I watched this movie even though I disliked the trailer because I am always routing for Nathan and the whole Clarkson clan. However nice the premise of this film, the execution was severely lacking. It felt very impatient and lacking attention to detail. For example, none of the landscape scenes made sense to me as far as their placement. I was confused as to why they were there. And the main actress' eyes were half closed most of the time. She finally opened her eyes fully toward the end of the movie, she really had been squinting the whole time! Did no one else notice this? It bothered me quite a lot and was very distracting. Also, the mood of the lighting seemed to contradict the warm feeling the writing was supposed to impart. Even there, the ideas of the story were nice but the writing was clunky and disingenuous. Films should either be comprised of lines you can see yourself or others saying, or say something so beautiful or insightful you wish you had said it. This was neither, and was unfortunately just awkward. Finally, the love and reverence for the Christmas story was more assumed than shown. Since the director was a Christian I was hoping more reverence for the Christmas story would come through as well as some attempt to share why it mattered to him. In this and many other parts of the film, there was a lack of clarity. I am still routing for you Nathan and I hope to resonate more with the next one!
