The Christmas Card Review

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It’s time for a very classic Hallmark film. This is the kind of film you picture when talking about the channel because it hits all of the classic notes. Now this does include a rebound romance so as always you’re going to want to steer away from that part of it but all the rest is on point. This is the kind of film that will leave you feeling jolly all the way forward.

The movie starts by introducing us to Cody who is serving in the army. His tour has gone mostly well but unfortunately one of his squadmates was murdered in the line of duty. Cody is forced to go on a leave of absence for a while and decides to pay a visit to a lady named Faith who sent him a card. See, there’s a program where you can send cards to people out in the army and Faith always participates. Cody may not know her personally but he wants to thank her for the gesture. Thing is, he didn’t realize how beautiful she was. Cody has fallen in love but the problem is that Faith already has a longterm boyfriend. Can Cody make his move before she gets married?

So this is where things get iffy. Some would say that as long as she doesn’t have a ring yet (Isn’t married) that it’s all fair game and you can still try to steal her away. This is only advice for the desperate though and personally you should leave someone alone if they’re already in a relationship. Even if you are able to win her over, now you know that someone else can do the same thing to you if she is so easily persuaded.

Additionally, it is going to make Faith look bad here. Now as the film goes on her boyfriend looks worse and worse. He’s rather stuffy, drinks a lot, and doesn’t know how to do manual labor. He also ignores her feelings in place of his and values work above all. So yeah he’s not great but they have been in a relationship for a very long time. She didn’t even expect to see him for the holidays since he was so busy. You need to keep this in mind because these were the expectations for their relationship.

Instead he shows up early and notices Cody around so a little rivalry begins here. Naturally as the film goes on Faith begins to waver and eventually joins team Cody. This drama takes up most of the film though as Faith even accepts her boyfriend’s proposal initially and still has an affair with Cody on the side. It’s a really bad look for all parties involved even once the boyfriend surrenders and gets out of there.

What you have to consider here is that for 99% of relationships there will always be someone hotter, smarter, funnier, cuter, etc. If you are always willing to “trade up” from your current partner to someone else, then that is a recipe for disaster. It’s the whole principle of why I’m against rebounds. You have to stick to your pick barring crazy stuff like abuse and such. So Faith shouldn’t have been wavering at all here and it’s why the romance just doesn’t work.

With a romance this bad you may figure that the film is doomed right? Well, that’s not how Hallmark rolls. It delivers a very complete product that can get past the romance. You’ve got great writing after all and a fun atmosphere. It’s the kind of film that reminds you of just how much fun Christmas can be. There is a lot of cheer going on and you get to see some baking and decorating the Christmas tree. It’s a lot of fun and the pacing is always good. Watching this makes you want to go outside and do something fun too.

The true cheat code to life is that you don’t have to wait until Christmas to have a fun time like this. You can make any day really fun if you put your mind to it. As a result this film would hold up whenever you watch it. While Faith’s father Luke was meddling a little too much, you can appreciate his devotion to his daughter. It can be hard to stay silent when you see your kid making a mistake. Especially when you “know” that it’s a mistake.

There was a good amount of banter here and the movie knows how to have a lot of fun with itself. So even if the romance misses, you still have the comedy. Now I think the film could have tried to be even lighter by not having the death at the beginning but I suppose it wanted to start with a somber tone. If the film really wanted to be perfect, it could have dodged the romance entirely and just focused on the good banter the whole time. Now that would have been a good idea, just have them be good friends.

Then the subplot would have been Cody showing Faith’s boyfriend the error of his ways and to cherish Faith now because you never know what the future will bring. Have him tie in the death from the beginning. Low key I think there’s a ton of potential there and then for the longtime Hallmark fans you would still have a solid romance going with the boyfriend becoming a better person.

Overall, The Christmas Letter is a pretty good film. It’s a very focused film that knows where the plot is going and there are no distractions. The atmosphere is nice and cozy the whole time and the pacing is on point. It’s a very easy film to watch and just makes for an enjoyable backdrop. If you have not seen this film yet then you will definitely want to change that. It’s also a reminder that even a quick act like writing a letter can really have a massive impact to someone else.

Overall 7/10

Little Women (1994) Review

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It’s time for another Little Women adaption. It’s not exactly one of my favorite stories but it’s certainly an iconic one. I believe this is the third version that I’ve seen. How much you enjoy it will all come down to how much you enjoy the antics of the main characters. Can you identify with their situation or will you just find it a little dull? Personally I don’t find any of the characters to be super likable so that does really hold things back. The romance doesn’t help.

The 4 sisters are the main characters here. Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They live in a rather tough situation with finances not being very good. Their father is always out working and their mother does her best to keep things together. There are only so many ways to entertain themselves in such days but at least they have each other. Well, one day after the usual neighborhood party/dance they meet a rich guy named Theodore. He seems to have taken a liking to Jo but she’s not really in the market for a boyfriend at the moment. Will he win her over or is she going to get away?

So I can’t fault Jo for deciding that she didn’t want to mess around with romance. It’s not for everyone after all and she still wanted to enjoy her usual fun times with the gang. If she were to get a boyfriend then naturally that would end. Well, things get a bit more complicated than that as everyone else continues to move on with their lives. Theodore even decides to rebound with one of Jo’s sisters. Now Jo will have to find a man but who is left?

Ultimately Jo leaves home and by expanding her horizons she meets someone but the romance is pretty fast and not all that developed. It just never worked for me and I also think her sister Amy shouldn’t have gotten together with Theodore. Yeah, he claims that he is over Jo but that’s a bit hard to buy and even then it’s like you were the second choice. That’s how I’ve always felt about the romances in this movie and that hasn’t really changed over time.

This film also takes place in the very olden days and as a result there are all kinds of customs and such that feel dated. The girls can never make the first move, they must be prim and proper at all times, etc. Not to say that it’s all bad but a lot of these things just make them look way too passive as characters. I would have liked more direct action here, maybe in terms of trying to earn money or perhaps jumpstarting the romance on their own.

Jo is the only one who acts rather impulsively in general like selling her hair for money. So she gets more credit there. The writing is good as the old time script holds up but it doesn’t really solve the problem of the main characters not being super interesting. I don’t really know what you would do in order to change that though. Not without changing the story as a whole.

I’ve said this before but I like a good slice of life story, it just needs a touch of comedy. That is what’s missing in this one. The story is all fairly serious which is fine, but where are the scenes that will help me break a smile? There aren’t really any laugh out loud scenes here. Dreary would be the wrong word to describe the film but it just takes itself so seriously.

I guess I’d say the film is like watching a bunch of people who don’t have many hobbies hanging out with each other. It can be fairly wholesome but doesn’t really do much for you. The film also ends up being on the loner side and the pacing can be really slow. A lot of things are all going against the film here and as least one character gets a rather sad ending.

Maybe the next remake can focus a little bit more on Jo’s journey as an author. Focus on the last part of the film with her being abroad and make that a much larger part. You could also use that time to try and develop the romance with the professor but I dare say that might be a waste of time so perhaps you just focus on the writing bits. Or maybe show us what her father was doing at work and add some kind of trial there. Show why the job is so hard. Both of these plots would be immensely more interesting than just staying at the home for longer periods of time.

Overall, Little Women would have benefited from adding a few light scenes with gags and fun jokes. Something to just make the film itself a little more fun and it would also add to the replay value. Throw that all in to the mix and things would improve. Right now this is essentially a film that is lacking a hook. Of course at the end of the day that just means this film wasn’t really for me. I would say to only check it out if you want to see what life would have been like if you had grown up poor in a small town. Otherwise, you’re better off with one of the old sit coms instead.

Overall 4/10

The Stingiest Man in Town Review

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It’s time for another Christmas Carol and this one has to move really fast as a bite sized version. The length of the film is very short for example so that means the ghosts have to really run in there and Scrooge has to be convinced awful fast. Fortunately I can say that it works well and this is one of the better Christmas Carol adaptions. Scrooge even manages to defeat one of the ghosts which was real impressive. I was definitely not expecting that.

The story starts with Scrooge yelling bah humbug at the world and showing why he doesn’t believe in Christmas. Scrooge only has one master and that is the power of the all powerful profits. Scrooge is even mad that he will have to pay his partner for the day off on Christmas but the assistant isn’t very smart and offers to go without pay. Scrooge naturally accepts and that was a light spot to his day. Well, at night he is visited by his old partner who died a while back and he says that Scrooge will be visited by 3 ghosts. Scrooge is skeptical but they show up and start causing a lot of problems by working to guilt trip Scrooge on his past, present, and future. Can Scrooge stop them?

It’s fair to say that Scrooge is on the back foot right from the jump though. He is scared right away when the ghosts show up and quickly realizes the error of his ways. The only time he shows real resistance is when he murders the first ghost by extinguishing his flame. It was actually a really impressive moment and showed how Scrooge could think on his feet. He clearly didn’t become rich by being the kind of guy who didn’t know how to take action. It made absolute sense that Scrooge would be jumping into action. That’s just the kind of guy that he is.

I would have liked to have seen more of that but this is meant to be an uplifting story filled with hope. Adding too much violence and Scrooge messing everyone over may not have gone over very well with the audience. The writing is pretty good either way. Everyone seems rather happy and of course by the end Scrooge can be counted among those folks as well. He is the kind of guy who may grumble and tumble a lot but now with his money he can make the world a better place.

I would have liked the third ghost to have done more since he is always the coolest one but in this special he doesn’t have much time. One of those time constraints and all. Even little Timmy gets a little less to do this time but you can still feel his impact. It’s a film where you can infer everything from what you already know about the story and it would be interesting to see what one would think if this was their first version.

Like I said, I enjoyed it quite a lot but I do think subconsciously I likely plug in a lot of my former knowledge from the other versions of the story. The animation helps give this one a bump as well though because I really enjoyed the expressions here. The film looks really good and the characters are a lot of fun. You can’t help but grin as you watch the film and it’s something that a cleaner style would be lacking.

I should also mention that there are a number of songs in this one and for once it actually worked. I tend to be rather harsh on musicals as the songs usually aren’t all that good but in this case that was not true. The songs were actually really sharp and catchy. I had a good amount of fun with them and they fit the vibe really well. They felt less like forced musical songs and instead were actual Christmas songs that had a solid level of quality. So that really helped the overall experience as well.

So if I had one complaint it’s that I would have liked to have seen Scrooge fighting back more. If anything he set the bar too high by taking down the first ghost. Sure, he got scared by the doorknob at the very beginning of the film but this had been a good rebound. I absolutely think it should be possible to make Scrooge very combative without taking away from the film’s overall message. I just need a writer to really take the risk and make this happen at some point.

Overall, Stingiest Man in Town is a pretty good film. It works as an abridged version of the Christmas Carol for people who want to get to the meat of the story but don’t have 90 minutes to spare. So in that case this is really the film for you. The pacing is fast but it still hits all of the big details. The writing is good and on the whole the film has no big weaknesses. I can recommend this to anyone looking for a fun Christmas film. Additionally, the hand drawn style has just aged really well.

Overall 7/10