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MOVIE REVIEW #1 - One Magic Christmas (1985)
Here it is the first Christmas Movie Review of the year! Please ignore that I am publishing this on September 27,
when it is supposed to be 80 degrees outside today! :)
A friend asked me to review this movie and
I said yes. I was worried it was going to be super cheesy, but oddly it was a
pretty good movie, much better than I expected.
The cinematography is both good and bad, Whoever designed
the lighting and color palate was actually very artistic. But I think it needs
to be digitally remastered (To be honest I cheaped out and didn’t rent the HD
version so that could be part of it) Anyway, I read that it was filmed in Canada during the
winter. The cinematographer used the winter light, and snow to set a tone of
sadness and hopelessness. It is a very realistic movie for the most part, except for Harry Dean Stanton as a somewhat menacing Christmas Angel and Santa's workshop run by "good people" who have died. (To be honest I was not
quite sure about that part because I was dozing off a little bit.)
This is the story of a poor family having a very hard time right before Christmas. They are getting kicked out of their house, they don't have enough money for Christmas presents, and Mom has lost the Christmas Spirit completely. After a series of sad sad things, some snowglobe magic, and some letters to Santa Claus, the Magic of Christmas makes everything right
(including bringing the father back to life after he is murdered in a broad
daylight bank robbery – told you it was dark).
This movie brings three of the standard Christmas plots
together: Christmas Heals a Broken Heart, Santa is Real!, and It’s A Wonderful
Copyright Infringement. (There is also one scene that feels like Let's Plagiarize Dickens but that might be more of a homage than theft.)
A couple of strange things about this movie:
Harry Dean Stanton plays a Christmas Angel, but he wears
this dark hat and trench coat and is a little creepy.
The little girl has a really scary doll
And I didn't quite get the connection between the snowglobes
and the Mom’s Christmas spirit, but hey what the hell it is almost Christmas.
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