Director: R. Michael Givens
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Duration: 76 minutes
A Christmas Eve Miracle (DVD) – Movie Review
Even though the festive season is already over for quite some time, we still have a Christmas film in store for you. With the one-liner ‘Christmas isn’t Christmas without family’ written on the box, it’s not too hard to figure out what this one will be about. Let’s take a look at what Christmas is like with the Holden family, seen through their dog Jerry’s eyes.
It’s Christmas time and for Sharron Holden (Olivia d’Abo), that means it’s even more difficult to take some time off work so she can be with her family. She works at a big advertising agency and lands one big project after the other. She loves what she does, but it’s hard work, certainly now that she’s up for a promotion. Next to her work, she also has a family to run, but luckily her husband Dustin (Anthony Starke) put his career ambitions aside to be there for the kids. Nonetheless, Sharron feels like she should spend more time with her family too.
To be able to enjoy Christmas with the family as in old times, Dustin insists they go to Farthering Pines, a holiday resort they used to go to a lot. Sharron agrees, but she has to take her laptop and phone, as work can simply not wait. When they arrive, the Holdens are welcomed by two other families staying there for Christmas, the Carters and the Jones family. The three families enjoy themselves in the snow and later by the fire, but Sharron keeps being distracted by her work, even though she would love so much to be with her family. She starts wondering what her life would have been like if she and Dustin never decided to have kids. Lots easier, she imagines. When she wakes up the next morning and realizes that her former thoughts have come true, and Dustin and she don’t have any kids, she at first doesn’t know what to do. Life is great without kids, she with her career, he with his. But overtime it gets difficult, and she feels like something is missing. Something called a warm home.
To be honest, the story of this film is rather predictable, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it is one of those typical feel-good films, that in the meantime also try to teach you a valuable lesson. The lesson here is of course that Christmas means nothing if you can’t spend it with the ones you love, which is a lesson that we’ve been taught quite a few times before. This shouldn’t be a problem, if it weren’t for the hasty scenes and the moving cameras all the time. It gives the movie such a rushed and uncomfortable look that you’d rather just switch it off and do something else. The unstable filming is probably due to the fact that many scenes are shot from the perspective of the family’s dog Jerry (Jon Voight), but the dog doesn’t really contribute to the story, thus the filming aspect is a nice try, but unfortunately didn’t work out.
To top it off, also the acting performances weren’t that great, but tolerable enough to watch. Olivia d’Abo tries very hard to put down a convincing lead role, but just doesn’t manage to take you to Sharron’s world. Also the parts where Sharron thinks aloud feel so artificial that it’s just not pleasant to watch. Anthony Starke doesn’t do much better, but as he isn’t so much on the foreground, it doesn’t bother as much. C. Thomas Howell, Jonathan Silverman, as well as the other members of the Carter and Jones families make a nice effort, but again are not very convincing, but instead often annoyingly loud.
There are no extra features to be found on this DVD release, and may we just say that we are grateful for that. Even though the film only lasts seventy-six minutes, it is more than enough already. Also, a film such as this (good or bad) doesn’t really need any extra features, as there just isn’t much more to explore. Random fact: two of the three children shown on the cover of this release don’t feature in this film, another unfortunate thing that makes the whole look quite cheap.
Conclusion
A Christmas Eve Miracle is a film that gives you, simply put, absolutely no reason for buying it. When it’s on TV, you’ve had a rough day and it’s festive season, you might not be too sorry for watching it, but for us, the filming, storyline and acting performances just didn’t cut it. Don’t fret though, there are plenty of Christmas films out there that are still worth your while.
No Comments