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| A CHRISTMAS WISH |
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| Tuesday, 06 December 2011 00:00 | |||
 Despite a fantastic premise and talented cast, A Christmas Wish ran the path of cliché far more than originality.
DVD Review
Title: A Christmas Wish
Distributor: eOne
Director: Craig Clyde
Principle Cast: Kristy Swanson, Ed Herrmann, Tess Harper
Length: 97 Minutes
Release Date: December 6th, 2011
   Reviewed by Kindah Mardam Bey
Martha Evans (Kristy Swanson), single Mom of a blended family, just can’t get a lucky break. After being left by a wayward husband, Martha goes in search for work in a depressed economy. Hanging along the journey for dear life are her three children (again, blended family). Mel and Miles, the two oldest children, have the hardest time integrating into the new town where they must set roots as Martha gets a poorly paying waitressing job at a local failing diner. Miles is a punching bag for local bullies and Martha is fighting destitution and a homeless family for Christmas while Mel is steadfast in her dreams of making this the best Christmas ever.
The town’s ability to welcome Martha and the children seems unrealistic. A few generous hands is expected but even the miserly curmudgeon, known as Les, at the Diner who likes his meal "just so" (played by Edward Herrmann) seems to melt quicker then marshmallows on hot chocolate in this Hallmark Christmas film.
Kristy Swanson does a great job of portraying Martha as a woman who silently copes with every downturn of events that comes her way. Martha is a woman who tries and doesn’t expect anything—these are virtues easy to respect and Swanson relays them beautifully. Other performances that really stood out were those of Kristin Dorn (Mel) and Kevin Herring III (Miles). Although Herring does a good job of playing an unhappy boy in a situation he can’t fully understand, it is Dorn that brings home the talent in every single scene. I was heartily impressed with Kristin Dorn and found her performance to be authentic and feisty. Of course, anytime Edward Herrmann is in anything the production value goes up, so he did a outstanding job as ever.
Where this film truly lacked was the script. It had a fantastic premise and if you have seen a film like One Magic Christmas, where poverty is the premise, you can see how much impact a theme like this can have on a Christmas movie. However, A Christmas Wish seemed always to go for the obvious plotlines and brought no new or unpredictable developments to the storyline. Only Miles's way of confronting his bullies seemed like a truly original perspective with a highly comedic ending. Essentially, A Christmas Wish ran the path of cliché far more than originality, which was unfortunate as it had enormous potential to be a "gem" in the regular new Christmas films produced every year.
I think a lot of single Mums will identify with Martha’s journey and, on that level, A Christmas Wish will connect with an audience, or kids of single moms who had to struggle to raise them, but sometimes sugar-coated endings without a lot of depth can actually leave the audience feeling less connected to the characters then they could be.
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