Dear Santa (2011)

ridiculous rating

Dreadfully Boring

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I love my fair share of Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies but this by far takes the cake of the worst one I've ever seen. This movie takes tropes and drives them into the ground. The spoiled girl volunteering her time at a soup kitchen (that is a poorly constructed set of plywood) to learn the true meaning of Christmas. A simple plot ruined by the main character straight up stalking the love interest, an annoying child, bad dialogue, and a borderline offensive gay character (of course the movie chose to indicate this gay character with a pink toque and coat). A lot of people will say it's fun to watch something so bad but trust me there are plenty of movies that are actually bearable to sit through that don't reinforce such uncomfortable behavior.

I recommended this movie to about a dozen people, and every single one of them loved it and watched it at least a second time. Most movies that I watched that were billed to be a Christmas movie either had a plot that had too little mention of Christmas or showed very sporadic scenery that just didn't remind you that you were actually watching a Christmas movie. Not Dear Santa, it was sprinkled throughout the movie perfectly. It is exactly what it was meant to be. A beautiful love story centered around Christmastime with great character acting and a wonderful, quick moving storyline. Romantic, cute, funny, sad, happy, covers all the emotional bases and even has a beautiful song in it, too. And don't be surprised if your eyes well up once or twice .....

Pretty and perky Park Avenue shopper Amy Acker (as Crystal Carruthers) finds a "Dear Santa" letter blown away from a mailbox. The letter is from an adorable little girl named "Olivia" (Emma Duke) who is asking Santa to bring her widower father a new wife. Feeling adventurous, Ms. Acker decides to investigate. She finds Olivia's father even more adorable. The handsome and dreamy-eyed David Hayden-Jones (as Derek Gowen) runs a soup kitchen for the homeless, and Acker is mistaken for a volunteer...Strangely, Mr. Hayden-Jones does not seem notice Acker looks at him with desire. He is engaged to scheming Gina Holden (as Jillian), who steals the movie. But Patrick Creery (as Pete Kennedy) scores points by wearing a pink chef's uniform (pink, get it?) and other accessories with bemusement. Stubborn James Dugan (as Frank McCourt) does well with his small homeless role. Actor-turning-director Jason Priestley samples some "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961); it's dumb, but funny and easy to swallow.****** Dear Santa (11/26/11) Jason Priestley ~ Amy Acker, David Hayden-Jones, Gina Holden, Patrick Creery

Somehow, despite the formulaic plot (rich, but nice, girl about to be cut off from family money unless she becomes more responsible (i.e. married and productive), finds widower whose child is seeking a new wife for him, while using knowledge of high fashion and society's upper echelon to overcome obstacle of snobbish former girlfriend attempting to work back into widower's life), this is a delightful story that actually works well. The characters interact in a relatively believable manner, so even though we can pretty much guess at how it will end within the first five minutes, it's fun to watch it play out. I wouldn't mind seeing it again!