The Christmas Spirit (2013)

A Hallmark Christmas story. seductive. and different by the ordinary recipe. because the accent is different. and the performances - obvious better than the script-. but one of beautiful surprises is the performance of Nicolle Sheridan and the work of Olympia Dukakis. a film about hope, joy and family, community spirit. and Christmas.

I don't care what kind of financial trouble a small town is having. There is no way on earth that they would leave a broken traffic light blinking green in both directions. NO WAY. This is the single point that ruins this movie for me every time I see it. If nothing else, the town could have purchased clear red tape from any auto supply store and make that light blink red instead of green. This just wouldn't happen "in real life". The author should have come up with a different idea to put both protagonists in the spirit world rather than an unbelievable, forever broken, blinking green traffic light.

Beyond Awful! I did not care for this Christmas movie the first time I saw it. After seeing it again, I thought it was even worse! I profoundly noticed an underlying theme that surfaced, which is a mockery of Christianity! "Charlotte," is ONLY a recently unemployed newspaper writer, but is glorified ad nauseum by the town's people, and whom they keep turning to and relying on for help regarding the potential buy-out situation....including the business owners. Even in the Church scene, the Reverend stated to his congregation --to the effect-- that the greatest message of Christmas is Charlotte's life. (What about the message from the "Reason" for the Christmas Season?)Olympia tells there was always something special about her ever since she was a child. Her contacts to the people were alluding to be miracles.She was the deciding person whose "righteous" (or more accurately, self-righteous) influence would determine if her and Daniel would be returned to their bodies...the power over life or death. Is she the town's "savior"??...........Also, she gains a power from the spirit world. Olympia Dukakis constantly looked like she was in deep mourning at a wake (so depressed).Blatant Puzzling Mistake: When Charlotte and Daniel were walking on the sidewalk, he pulled out a wad of money. She tells him to put it away before it scares someone seeing money floating by. Well, um, since they are invisible and the money is not, then the money is going to look like it's floating no matter where he has it....including being thrown in Santa's collection pot....and in the restaurant,"hiding" it to his side before placing it as a tip on the table. DUH!!!!!!! Nicolette Sheridan is a stoic actress, extremely little to mostly no expression...in all of her movies. No expression from her eyes, mouth, entire face, or sincerity with words. So for a movie that was supposed to be focused on conveying a heart-tugging message, she did not convey the message. She just played the part. One would solely have to listen to the words and rely on the plot. Therefore, she was not right for the part.

I live in Dayton, Ohio and grew up going to Lebanon with my grandma for lunch. She's got a slight obsession with the Golden Lamb, which has (to a lesser extent) been passed on to me. So, last December, when she requested that we record the movie on DVR to watch on Christmas Day, I readily agreed. It was terrible. You've got to understand, I'm a writer. I spend hours every day pouring over manuscripts, editing, hunting for problems with plot, character development, motive... I'm a writing geek. And movies like this make my brain explode. I spent the entire film biting back my thoughts about the illogical motives of the characters, the trite storyline... Sure, they got a decent cast. Not the BEST acting, but not the worst. The setting was beautiful. I know they shipped in a bunch of fake snow, so they could shoot the movie in September, and I can't deny that that was cool. But the plot. Oh dear, the plot... This movie is unique in that it contains one of the largest plot holes I've ever seen. All the action of the movie is based around the fact that this town is so poor, they can't afford to replace or repair a traffic light. But how much would it cost to put up stop signs? The entire incident could have been prevented if somebody somewhere just thought of that, instead. I have a feeling that this is one problem in the script that the writers just glazed over. You know, deal with it later? But they forgot. Also, without that mistake, there is no movie. All in all, it was... cute. And that's the absolute nicest thing I can say. Probably too nice. Go ahead. Watch it. But only if you don't suffer the affliction of having a writer's brain.