6.2 stars.
At first glance, 'A Wish for Christmas' has an impressive start to what seemed to be a potentially wonderful Christmas story. A woman (Chabert) lacks confidence. She is a total pushover. Her boss and owner of the company (Greene) is an untouchable figure to all the employees. A random guy in a Santa outfit grants her one wish. She wishes for confidence and the many attributes that come with it. The rest of the story is about her new found confidence and all it entails and how she is able to be assertive in life and especially business dealings. The caveat is that her new confidence has a time limit. Does she believe in the wish? We are never certain.
I won't bore you with the rest of the details, the movie takes a nosedive (in my opinion). Greene and Chabert could have had good chemistry, but something just wasn't right.
Now for the juicy stuff. There are so many errors with the writing, casting, and directing I'm just gonna jump right in. First: on the flight for a business trip, why are they flying coach? The plane is half empty and he's a rich business owner. Second: We are introduced to a woman whom you'd expect is his sister, nope it's his aunt, but the actress is only 2 years older than Greene. Ok, maybe his aunt was very young when he was born. I suppose that makes sense, but that's not the case, because the actress who plays his mother is only 7 years older than he. And finally, on the age issue, Chabert is 8 years younger than Greene. Already it's a stretch for any romance to feel authentic and these age discrepancies are unacceptable. There's more. The assistant at the other company is in two places at once. Sure, she could have flown later, but there was no indication she was, and how did she get to the lodge if there were no rental cars left? You'll see what I mean, just pay attention to the details. The story is disjointed and doesn't flow, there is no clear theme: is it about confidence, or forgiveness? A years long grudge between father and son, where does that fit into the message? He goes home again later to make up with his dad, then what? We jump forward to a better set of circumstances, how did we get here? There are gaping holes in the last 10 minutes that can only be explained by editing the movie to fit into the allotted time slot. What a mess.
At first glance, 'A Wish for Christmas' has an impressive start to what seemed to be a potentially wonderful Christmas story. A woman (Chabert) lacks confidence. She is a total pushover. Her boss and owner of the company (Greene) is an untouchable figure to all the employees. A random guy in a Santa outfit grants her one wish. She wishes for confidence and the many attributes that come with it. The rest of the story is about her new found confidence and all it entails and how she is able to be assertive in life and especially business dealings. The caveat is that her new confidence has a time limit. Does she believe in the wish? We are never certain.
I won't bore you with the rest of the details, the movie takes a nosedive (in my opinion). Greene and Chabert could have had good chemistry, but something just wasn't right.
Now for the juicy stuff. There are so many errors with the writing, casting, and directing I'm just gonna jump right in. First: on the flight for a business trip, why are they flying coach? The plane is half empty and he's a rich business owner. Second: We are introduced to a woman whom you'd expect is his sister, nope it's his aunt, but the actress is only 2 years older than Greene. Ok, maybe his aunt was very young when he was born. I suppose that makes sense, but that's not the case, because the actress who plays his mother is only 7 years older than he. And finally, on the age issue, Chabert is 8 years younger than Greene. Already it's a stretch for any romance to feel authentic and these age discrepancies are unacceptable. There's more. The assistant at the other company is in two places at once. Sure, she could have flown later, but there was no indication she was, and how did she get to the lodge if there were no rental cars left? You'll see what I mean, just pay attention to the details. The story is disjointed and doesn't flow, there is no clear theme: is it about confidence, or forgiveness? A years long grudge between father and son, where does that fit into the message? He goes home again later to make up with his dad, then what? We jump forward to a better set of circumstances, how did we get here? There are gaping holes in the last 10 minutes that can only be explained by editing the movie to fit into the allotted time slot. What a mess.