Christmas Child (2004)

This film has lots of themes in it. Most of all it has deal with "finding family", "What is family", and what secrets are worth keeping. Most of all what price people pay for keeping those secrets. This is one of those rare films that you can not multi-task while watching. You need to pay attention to the details otherwise you can easily lose track of people's names and motivations. In this film Bill Ewing's holiday film Christmas Child concerns Jack (William R. Moses), a reporter who has been having a difficult time getting much joy out of his life. Both his wife (Megan Follows) and his job fail to revive his spirits. While he is working on a story in Dallas, TX, he comes across a photograph that gets his attention. The photograph leads him to Clearwater, TX, where he learns about the town's ornate nativity scene and confronts his past and maybe can lead him to a happier future.This film is well made. Its heart is in the right place. I am glad that the makers of this film did not portray "Small Town" USA as bunch of hicks. If you like stories without Hobbits & Super Heroes then watch this. Trust me it is much better than most of those films. This is a nice films for adults. Kids will be bored.

It's Christmas time and reporter William R. Moses hasn't had a decent story to his byline for a long time. He welcomes a chance to go to Texas for a human interest story, but his real motivation is to stop in Clearwater, Texas to find out the mystery of his birth.Moses has no family so to speak and was raised as a foundling. He's a little jealous of wife Megan Fellows with whom he will spend Christmas once again with her family. In Clearwater, Moses does find the mystery of his birth and the reason why a whole lot of people are trying to keep him from finding out.Christmas Child is a nice enough family holiday classic. With Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman playing the part of a preacher in the film, it was guaranteed from the start to have a built in audience appeal. Chapman was fine in the role, truth be told the part was no stretch for him. In the film his character and his wife adopt a young foundling child, in real life Chapman and his wife adopted three Asian orphans.Christmas Child does have a heartstring tugging ending, but one that is totally in keeping with the spirit of the movie. There is one character in this film who gets one fabulous Christmas present.

Christmas Child is better than a lot of movies I can name that cost ten times as much to make. I thought the opening scenes between Moses and Megan Follows were excellent and they had good chemistry and excellent dialog. Sadly, when Follows leaves the story, it seems to lose a lot of energy and slow way down.While not full of holes, neither is it seamless or easy to follow especially from an emotional standpoint. The messages are highly positive but delivered in a slow way through the eyes of the troubled protagonist who seems to fail to appreciate what he is given. His emotional distance and alienation do not "develop" along with the story thereby keeping the emotonal tempo from moving upward to match what he is learning on his "Quest".The final problem I had with it was that the return of Follows to the story (thereby wrapping up a major, major plot line) is given short shrift and bypasses the serious and emotionally fulfilling aspects. I have a feeling that this would have been handled at more and better length in the written version.So, for trying to tell a good story and show with some realism a "slice of life" that is far more common and more real than typical Hollywood tripe, I give it credit. The actors are very good throughout and there are many moments that will make you think.

When Jack went to the courthouse to obtain his birth records, he gave his date of birth as December 24, 1964. When Jack was escorted by the judge to the graveyard/tombstone sight and revealed Carmen's tombstone, the date of her death was December 26, 1963, two days after giving birth to Jack. How could Carmen be Jack's birth mother if she gave birth a year prior to Jack's birthday? And what was the meaning of the picture of the Reverend with two boys? The film lead you to believe that the current Reverend could be Jack's brother. The actors even look alike. Was one of the boys Jack and the other his brother who is the current Reverend?