When I see movie descriptions saying an item was found or the characters are searching for something, I expect a little bit of mystery in the movie. Christmas Keepsake does not agree.

After the death of his wife, Tom (Daniel Lissing) and his daughter, Grace (Ellie Stewart), move to the United States. As Grace is playing in the backyard of their new house, she finds a buried time capsule. Together, they try to find the original owner of the time capsule to return it to them. Along the way, they meet Elizabeth (Jillian Murray), owner of the local bakery. Perhaps together, the three can find a way to have a happy Christmas again.

Great American Family is great at having boring films that don’t have anything to say. Tom and Grace are darling but they don’t seem to really care that their wife/mother has died. Usually, in movies like these, the kid tries to cling to all of the Christmas traditions that the missing parent participated in. Not here. Grace is all “Let’s so new stuff!” Which is admirable but strange nonetheless. Tom is at least trying to do things that Grace liked to do in Australia to try to make the move easier on her.

Then there is Elizabeth. She’s sad about something but we aren’t really sure what. Her dad died….but it was like a decade ago? (She literally said she was a small child when it happened.) I understand grieving a dead parent but there should be a point where you stop taking it out on everyone else.

Christmas Keepsake was really trying to make this a movie about two grieving people coming together. They did it in the stupidest way. They should have just focused on the time capsule and left everything else out. It would have been so much cooler to dig deeper into the items in the box.

Rating: Put me in a time capsule for the next 20 years