Pour vivre un grand amour

The Christmas movie watching continues. Just finished "Home By Christmas" which stars Linda Hamilton. In this film Linda plays Julie Bedford (Surely Named After the town Bedford Falls from"It's a Wonderful Life). In this film in a short order a woman finds out that her husbands is cheating. She dumps him and after a series of misfortunes she ends up homeless. She is now one of the invisible people that all of us avoid when we see them on the street. Not letting her situation drag her down too much she hatches a plan to get herself back on her feet. Now what I liked about this film is that you (The Audience) see that you must count your blessings. Be grateful for what you have and not what you don't.

If you like Christmas movies the film is worth seeking out. I will say the surprise of this film was an actor I never herd of before. His name is Rob Stewart and he is very charming.

Made for Lifetime Television it most likely will repeat in November and December. It is also available on DVD at Amazon. It is part of a DVD package of 12 movies of 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.

I never pay too much attention to television films, especially when they intend to show for a certain audience, such as the way Lifetime Network targets their films for housewives and little girls. The "however", however, comes with the star of "Home By Christmas", Linda Hamilton. I could watch anything this elegant lady does, and thus so, I took a chance on this film.

"Home By Christmas" is a quite depressing story of a woman, whom divorces her cheating husband, only to meet even more humiliation by loosing her home in the post-mordam madness, and living in her car. Despite this, she keeps her hopes up, and clings to every opportunity she can, in attempt to build a plan for getting her life back. Her desperation accelerates when her young daughter is returning home for X-Mas, and she needs a quick way to hide the disastrous situation that has befallen her. Not only that, but she has fallen in love, and cannot bring herself to admit her situation to the man she is interested in. Still, she manages to prevail in all her hope and glory, and just as the yuletide season is coming to it's heights.

The story of this is actually depressing, and very sad to think about, but there is humor therein. Linda Hamilton is serious about this role, but she plays it out very well. The hope and humorous ambitions of her character are well represented, and we find ourselves smiling throughout the film, despite the lousy conflicts our leading actress is faced with. The fact is, we are given hope with every scene, as the writing is pretty sharp (a rarity for television films). it's no wonder why Hamilton choose this role. There is something to learn from the film, about giving and receiving. It's quite touching, and in the end, we see the miraculous life lessons of what good comes from hope and faith, and the power of the yuletide season.

9/10

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.

Typical "Lifetime" movie; but ya know, a really feel good experience. Sweet performances, especially by Linda Hamilton as a down on her luck divorcée who becomes homeless, make the movie special. Sometimes on the brink of believability, these performances and the director's occasional fast pace put the plot beyond, towards a story that can easily be enjoyed. There are even moments when tears well into ones eyes without the realization that the heart begins to glow with the holiday spirit. Brenda Crichlow's overly optimistic performance is also surprisingly good. Beware that there are some even many predictable moments. However, they are handled so well by the seasoned Ms. Hamilton, Rob Stewart and the actor who plays Max (his father) that an audience can still receive a blip of unexpected plot. In one word this holiday season? Lovely.