A Family Thanksgiving (2010)

Very disappointed :(

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

A hard working attorney is shown how her life would be is she had a husband and kids. Claudia (Daphne Zuniga) is the successful trial attorney who graduated at the top of her class from Harvard Law School. She's working hard to become the first female partner within a high-powered firm. She believes her life is 'perfect'. Her sister asks her the day before to prepare for the family Thanksgiving a homemade apple pie. Claudia, however, is everything but the homemaker her sister is, and is annoyed by the request because she doesn't have 'time' for such things.Meanwhile, Claudia is directed to assist a corporate client in reversing an injunction so that it can demolish a park to build an enormous development. In order to realize this, she insists her subordinate employees work on Thanksgiving Day, because the court hearing is the day after. During this process, Claudia meets Gina (Faye Dunaway), a mysterious older woman who makes it her goal to teach Claudia some moral lessons. Gina takes Claudia to an alternative world, where Claudia is a lower profile happily married minivan-driving 'soccer mom' with two children.Claudia is perplexed by the situation she is now in, but while experiencing her new life, the way it could have been, she learns that she is missing out on a lot; despite past prejudice regarding married life, she eventually finds she's falling in love with the man to whom she is married, and she becomes accustomed to the new life she is leading. Furthermore, she grows closer to her sister. Just as she is about to settle with her new life, Gina returns to take her back. Claudia is reluctant to return to her corporate life, and thus must consider what she is most thankful for.What I hated about this film that is shows that women are not happy until they have a husband and kids. This very stupid. I think a better story line is that she breaks with her husband and would of been shown what life she will miss out on. The performances in this film are good. I just have a huge problem with the hidden message that "Women are only happy when they are married. That is insulting.

This is really a terrific film and in one respect, it reminded me of the great "It's A Wonderful Life." of 1946.A career oriented woman with no time for even thinking of a family life meets up with Faye Dunaway and when she is in a car with her, she is suddenly transported to a totally new life with a husband and 2 children.The film first deals with the hardships she faces when realizing that this is her new life, she tries desperately to provide a decent home for all concerned.She does come to realize that her life can be balanced with both family and a career. In fact, she takes on a case, but the opposite side that she was going to take when she was the dedicated career woman.Suddenly, she is transported back to her former life. While the premise may sound inane, this is a real film from the heart, showing that we can balance our lives.

Why do they keep making these movies, this one didn't even give her one good reason to want to stay in that chaos. Plus her pleading with the crazy old bat that trapped her there, all she had to do is park the brat-mobile and walk away. I'm 44 now and I haven't seen one example that would make me consider marriage and I'm a guy, for women the nightmare is 100 times worse. What did she say, "not all women need the 2.5 kids, husband and mini-van to complete her" they don't need it and more importantly I don't know why they would want it. My nieces will never get princess gear, baby dolls, or home care toys from me, sports equipment and career training toys like erector sets.

Single, high-flying attorney Claudia (Daphne Zuniga), tops in her class at Harvard Law, is focused on one thing: her career, and making partner at her this-is-your-only-life law firm. Her drive for success has predictably made her miss countless family events, and is about to do the same with this year's Thanksgiving at her sister's (Gina Holden, playing a stay-at-home mom), when Claudia is suddenly thrust by a mysterious figure (Faye Dunaway) into an alternate reality wherein she had given up the idea of practicing law years before in favor of having a husband (Dan Payne) and two children.If this story sounds somewhat familiar, perhaps you saw The Christmas Clause (TV 2008). The current movie takes the basic idea of the former, resets it from Christmas to Thanksgiving, and flips the situation, i.e., instead of a mom with three kids shown what her life would be like as a successful lawyer with all the material goods she could possibly desire, here the lawyer becomes the mom and is shown how much richer her life could be if she broadened her focus and looked beyond her career as the sole purpose of her life.While both movies take a similar route to reach a common goal, this "remake" is executed much more adeptly, and while still firmly rooted in the traditional Hallmark mold and formula, "Thanksgiving" dispenses with many of the clichés which made "Christmas" merely pedestrian.The acting here is uniformly good, but young Kennedi Clements as Claudia's alternate reality daughter, is a heart-stealer in this, her apparent movie debut.