Christmas Town

This is a cheesy Christmas movie and the acting is not fabulous. Patrick Muldoon looks like he's been drinking a lot for a very long time in my opinion. The mom is a bit too cynical and if my kid ran off all the time like her's does, we would have a serious discipline issue going on! However, I have a large Christmas movie collection and I do DVR this on TV every year so I wanted to add it to my DVDs.

Okay, this is not a great film. Actually, it's a made-for-TV (cable TV?) movie, shot in Canada, although the story is set in California.Yes, it's predictable. A Christmasy, fish-out-of-water story with stereotyped characters. A workaholic mom who hates Christmas (yet another spin on Scrooge) finds herself in a picture-perfect small town that LOVES Christmas. Everyone pokes gentle, but affectionate, barbs at her for not loving Christmas (for her own good, of course). In the end she relents (due to the flimsiest of plot twists) and loves Christmas too.And to top it all off with a predictably "perfect" ending, the real-life Santa makes an appearance. No, that is NOT a spoiler -- anyone can see from the moment that mom enters the town that Santa hangs out here. She even sees Santa early on, but doesn't believe it's him. Her 9-year-old son knows better, of course.The script is no great literary work. It's very paint-by-numbers, broadcasting every plot development well in advance, and offering zero surprises.The script is also very on-the-nose, spelling everything out; the characters broadcast their "character types" -- again and again and again - throughout the film. I lost count of how many times the mom said "I'm practical." and "I'm a realist." and that she doesn't like Christmas.Likewise, the other characters are always saying how much they love Christmas, and espouse Christmasy philosophy like "You gotta believe." and "You gotta have faith." and saying that mom should not be so cynical. To which she always repeats that she's practical and a realist.The script not only has zero surprises -- it has zero subtlety.Even so, I kinda liked this film. It's bland, but pleasant. Yes, you know where the story is going, but you can say the same about slasher films -- and I love slasher films.Now, if you want a funny, smart, quirky, authentically poignant romantic comedy/Christmas film, I recommend  Dinner at Fred's . In it, Parker Posey has real chemistry with her love interest, Gil Bellows.The same cannot be said for the "romantic couple" (mom and her Christmas-loving love interest) in CHRISTMAS TOWN. Zero chemistry.Yet despite all those zero's, I enjoyed CHRISTMAS TOWN. I found the characters likeable and attractive, and enjoyed the ride even if I could guess every plot point ahead of time.

This movie was perfect and in good condition

And yet another Christmas movie featuring a jaded Grinch of a parent (Nicole de Boer as grumpy Liz). She’s a workaholic single mother with a disobedient son she ignores or coddles (there is no middle ground). As a realtor, she may be fabulous but as a mother and a daughter, she is a complete failure. And darn, it’s Christmas and she doesn’t want to decorate. And her father has run off to be a cook in a restaurant. With everything closed down for the holiday she can’t work so she reluctantly drives her son to a town out in the middle of nowhere to visit or certify that her father has lost all sense of reason. The town in question looks like a tourist trap. Or as Liz puts it, “the cult of Christmas.” They even have a saying, “discover the magic! Indeed.” Which is kind of creepy.Overpowering gloom on the part of the main character Liz doesn’t help make this spoonful of sugar go down easily. She’s sarcastic, nasty, and insulting to everyone............right up until the last few seconds of the movie when she abruptly gives up being a killjoy for no apparent reason.This movie has a slapdash feel to it, as though they coughed up the plot over a lot of eggnog and no amount of common sense. It will never be a Christmas classic that must be watched every season.

I saw this movie on tv 2x in the last 2 weeks and I'm buying it now. It's a good Christmas movie that brings about the true meaning of Christmas - family and truly caring and listening to one another. True the story line is about a too busy mom but the story unfolds and of course has a happy ending. Why not? It's Christmas Town.

A grinchy mother finds romance and fun at Christmas town while she tries to prevent her son from believing in Santa. Trite but very Christmasy. I liked it.

This has become one of my favorite Christmas movies. Would highly recommend to all.

Setting aside the bad sets and the retread over 15 min. of the main plot points (Yes, we get it, she works a lot).The child actor they hired for this was ridiculous. They had a kid who looked older, say 12, acting in ways that would have been forgivable for maybe a 6 year old. I don't know if the kid they cast is that way or if the director has no children, has no neices or nephews and possibly has never met a child in their lives, because after 15 minutes of his whining we were going to turn it off, and only kept watching because it was so bad it became fun to make fun of.Also, one thing that always makes me suspicious of some reviews, are when the people who have given a movie 5 stars have never reviewed another movie on Amazon. Sounds like somebody got a friend to write a review for them. Seriously, there are some wonderful Christmas films out there, and there are some very decent made for TV movies. This just isn't one of them.

Love this movie, one of my 30 faves that I watch every year, had it on my pvr...which died.

I loved this movie because it has a proper story to it. It's warm, heartfelt and a perfect movie for Xmas to see. I enjoyed this movie very much. I added it to my collection of Xmas movies. It's great!

Good story to have in our collection

Enjoy the movie very much.

Cute Christmas story.