is good but doesn't have a big enough part. Several potentially interesting subplots are not developed or even explored. Because of this the story lacks much depth and it is basically a barebones stream towards the conclusion, which does still evoke some degree of genuine feeling only because of d'Abo as she finally manages to gather up a bit of acting ability and pull off a decent finish.