Angel in the Family (2004 TV Movie) User Reviews

Well

[Christmas-Reviewer · 7/10 · 20 October 2016]

Sisters separated by a lifetime of misunderstanding and their family desperately in need of healing old wounds, find themselves brought back together on one amazing Christmas. Stars Meredith Baxter, Ronny Cox, and Natasha Gregson Wagner

The film is well made and has beautiful locations. The sisters issues with one another is very understandable and plausible.

The story is served well because of the casting. Everyone is believable in the part they are playing. The film may not appeal to the male audience and that is too bad. The film should be seen. It hammers home the point on how choices females must make daily. It also shows that men never think twice about what choices and decisions they make during their lifetime

A real angel for Christmas

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 5 April 2013]

I was watching this film today and at first I thought it was maudlin and sentimental. Then as it got closer toward a climax I was thinking how wonderful it was for Ronny Cox and daughters Natasha Gregson Wagner and Tracey Needham to get a return visit from his late wife and their mother Meredith Baxter. And just in time for Christmas.

Call me a sentimental fool, but I have to say I wouldn't mind a return visit from both my parents and my sister who've gone from this life.

That's what happens to Cox after he sustains a mild stroke and for his recovery Wagner takes him back to the small town and the house that they grew up in. She also calls Tracey Needham in who has moved to another big city and is an advertising executive. When they get home certain things start to happen as if by magic. Cox knows what's going on, but eventually the daughters are clued in when Meredith Baxter returns from the beyond to spend Christmas with her still earthbound family.

As you can imagine a whole range of issues bothering the still living relatives are thrashed out to the point where the film is getting a bit bogged down. I guess it's what happens when you have an Angel In The Family and they come calling.

Angel In The Family is somewhat talky and verbose, but who could argue with a wonderful concept that I only wished happened in my life. And I suspect those of you reading this will feel likewise.

Not for me

[Becky145 · 1/10 · 17 January 2020]

I guess I'm the weird one. At the first commercial break, I'm done. The people have been terribly annoying up to this point, so I don't feel like going on any further. There is nothing drawing me to see what might happen next.

Excellent movie...

[charlene-29 · 10/10 · 25 May 2006]

A Must See - especially for those who have experienced the great loss of someone they love... just goes to show us all - that even tho we've lost the physical person we had here on Earth - their love & spirit radiates/stays all around us until it's our time to go to Heaven. The movie reflects Life as it is in Our Time - hard, too busy, full of misunderstandings... Then shows us the bottom line - that Love will get us thru no matter what. That we should all take good care of each other - seeing past our deceiving exteriors - well into each other's true hearts. Meredith Baxter and all of the actors in this movie - did a great job! Want to get this movie for our home collection - will view it over and over and over again!

Mom is back from the dead ... don't waste that precious time.

[dennisg-6 · 8/10 · 16 February 2010]

What if you could come back to life, to help set things straight with the ones you left behind? A widower, who does not know how to relate to his 2 daughters, has allowed their relationships to weaken. For years, his one daughter has lived with him, and has taken care of him (while he has lied to her about how sick he actually is).

This daughter has gone through a life with little-or-no love, no respect, and no appreciation. Fortunately, she has dug herself out of that hole of drug-and-alcohol abuse (no thanks to her non-supportive family). With that said, this daughter doesn't complain, and tries to always be upbeat.

Dad faints, and is taken to the hospital. Tests there are inconclusive. He checks himself out, and goes to a favorite place. There, he talks to his now-dead-wife. She tells him to go back to the small town where they used to live. His daughters show up, and take him from L.A. back to Trinity. Once there, he talks more-and-more with his wife.

As the well-adjusted daughter is leaving, her mom appears; so she stays. Mom announces that she is there to help fix things (and, eventually, she does).

This is a low-key movie (which is wonderful in itself). It fulfills the fantasy of people who fear their loved ones are gone forever. I have watched this 50-or-more times. I play it when I want a quiet movie (to offset a hectic day).

I agree, great film

[Glenn49 · 9/10 · 4 December 2009]

All the previous comments are on the button. This is a great, family film that I enjoyed a lot. Thank God for Hallmark. They refuse to let the family time die. If it were not for movies like this, I think the holidays would be much less enjoyable. I really miss those evenings when my mom, dad and I would find our favorite chair, hurry to get the cocoa and cookies setup in time for the movie. Just the lights from the tree, a few scented candles and the flicker of the TV. Sit back and be taken into the Christmas magic of a good movie. Those times are leaving us. Everything it too fast, too commercial, to liberal, too "xmas"! Movies like this save the spirit. All season I scan the satellite guide on Hallmark, Gospel Music Channel, TBN and others looking for films like this. And guess what, I am a guy. A 49 year old guy that misses a world where a family was mom, dad and a kid or three. When Merry Christmas wasn't grounds for a law suit. When the City Hall had a beautiful nativity scene and people could say Christmas was a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Shamless ad: Visit Amazon.com. They have a 3 DVD set, this film, A Christmas Visitor and Christmas Snow. All for a really good price.

Very warming movie with excellent values

[JJBustamante · 9/10 · 17 September 2005]

The story basically is about a widower father and his two daughters who often had disputes. The father got really ill near Christmas, so he and his two daughters spent the Christmas in their old family home.

By some miracle, their mother who passed away several years previous suddenly came back to help straighten things out.

I suppose that this is a fantasy that everyone who lost a loved one has, and this movie was a nice exploration of what could happen in such a case.

Aside from that, this movie has excellent moral values and is perfect for the whole family. Subtly but surely, this movie illustrates mainstream Judeo-Christian values. It successfully showed us the problems of addictions, abortion, fornication and obsessions without showing us the ugly side of humanity -- an extremely unusual feat.

Those who do not like being preached to would likewise enjoy this movie, as even though it is a movie of morality, it does not try to indoctrinate or preach.

This is the perfect movie.

Angel In The Family Is My Favorite Modern Christmas Movie

[texasrose_29 · 10/10 · 16 March 2008]

Angel In The Family is my favorite modern day Christmas movie for many many reasons.I love this movie so much.I have watched it a few times and I never get tired of it.The cast for this story is too perfect. The casting people for the production could not have picked better actors to play in their respective parts.The music in this film is so much fun and unusual.I wish that this movie had a CD from it.I love hearing Christmas songs that I have not heard before.If anyone reads this review and knows the names and the sources for the songs,please would you let me know?Ronny Cox was so much fun to watch in his portrayal of Buddy the father who misses his loving wife so much.I love the relationships in the story, and the two actresses who played the two sibling sisters are lovely to watch.Tracey Needham was just right as the daughter who was trying to handle her own life and trying to take good care of her father.Natasha Gregson Wagner is a living doll just like her mother Natalie Wood was.While I was watching her I was amazed at how much she looked like her mother.The thing is she is not her mother.Natasha is a wonderful actress and lady in her own right. And of course Meredith Baxter Birney is one of my favorites.I love the part that Tess Harper plays as the nice lady Mrs. Thompkins who is a possible love interest in the future maybe for Buddy.That is what I like to hope would have happened if the story were real.The setting in the house by the frozen lake and the little town that they called Trinity is beautiful.I know that there is a Trinity county California in the mountains. I wonder if this movie was filmed there.The best part of the movie is the message.I have learned this message the hard way and just recently when my dear dad passed away in October of 2007.The message that I took from this extraordinary story is:treasure the people that you love as much as you can now.I talk to my dad more now then when he was alive and I would jump Mount Everest to be able to be with him now.Also be patient with the people that you love because they might be gone tomorrow.I recommend this wonderful story for all to see,including the young ones.A masterpiece Christmas movie from Hallmark.Wonderful movies like this one are a rarity.Thank you Hallmark.I rated this movie a 10-excellent.

A must see!

[karensingrey · 10/10 · 7 January 2019]

Wonderful movie. I want the meatloaf recipe, though! Ronnie Cox and Meredith Birney are so great in this movie.