This film was a great deal better conceived than many of the typical Hallmark holiday movies..The leading man and woman were mature adults with serious issues of their own..She was a world-traveler with a successful career..He was a widower taking care of three children, but doing so in a far too structured and disciplined manner. One got the feeling that if he allowed any of that structure and discipline to go, he would lose his own control over his emotions, over the loss his wife. Thankfully, his children were resilient and strong enough to handle their father's need for rigid control..although one little daughter did challenge the "tight ship"" by constantly losing one of her shoes.. These light moments provided the necessary human touch to the father's way of keeping order in the family. Adrian Grenier was an attractive, intelligent, mature father, successful businessman, and ultimately a sensitive romantic hero.
The leading actress was incredibly attractive, and showed genuine acting skills. This made the movie a much more serious and less conventional Hallmark film...Her interactions with the children were creative, more flexible than the father's ,and she brought a fresh and lighter aspect to their family life.
Two shortcomings deserve to be noted. One is that the dialogue was often verifiably less than creative, with the word :amazing" sooner used, it became almost a joke. When other adjectives..such as wonderful, exciting, interesting, beautiful, fantastic, could so easily have been used..the word "amazing" came up over and over..once actually was used twice in the same sentence. This lack of creative writing trivialized the script over and over.
The other is the appearance Priscilla Presley, who certainly deserved to be involved in a film about her husband and their home..but who looked so pale..very likely just a poor choice of makeup..and who was so stilted in her acting skills, she detracted from the lovely role she was playing. Her face was as white as a ghost's..One wonders why the makeup artists did not add a touch of blush and skin toner to her face. The whiteness of her appearance detracted from honored role she played in the film.
All in all, a very mature, serious and well-written well-acted holiday movie..a notch far above the many others.
