Un souhait pour Noël

Here 40-something Kristy Swanson plays 30-something Martha Evans whose husband of 4 years runs off with a woman in the weeks leading up to Christmas, wipes out the bank account, and leaves her with three children aged 3 to about 11. Not sure why but she puts them all in the old family car and heads north, ending up in a small community in Utah.

Once there she has to find a place to stay and a job and ultimately has to rely on the kindness of her new friends to make a go of it. And the kids have to start at a new school with the boy dealing with the school bully.

This is a nice small movie, some of the dialog doesn't seem to fit but overall nicely acted and with a good message. It was nice to see Edward Hermann in a different role for him, he died in 2014.

My wife and I watched it on Amazon streaming movies.

My Christmas film viewings over-time have been a very mixed bag. With some surprisingly good hits, where regardless of how predictable they are succeed in being full of charm, warmth and heart so succeeding in being light-hearted and undemanding fun. But also some quite big misses, where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them.

Despite being a long way from perfect or being a complete hit, 'A Christmas Wish' is thankfully closer to the former category. It is the second Kristy Swanson Christmas film seen back to back (the other being 'Angels in the Snow') and is the infinitely superior one, with it actually being a good film and Swanson is also much better here. Although the story execution is not perfect, 'A Christmas Wish' is still sincere and moving and is worth seeing for primarily the cast.

'A Christmas Wish' isn't perfect. It takes a bit of time to find its footing pace-wise with it being a bit thin and draggy story-wise at times. Not all the script is there, with moments of awkwardness and sugar heaviness.

The messaging is well-intentioned but features too much and is on the heavy-handed side.

However, there is a lot to like about 'A Christmas Wish'. It looks attractive enough. The scenery is both rustic and festive and the photography doesn't look rushed or drab, quite beautiful actually. The music doesn't come over as too melodramatic while still having some presence. The direction is suitably sympathetic on the most part while taking a little time to find its feet. The dialogue is not perfect either but the cheese and sentiment don't go overboard and it generally doesn't come over as stilted.

Furthermore, the story, despite its imperfections, is warm hearted and has a lot of well meaning heart, without taking itself too seriously. The film did leave me feeling very moved. The characters interest and are worth investing in, not being too perfect or having flaws too exaggerated, which was refreshing after seeing a few films with distastefully over the top unpleasant characters that you are meant to root for. Swanson's performance is deeply felt and doesn't get melodramatic. Kirstin Dorn is a charmer and similarly moving and Edward Hermann once again plays the type of role he played so well beautifully.

Overall, not great but well done in a lot of areas. 7/10.

This is a very watchable movie, very typical of the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, which my wife and I love to watch to get us in the holiday spirit. As is typical, we find a woman whose rodeo cowboy husband has abandoned her; leaving her broke and with three kids to care for. Things go from bad to worse as she battles a series of mishaps trying to find a new home for herself and her children. If you ever think that you've had a bad day or week, you've never gone through anything like this woman faces! The acting is, however, very good, from a variety of veterans, like Edward Hermann, Tess Harper, and others. Ultimately, as with all Hallmark movies, things are resolved in the final six minutes.

This is a very enjoyable movie, and I was especially surprised and impressed with the plot theme of showing the true meaning of Christmas, and the power of prayer, something which most modern movies avoid. It definitely is a "feel good" movie, and one which teaches strong family values. Despite the predicable, and somewhat thin plot, and several loose ends being hastily tied up at the end, it is worth the watch.

I dislike many Hallmark movies especially the cookie cutter Christmas movies. There are some stands outs however, even in the Christmas genre, and this is one of them. The acting is superb. I love anything centered around a diner in a small town. I won't rehash the plot. The kids are darling, not brats. Kristie Swanson is not too old for this role as some reviewer said. Women have children through their 30s and even 40s now. I watch this movie every year. It's very moving and sweet.

Our family likes to watch Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel. While most of the shows are similar it is a safe network to view family style programs. Some of the shows are so bad we just laugh at poor writing, cheap production values and just plain bad acting. Watch "The National Tree" and you'll know what I mean. "A Christmas Wish" was on par with some of the better programs. While the story was familiar to many Hallmark movies the dialog was a cut above. The show was actually filmed during the winter instead of summer with fake snow scattered around. There were some cute moments which caused us to laugh out loud (in a good way), but perhaps what this Christmas movie had that the others did not was the true meaning of the season. Although not over bearing it did mention the birth of Christ and the importance faith plays in our lives. Overall a good effort.