In an avalanche of Christmas films in 2019, it's a shame that a film like "Christmas Under the Stars" will get buried under many other formulaic bores. Here's a film with real people struggling with issues many of us can relate to wrapped up in the guise of a Holiday Hallmark movie. The tropes are here but unlike many of these films there's a backbone reminiscent of It's a Wonderful Life.
A single mother, Julie, played by Autumn Reeser is struggling to comfort her son due to her father's death and deal with his remaining medical debt. Reeser is an effective actress at portraying an everyman you could believe lives in your town. She finds out from her beau, Nick (Jesse Metcalfe), that the medical debt was sold to a new debt collector. Nick, the film's Hot Guy has recently been fired from his financial advising firm. He aimlessly walks through the street one day when a kindly old man by the name of Clem (Clarke Peters) offers him a job.
Peters is excellent as the old man. He is beaten down by the reality that his wife is dead, and he has no reason to hope for anything good will happen. He initially seems like the pillar of strength and slowly falls apart. Nick, on the other hand, gets stronger as they work together. Julie has a lot to do with that. The film establishes that Nick's businessman father wasn't a good communicator. The two of them fall in love, perhaps because they each admire the perseverance of the other person.
The film is a refreshing portrayal of the value of having a community of people who care about you in your life. It does this subtly by showing positive changes in all of the characters when other people take an interest in them. This even extends to a subplot with one of the students in Julie's science class.
Many of these made-for-tv films regardless of the channel are really fantasy films where no one has any real world problems. I believe this is a result of the commercialization of Christmas. It's easier to sell fantasy. This film is grounded in reality and refreshing in context of the genre as it now is. It's the best kind of Christmas film. The only misfortune is the forced abrupt ending neatly tying up plot threads.
A single mother, Julie, played by Autumn Reeser is struggling to comfort her son due to her father's death and deal with his remaining medical debt. Reeser is an effective actress at portraying an everyman you could believe lives in your town. She finds out from her beau, Nick (Jesse Metcalfe), that the medical debt was sold to a new debt collector. Nick, the film's Hot Guy has recently been fired from his financial advising firm. He aimlessly walks through the street one day when a kindly old man by the name of Clem (Clarke Peters) offers him a job.
Peters is excellent as the old man. He is beaten down by the reality that his wife is dead, and he has no reason to hope for anything good will happen. He initially seems like the pillar of strength and slowly falls apart. Nick, on the other hand, gets stronger as they work together. Julie has a lot to do with that. The film establishes that Nick's businessman father wasn't a good communicator. The two of them fall in love, perhaps because they each admire the perseverance of the other person.
The film is a refreshing portrayal of the value of having a community of people who care about you in your life. It does this subtly by showing positive changes in all of the characters when other people take an interest in them. This even extends to a subplot with one of the students in Julie's science class.
Many of these made-for-tv films regardless of the channel are really fantasy films where no one has any real world problems. I believe this is a result of the commercialization of Christmas. It's easier to sell fantasy. This film is grounded in reality and refreshing in context of the genre as it now is. It's the best kind of Christmas film. The only misfortune is the forced abrupt ending neatly tying up plot threads.