AJ-Reviews Review of Christmas Angel

Christmas Angel (2009)

Great movie with heart that would have been perfect but for a sub-par romance story

[8/10 · 7 January 2020]

I'm going to be ultra picky in some areas with this movie. Please forgive me if my analysis radar is off. It is 2019 and it can be hard to remember how things were in 2009. In a time of yellow pages and Motorola flip phones exists this amazing movie called Christmas Angel. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for those who watch these kind of movies for another Christmas-Romance-Story, you'll be mostly disappointed. With all the Christmas "cookie cutter" romance movies out there, that actually might be a good thing. This movie has a lot of heart. Made me cry like a little baby. Several times. Luckily, no one reads these reviews so I'm pretty safe admitting that. -Specific details- One of the main characters who uses a cane, wasn't taught how to use it correctly and it is obvious by the way he uses it on the wrong side of the body. Another main character has a dog, but a lot of times she doesn't take it out...I know this is a silly detail but - poor puppy. It is a small detail, but there are a lot of times where someone will dial a phone number and instantly they are on the phone with someone, as if it didn't have time to ring. This happens enough that it takes you out of the mostly realistic story and reminds you that they aren't really using a phone. Picky...but still. One detail thing that I really enjoyed was seeing the writer character actually type on the keyboard while he was using it. Someone actually typing what they are saying and their hands actually moving correctly is often a rarity in movies-even in 2019. On a quick aside, I still don't know why in driving scenes, the driver tends to move the steering wheel left and right wildly like in a racing- 'video game' when they are driving straight down the road. Anyways...back to the movie. Oh, I thought that the very last series of "final shots" made no sense and were pointless. One could have finished that movie with an infinite number of shots that would have been better (more suited to the theme or relevant to the last line of dialogue or...anything really). A lame ending to a well crafted movie. -Now for the Broad Strokes- Acting and casting: The acting and casting was all fantastic. The dialogue was amazingly well written and had the fluid "real life" dialogue similar to movies like The Before Trilogy. The downside to that, is when the dialogue isn't as good, then it really sticks out because the rest of it is amazing. In most movies of this "ilk" the dialogue is pretty bad and so bad dialogue is just, part of the mess. It is because of the talented writing of 95% of the movie that the 5% that isn't as good really jumps out. I enjoyed the realistic dialogue. It wasn't campy at all and surprisingly intelligent and logical in many areas. Not what I was expecting (in a good way). The music is of good quality, as a musician I feel like I have some weight on the matter. Unfortunately, the music for the movie is over-the-top "shmaltzy" while the dialogue and setting are very realistic which leads to a few scenes that just feel off or odd. As if the movie didn't know what kind of movie it was trying to be. There was a nice realistic touch to the movie and unfortunately perhaps the romance or relationships were a bit too realistic. It was hard to like some of the main characters, and in some weird combination of dialogue and character made for the romance aspect of the story to just fall short. When the romance did occur, it felt forced (especially with that bad over the top music). If I had half the interactions that those characters did, then well there wouldn't be any more relationship, never-mind romance. Some parts of this movie makes the romance of the Star Wars Prequel (junk) seem amazing...that is really harsh. It is almost on that level though. ::Conclusion:: Even with all of the little-flaws and bad-romance, the movie ends up being heart warming and amazing. The overall messages that the movie is conveying outweighs the fantasy-Christmas-romance themes in most Christmas movies. The closing of side-story plots was also a nice tying of the bow that sealed this hidden Christmas Present. If only the love story was better...*&*^. It could have actually ended up being a classic. To the .00001% of you who read this review: I hope you enjoyed!