There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays in A Hobo's Christmas

The other night was a snowy November evening. Though Thanksgiving was still a week away, it felt like the perfect time to officially break out the Christmas movies, so when a friend proposed one of her favorites, A Hobo's Christmas, Mom and I readily agreed. Neither of us had heard of the 1987 made-for-TV movie before, so we were especially keen to give this unfamiliar story a shot.

Will Mackenzie, who has worked primarily in television, directed this feel-good film about Chance (Barnard Hughes), a hobo who, after 25 years riding the rails and avoiding direct contact with his son Charlie (Gerald McRaney), decides it's time to try to heal the rift. Chance pulls into Salt Lake City with his traveling buddies and convinces them to stay on with him at the local mission while he tries to reconnect with Charlie for Christmas and bond with the grandchildren he's never met.

Above all else, this is a father-son story, and Hughes and McRaney play their parts marvelously. Hughes, who I was pleased to recognize as the kindly but addled Father Maurice in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, is enchanting as the weathered traveler who's always glad to help a stranger but has too long run from those he loves most. Meanwhile, Major Dad veteran McRaney (who also played John Denver's stern father in Take Me Home: The John Denver Story) turns in another solid performance as a caring but distant paternal figure.

Charlie works long hours, so he's not home with the kids as much as he would like, nor does the widower trust himself to fall completely in love again, though all signs seem to indicate he has found a new soulmate in the lovely Laurie (Wendy Crewson), who has been offered a hard-to-resist job in another state. But it's Chance who really gets under Charlie's skin, and all those years of bottled-up bitterness spew forth in unexpected ways, especially as he watches young Kathy (Jamie Sorrentini) and Bobby (Harley Cross) fall in love with the grandfather who doesn't seem capable of staying in one place for any length of time.

The production values on the movie aren't all that great, but that's generally to be expected of a made-for-TV movie, so I wasn't distracted by a few rather clumsy exterior shots. The children's performances aren't exactly noteworthy, but they play well off of Hughes, and it's in the moments of grandfatherly storytelling that we get the best sense of who this man really is. While they don't come into the movie that much, Chance's roving buddies are fun characters, each with tales of his own to tell. Cantankerous Cincinnati Harold (William Hickey) is the most prominent of these; his Scroogish behavior from the beginning suggests that a transformative subplot may be in store for him.

It may not be as well-known as the specials that get replayed year after year, but this movie captures the spirit of the season better than many I've seen. A Hobo's Christmas is a quiet, simple film emphasizing the idea that it's never too late to make a new beginning, and there's no better time to try it than Christmas.