I think we had a Christmas movie about Guinness world records last year. This year we have A World Record Christmas. Is this a new trope?

Charlie (Aias Dalman) is an autistic boy trying to win the approval of his deadbeat dad. His town is trying to win the “Most Wrapped Gifts In One Hour” Guinness World Record so, while the adjudicator is in town, he decides to try to beat the “Most Jenga Blocks Balanced On One Upright Block” record. With help from his mother Marissa (Nikki Deloach), her husband Eric (Lucas Bryant) and his best friend Amy (Daphne Hoskins), he tries to stack 1401 Jenga blocks.

First, I’d like to say that I applaud Hallmark for casting an openly autistic actor as an autistic character. It gave the movie a little more depth than if they hadn’t.

With that said, this movie was nice but it felt like it was lacking a little something. I think it was the fact that there was no real “villain” in the story. Sure, we had Charlie’s biological dad, Peter (Matt Hamilton), basically ignoring him but that isn’t much of a villain story. Especially since the blame is mostly placed on a wrong email address. Maybe if Peter was a little meaner about not being around for Charlie or something like that. We’re also told that kids make fun of Charlie for being different but we never see that either. Actually, all of the other kids we see are really nice to Charlie. As a result, the big obstacle is just…autism. Thankfully, Nikki Deloach and Lucas Bryant are strong enough actors to carry the movie with their relationship alone.

Rating: The tallest tower built on the smallest block