A Little Women's Christmas | 2024 Christmas Movies

Great American Family has given fans of Louisa May Alcott a present - A Little Women’s Christmas. A modern retelling of the Little Women story with a few changes.

Jo March (Jillian Murray) is a children’s book author who is trying to move into the young adult genre. When her book idea is rejected, her publisher tasks her with finding a new story while she goes to visit her family at home for Christmas. Little does Jo know that her publisher has sent Fritz (Trevor Donovan) to keep an eye on her. Meanwhile, Jo and her sisters - Meg (Jen Lilley), Beth (Laura Osnes), and Amy (Julie Reilly) - try to figure out how to have the best Christmas without their parents or Meg’s husband, John (Jesse Hutch).

I am sad to admit that I am not a Little Women fan. I don’t think I’ve ever even read the book. So there were probably a lot of references and things that simply went over my head. However, that doesn’t mean it is a bad movie. Thankfully, the women playing the March sisters are all very competent actresses. At no point was I taken out of the story by bad acting. Instead, I think this movie just wasn’t for me. There wasn’t a lot of depth to the plot and it verged on being a little too religious. I’m chalking both of those up to being unfamiliar with the source material. I think that, if you are a fan of the book, you will most likely be a fan of A Little Women’s Christmas.

Rating: A little too sweet for me

Christmas Keepsake | 2023 Christmas Movies

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

A Brush With Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

With A Brush With Christmas, we finish the Great American Family movies for the season. I wish that the channels would end their seasons with a really good movie. It doesn’t have to be their best but it would be nice if it was at least good.

Charlotte (Jillian Murray) is the head chef at her family’s restaurant. However, she really wants to be an artist. Disheartened by the lack of time she has for her art, Charlotte throws away an unfinished painting. Wyatt (Joseph Cannata), a visiting artist, finds the painting and submits it to the Christmas art festival. Charlotte is not happy when she sees her painting in the exhibit.

This was yet another boring movie. There were so many problems that weren’t actually problems. While Charlotte said she wanted to paint, she also said she was perfectly happy cooking. Granted, she had a lot of trouble cooking risotto but at no point did she actually seem unhappy. And Wyatt? I’m still not sure what his problem was. Why would someone take an unfinished painting and submit it to a festival? He didn’t claim the painting as his - he entered it as painted anonymously but submitted by him. That just seems weird and creepy to me.

Skip this one too. I’m not sure that I will keep Great American Family on the list in 2023. I’m going to go into more detail in my Christmas movie wrap up but let’s just say that, for the most part, these are not good movies.

Christmas In The Pines | 2022 Christmas Movies

In my first review of an UPtv movie, I didn’t note that UPtv seems to be on the more religious side of the “wholesome” spectrum. Religion didn’t pay a large role in the last movie but it is a little more noticeable here. As a matter of fact, while the opening credits are running over visuals of a mall, we hear a voice on a loudspeaker say “Don’t forget - Jesus is the reason for the season.” I may have rolled my eyes.

Ariel (Jillian Murray) and Mark (Dean Geyer) have somehow both purchased the same cottage. Their realtors tell them that whoever leaves the property first forfeits their right to ownership. With no way to leave, they both call their families to join them at the cottage for Christmas.

Christmas In The Pines may have the stupidest premise I have ever seen. They both paid money for this house. We see Ariel giving her realtor a cashier’s check. I can only assume Mark did the same. There is no way that the “Possession is 9/10 of the law!” would ever be legal or actually work. There are so many other ways the writers could have had them stuck in a house together. Especially since there was already snow outside. Besides, how big is this cottage that it can fit both Ariel’s family - her mom (Leigh-Allyn Baker), her dad (Jeff Rose), and her sister (Victoria Staley) - and Mark’s family - his father (Grant Goodeve) and his brother (Aaron Mees). It’s a magical house, right?

As for the actual movie, there is some Santa Claus magic but there is also a sprinkle of Christianity in there. It seems like the writers didn’t want to go quite so far as to be super religious about everything. There is a definite overtone of religion though. I’m not sure how to explain it exactly. It’s like there are a few of the “right” phrases to make it seem like it wants to go full-on preach mode.

With that said, Christmas In The Pines is not high on my list of movies to watch. It’s boring, none of the plotlines make any sense, the characters aren’t particularly likeable, and it walks too many fine lines for it to be one thing or the other. If the movie had committed to what it was about, maybe it would have been better. As it stands, I would say to stay away from this one. You’ll probably regret watching it.