Under the Mistletoe (2006)

This made for TV-film needed some re-casting. THe actors in this film were good however they are in the wrong roles. Devoted father and husband Tom Chandler dies in a car accident, but appears as a ghost to his 11 year old son Jonathan. Now a single mother, Susan Chandler tries to concentrate on her reporter job and dismisses the idea of a ghost, but allows the school counselor, Kevin Harrison, to work with Jonathan. Now Tom's Ghost and Jonathan arrange for Susan to enter a radio show's dating game, and conclude that only Kevin, a widower and coach in Jonathan's former favorite sport, ice-hockey, will do as his stepdad, while she leans towards lawyer Greg Roberts.I truly think that the actors playing Tom and Jonathan should have been switched. The film would of been better served. Besides you can easily see why she was so deeply in love with her husband if he was played by Michael Shanks. If Conan Graham played a school coach you would see why Susan would never "Notice Him". Michael Shanks however stops traffic.

After falling in love with Michael Shanks on Stargate, I've been trying to get my hands on some of his other work. This wasn't worth the effort I had to go through to find a copy. Shanks does what he can but even he can't make up for the cheesy lines and major plot holes.The aspect that bothered me most was the attitude of the mother. She acted more like a spoilt 16 year old than a professional women in her 30s with an 11 year old son. And I wasn't buying her grief either. For someone who apparently had the fairytale marriage, she was able to switch off her grief at the drop of a hat.Burkely Duffield does a pretty good job as Jonathan and has good potential for the future.The one highlight that made the 90mins bearable was Michael Shanks as Kevin Harrison. I totally bought him as a kind and caring teacher. I was hoping to see more of him skating though but that's just my wishful thinking ;-) For Shanks fans I recommend only watching the scenes he is in. For everyone else avoid it unless you like cheesy Christmas movies with cliché dialogue and no real plot.

Firstly, many Canadian movies have nothing to do with hockey games - and American movies have been known to feature them as well. But what I found strange were the summer clothes and palm trees at Christmas time, when the movie was made in British Columbia. We've had some warm winters - but palm trees? It was obvious to me that the location was not somewhere in the southern US like Florida or California so shooting a Christmas movie in the middle of summer in Canada just doesn't cut it. This movie didn't fully engage me on other levels as well and it was at times difficult to stay focused on it. I agree that it does have the feel of a Hallmark.

Christmas stories often have an ethereal spirit which leads the main character(s) to a new awareness or life. "The Christmas Story" is a prime example where the ghost of Robert Marley and the other "spirits" lead Scrooge to a new life of loving and giving. Much in the same vein, "Under The Mistletoe" engages the audience in the same manner, without seeming derivative. It is a wholesome, modern Christmas film, that should become a yearly favorite. Jaimie Ray Newman radiates on screen. She is totally believable as the mourning widow with a son who can not let go of his father, who has died, but remains visible to him. Burkley Duffiled as her son is a fine young actor, handsome, and natural as the loner who can only see into the other world. Michael Shanks, as the new father in his life, is refreshing in his departure from "Stargate". And Connan Graham fulfills his role as the "ghost", the departed father, admirably. The action hockey sequence is bound to engage the hockey fans and the kids as in the "Mighty Ducks". Well produced and put together film with a sure and steady hand in directing.