Pretty much ignored when released in 1985, One Magic Christmas has hung in there and found an audience thanks to a solid script and Mary Steenburgen’s compelling lead performance as Ginny Hanks Grainger, a morose wife and mother whose Christmas spirit has been buried beneath mountains of unpaid bills, a soul-crushing job, and a coming eviction. 

Help arrives in the form of Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton), the unlikeliest of angels, who’s been tasked with the impossible: reminding this despairing mother of two of her blessings so that the Christmas spirit ripped from her by the hard realities of life can return. How far Gideon’s willing to go in order to accomplish this makes for some of the darkest moments you’ll ever come across in a holiday film, especially one from Disney.

This quiet, understated and sometimes grim spin on It’s A Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol is not for the wee ones. But at 88-minutes there’s a ton of story and you have to be grateful that when the end credits roll no one On High has paid the bills or found Ginny and her family new housing. The film understands that God is not our own personal deus ex machina and that the angels can only help the willing to refocus their perspective on to that which really matters. Miracles are short-term solutions, it’s wisdom that helps you go the distance.  (more…)

“Two Weeks Notice” hit theatres way back in 2002, which means a full seven years have passed since Sandra Bullock’s starred in a vehicle built around her that’s been at all appealing. And yet, she’s such an endearing star and the rare one whose private behavior has yet to diminish her public goodwill, that you can’t help but root for her. Unfortunately, when it comes to choosing projects all the goodwill in the world can’t change the fact that she needs better management.

Well, maybe she’s found some.

On paper, “The Proposal” sounds like more of the same; another concept-driven, fish-out-of-water romantic comedy. And that it is, but thanks to a solid script and winning performances from Bullock and co-star Ryan Reynolds, this coming weekend offers one of the better romantic comedies of the last few years.

“The Proposal” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but built around the expected are a number of entertaining, very well written and performed scenes which create a believable central relationship you root for. The laughs are consistent, and though some are milked from contrived situations, most are earned honestly through realistic reactions from well-developed characters. Beneath it all beats a heart of the best kind; the kind that sneaks up on you in the end as if to say, “Who knew I cared this much?” (more…)