One thing I love about December is the abundance of Christmas movies
available for viewing. I've had Netflix to help put me in the holiday
spirit the last couple of years, but it's always a pretty good bet that
flipping through the channels will yield something Christmassy as well.
That was what led my brother and me to One Magic Christmas, which
we watched at my grandparents' house after the rest of the family had
turned in for the night. It aired on the Hallmark channel, so before it
even started we figured we had a pretty good idea of what the movie's
tone would be. It turned out to be darker than we expected and rather
convoluted too. It made for some interesting late-night viewing, but
it's not a movie I'll be seeking to slip in with our traditional
favorites next year.
One Magic Christmas is a 1985 movie written and directed by Phillip Borsos and starring Mary Steenburgen
as Ginny Hanks Grainger, a woman who, due to a recent searing personal
loss and an ongoing family economic crisis, doesn't want anything to do
with Christmas this year. The whole season just makes her cranky. Her
husband Jack (Gary Basaraba), on the other hand, still finds Christmas
as enchanting as he did when he was a youngster. He even has a childlike
dream for the season: to open a bike shop. Practical Ginny is convinced
such a move would lead to the family's financial ruination, however,
and it doesn't take their children, Abbie (Elisabeth Harnois) and Cal
(Robbie Magwood), long to figure out there's some major tension in the
household. The stress of it all presses sweet little Abbie to venture
outside in the middle of the night to deliver a last-minute letter to
Santa pleading for her mom to catch the spirit of Christmas. It's at
this point that she meets Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton), a Christmas angel
who promises to help in fulfilling her request.
What follows is a mash-up of It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol
and every special you've ever seen about a favored child being granted a
close encounter with Santa. Steenburgen is shrill as the overwrought
Ginny; though it's easy to sympathize with her plight, she's not nearly
as likable as George Bailey, and her surliness is less entertaining than
Scrooge's. Stanton's angel is gentle but awfully morose-looking. I
couldn't help thinking of C. S. Lewis's gloomy Puddleglum whenever he
turned up. Santa (Jan Rubes) in this film bears more of a resemblance to
the traditional St. Nicholas than usual; his home feels cozy and
old-fashioned, and he is much skinnier than normal. He speaks with a
Czech accent, which is certainly an unusual touch. His role in the movie
is small but significant, as he is key to Ginny's eventual
transformation.
Harnois is adorable, which works in the
movie's favor since Abbie is the one who really moves the plot along,
even more than Ginny. I enjoyed her performance for the most part, and
Abbie's interaction with her brother provided some fun moments. What I
couldn't really get into were the movie's weird plot twists and some of
the ideas it presents, like the notion that Santa's workers are not
elves but exceptionally good people who have died. The movie starts
getting really strange about halfway through, and we eventually learn
that the events that unfold are akin to George's experiences toward the
end of It's a Wonderful Life, but that's not entirely clear from
the get-go, which makes for some rather uncomfortable viewing,
especially when two major characters bite the dust. I'm also not that
wild about the way so much hinges on a letter that Ginny once wrote to
Santa Claus, and a really vacuous letter at that. For all the talk of
angels, I don't recall any overt references to God; Santa seems to serve
as a stand-in.
One Magic Christmas has a nice message
to impart about the importance of family and of retaining a childlike
sense of wonder. But the way in which it gets there is a little bizarre
for my tastes. I’d skip this one and stick with one of the movies that
inspired it.
No comments:
Post a Comment