It’s a Christmas bow. A violin bow…not a bow you put on presents. Get it?

Kate (Lucia Micarelli) is a concert violinist. When she injures her hand shortly after auditioning for the philharmonic, she turns to her childhood friend, Patrick (Michael Rady), to help her get her hand back in shape for her Christmas performance.

We have another musician movie. And her family owns a music shop too! The difference between The Christmas Bow and the other Christmas musician movies this year is that Kate hasn’t lost her passion for her art. Instead, her art was taken from her. She is desperately trying to get her hand to function like it did before the accident but it’s taking longer than she would like. It does make a huge difference in the mood of the movie. We see her trying and failing and getting frustrated and I love that. The arts isn’t always passion and want. Sometimes you want to do something and you physically can’t and it sucks. I’m glad that there is finally a movie showing that side.

I quite liked that there are a lot of Asian actors cast in the major roles. We don’t see a lot of non-white actors in Christmas movies. Especially not as the starring characters. Also, Micarelli is actually a violinist and that helped bring a dose of reality.

Overall, the movie wasn’t amazing. Patrick’s character was unrealistic. While I understand that the movie wanted him to be indecisive about his Big Decision so we would want him to stay in town with Kate, he kinda came off more wishy-washy than just indecisive. It was a bit of a turn-off, to be honest. However, I would recommend watching it, if only for Micarelli’s violin performances. She may not be a wonderful actress but she is an amazing musician.