It's the 1st day of Advent and our 3rd Christmas movie of the season. This week we are taking a risk with another one of those "made for TV" films. So is it going to be a hit or a miserable mistletoe miss with;
The Christmas Secret
Well as we said last week, the problem with the "made for TV" movies is they are fairly hit or miss affair, usually made with a limited budget and the acting talent is several streets away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. However, we shouldn't dismiss these films, because sometimes you can unearth some gems, last week was a case in point - A Christmas Tree Miracle was indeed a great story, but what of this week, did The Christmas Secret tick the various boxes, albeit a low budget, schmaltzy, American daytime movie?
In a word; yes!
Firstly it is American as mom's apple pie and in places, as cheesy as mac & cheese with extra cheese, but yet again a wonderful well considered, thought out and intricate story on which to base your bog standard Christmas ethos, where things go wrong for the innocent, only to be turned around by a little Christmas magic and the intervention of those special characters you get in these genre of films. Magical stuff indeed.
To put some meat on the bones of this Christmas turkey and that's a term of endearment, not an indication that the film was anyway a flop; Bethany Joy Lenz plays quite wonderfully single mum Christine Eisley. Christine moved to Wilsonville after her marriage broke up. With her two cute kids, she tries to make a go of life in this small community, where her father once lived. Christine never knew her father as he died many years ago, but she felt a strange affinity to Wilsonville and decided to move there. These are salient points that will be of interest if you watch the film, they are all part of a multiplicity of storylines that evolve as the film progresses.
Christine is struggling to make ends meet, holding down a job, a home and looking after the children. And as with most films of this ilk, the formula to follow is that all these things conspire against her to provide a heap of jeopardy; she loses her job, she is facing eviction and the ex husband turns up threatening to take the kids. Not just a simple plot twist, but a multitude of plot lines that unravel as you go. However, although potentially cheesy and cringeworthy all these things actually add some gravitas to plot and make the story more credible. That is to say, it's not just a simple; here's the back story, here's the jeopardy, it's all gone wrong, here's some hope, it goes wrong again, a little bit of magic and they all live happily every after. It's better than that, quite a bit better.
Anyway, Christine loses her job as she is late for work after witnessing a car accident and subsequently saving the life of the female driver. Luckily though, due to being in the right place at the right time, she gets a new job straight away with Betty. Betty runs the local bakery and her family has lived and worked in Wilsonville for may years, which may or not be another salient point to remember. The woman who had a heart attack and crashed her car, to be saved by Christine, runs a local store with her husband. When their grandson (Jason) turns up from New York we gain a love interest for Christine. However due to a misunderstanding and some misdirection they do not know that Christine has saved Jason's grandmother. If you have just read that through without taking a breath, you'll probably give up on this blog and the film! But don't go just yet, it is worth it. Really.
Admittedly the multitude of story lines and the intricate correlation and relationship of the characters was so tangled, that one end of the TNiFN sofa suggested it was virtually incestuous! However, we think that that is where the beauty lies in films such as these, there is a compelling storyline that starts with a single strand, which unwinds and unravels, sometimes crossing and re-crossing until you get to that magical feelgood ending, when the threads are again intertwined in the correct order to assimilate a beautiful well rounded ending, an ending which we are not going to tell you about, just to say it is a classic Christmas ending. Also it's not all about the ending it's how you get there and A Christmas Secret is a perfect example of how to do it right. It's just a shame that it is not available on DVD to watch at a later date.
Note: If you have the cable or satellite channel "Christmas 24" - it is repeated this week. Obviously, if you are reading this sometime in January 2016, you've missed it!
In summation, a lovely film, perfect story and just the sort of film you want to be watching on first or any day of Advent! Merry Christmas!!
TNiFN Rating 87%
IMDB Link
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