Letters to Santa

This is a slightly unusual Christmas movie in that the lead couple is already married but experiencing a time of separation. The two kids are freely exchanged between their home where mom is living and grandmother's house where dad is living. This makes for an interesting mix of tone and emotions. There is some serious friction between the couple but they seem to care about each other and neither has reached the point where they really want a divorce. One source of their friction is that each is busy and stressed by their work worlds. We find out fairly deep into the movie the truth about another important source of their friction (although I agree with another reviewer that it doesn't make sense that this was a secret.) The movie deals with a lot of family issues. The struggle by the kids is an obvious one. Money is another. Enrique's mom is a bit of a meddler. Enrique is helping his mom maintain the family restaurant after the passing of his dad. Rebecca is not used to the tight knit family that Enrique has especially given that he has a strong family loyalty. Opposite sex relationships at work is an issue. The movie also has some light moments with some humor. The kids get a "magic pen" from Santa. Grandma starts reading their letters to Santa and tries to fulfill some wishes. There are lots of misunderstandings often humorous. Another factor that leads to some of the lighter moments is Rebecca's children's book which she is late delivering and has writer's block. Later in the movie, Rebecca starts to put some of the family's personal experiences into the book and the parallels are interesting. I like the family tradition where one person can make a statement beginning with "True or False" to confront the true feelings of the other person. Even the kids do it. I would have expected a family with this tradition would resolve many problems before they get serious because of the resulting honesty and openness. I am an avid Christmas movie fan but I find it easy to get angry at someone or something early or be turned off by a less than jolly tone. Somehow in this movie I avoided both and was able to enjoy a good story.

Seriously...I can't write and yet I could have written a more convincing Christmas movie than this one. The premise of Santa giving the kids a magic pen to write him letters with what they wanted most in life after their parents split up could have been workable. It really could have been a magic pen, but instead, they just had a meddling grandmother steal the letters and fulfill whatever the wish was for that day. Santa didn't have anything to do with it. ...but it's Hallmark so it would have been cuter if Santa had actually been answering them. And then there was the acting...which was so horrible from nearly the entire cast that it was laughable...yet somebody thought it was a good idea to produce this. Just don't even watch it so you can save yourself from yelling at the lame characters.

I should've paid attention to the ratings/reviews on this one, but I went ahead and watched it anyway as I'm working through the '23 CTC catalogue. First, let me list what I enjoyed: 1. Rafael de la Fuente. ...That's it. Now, I thought Rafael did a great job as Enrique. I felt the emotion, and he came across well as the heartsick dad just wanting his family whole. But even his performance couldn't salvage this. I understand what the plot was trying to do: show that both Enrique and Rebecca had their issues and had things to work on as the reason for their separation. But the deeper and deeper we got into the film, I found myself siding with him ultimately. I don't even understand WHY he married Rebecca in the first place. She's downright awful. No hate to the actress of course, she did the best with what she was given script wise, but my God. She (Rebecca) was so short, snippy and rude for a majority of the film. Even her happy moments had me waiting for the other shoe to drop, in that she'd get mad AGAIN for some unknown reason. It felt like she was antagonizing Enrique all the time, but never had any self-reflection to acknowledge her own shortcomings. A scene I really disliked was when Candy, as sweet as she was (and I suppose another small highlight of the film), offered to pick the kids up and Rebecca jumped to conclusions, thinking that her husband was cheating on her. As if he'd ever shown any indication of anything other than wanting to reconcile with his wife. Plot wise, too, something that was simply ridiculous was the whole thing of Rebecca's book. There's no way she would've been working the DAYS leading up to Christmas on a novel ABOUT Christmas that would get published that soon. I'm not even in the literary field, and I know there's no turnaround that quick, lol. If she was a steady author with the publishing company, they would've been working on it months in advance to get ready for the holiday season. Overall, the movie was just really bad. The kids weren't even acting cute, more so irritating, and don't even get me started on the grandma and sister stealing mail (aka a felony). The premise seemed cool, but spoiling it by showing the audience that the wishes weren't really getting granted by Santa and the magic pen, well, ruined the magic. The Liam angle was odd, too. Honestly, with the way Rebecca was acting, I would've preferred everyone went their separate ways, and Enrique pursued Candy. Liam and Rebecca had an odd vibe too, almost bordering on romantic interest, but not quite? I really don't understand the story direction there. Skip this one. The plot was flimsy, the acting was bad except for Rafael (and even so, I had to skip past that singing number at the end, because...what?), and honestly...free Enrique at this point.

Hallmark, you lied. You told us that the kids in this movie get a magical pen that grants wishes. Sounds like a good time, right? Like what crazy things might the kids get with this magical pen? Well, it's not magic. It's grandma who also steals the mail, which I'm pretty sure is a crime just about anywhere. The female lead in this film is entirely too angry one minute then over-the-top happy the next. Editing? Acting? I'm not sure. There is also a rather racy scene, or tease of something racy that I would not have expected in a Hallmark movie, but kudos for trying. I'm here for showcasing some real couple situations like separation, but they dangle other love interests in front of these leads, who may have been better matches for them, which is too confusing. Think of the children! But really, this is a stinker.

Yikes, the conservative people who still watch Hallmark despite their contention that they will boycott and only watch GAC Family might actually make good on their threat on this one because Hallmark has produced a film - actually, a very good one - where it's two main characters are separated! And, at the end of the movie (don't act like you don't know how it'll end) they are in bed together. Shock, horror, etc. 'Letters to Santa' shines a light on what it must be like for kids with estranged parents. The storyline is handled sensitively, though there is more realistic conflict than you expect from a Hallmark movie. Albeit with the usual HEA ending. Rafael de la Fuente & Katie LeClerc are both good actors, and bring their flawed characters to life to great effect. I enjoyed the originality and there are some good messages to be found in this movie, too.

The only thing great about this film was Laura Cerón, who plays Camilla, Enrique'a mom. I loved the Latin family...but felt it was pretty racist to think that Rebecca (Katie Leclerc) couldn't understand family because she was white and an only child. I didn't really understand the separation at all. Couples fight about money all the time, this was a single thing and to go to separation because of it?!?!? If it wasn't for coincidences these two would be getting divorced. I saw no actual work on their relationship. And why aren't they talking together...I understand the mom not wanting people to know about her financial situation, but if you borrow money from a couple both of those parties should know the reason and if you can't tell them, then you shouldn't be borrowing from them. I did like the kids book and I loved that the grandmother was really trying to make the magic pen letters come true...it's a sweet idea, but the movie overall I wanted to like more than I really did. I also really liked that the Brit could speak Spanish. For me this was too melancholy for a Christmas film and I just got tired of seeing Rebecca's sad face.

I disagree with the idea the mother in law is some kind of savior to the couple. She is a big part of the problem. She gets in the way for her own needs and wants. The husband is putting his birth family ahead of his family with his wife and expecting her to just go along. It's not fair to anyone. Even the sister tries to explain to her brother the dad that not everyone is used to always putting your birth family first. She talks about how they tried to name the baby before it was born . All the husband could say I was in trouble with my mom about that. The mother in law finally gets it half way thru the movie . She finally stops meddling. It was a good idea to discuss real issues in a Christmas movie. The holidays often brings out real conflict that really about other things.

Good movie!

Loved this holiday movie. The story was not an easy topic to address but it was handled very well. The acting was terrific. Each and every character was totally believable. I really felt that the characters struggle. The children were amazing actors. It was so enjoyable to see how They interacted so well with the adults. I found the entire story to be very heartwarming. As a hallmark movie, you expect a happy ending and that's exactly what you got. Nonetheless isn't that what we all hope for. I'll definitely watch this movie over again. I also loved the cultural diversity. Definitely not a typical hallmark movie but definitely one that everyone can relate to.

Good movie!