Absolutely Brilliant!

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Courtesy of the Great Canadian film factory (which, as explained in my other reviews often masquerades as production companies from other parts of the globe), we have this soppy entry, a strange take on the X-mas fantasy classics from the 1940s.The good news? Alicia Witt. Witt is not only a singer but a comedian and actress of special merit. This reviewer first noticed her in a season of Justified where she stole the spotlight from several dramatic actors more seasoned.And speaking of "seasoned," this Xmas effort even with its many flaws could have been a lot better than it was were it not for the criminally inept casting of Donald Faison as the fantasy husband.Folks I understand the benefits of political correctness in the modern age (even though as a youngster I did not go to a "snowflake" university) but there are some things more important than political correctness, such as writing, casting, directing and acting. For starters.Witt is not only competent, she delivers some very awkward dialog like she means it. Not so with Donald Faison. He seems to think he is in a slapstick comedy instead of a romcom and keeps mugging for a laugh. It would help if there was even a smidgen of chemistry between the two. THERE IS NOT. Worse, the writer/director makes a major faux pas and actually takes this lack of chemistry and tries to turn it into a plot arc.Ugh! Other than for Witt fans, not recommended.

This movie doesn't really have any flow and is hard to follow. Rather than feeling like its own show, it feels more like a bad editing job of splicing together every other Christmas movie you've ever seen. Considering that the main character is trying to make the perfect Christmas movie when she passes out, I'm sure this is probably on purpose, but unfortunately the end result isn't good. It feels more like we were dropped into a fun house than a snow globe. Also, the male and female leads didn't demonstrate any believable chemistry, or at least not for more than a second or two at a time. Both actors are terrific, and I've loved them in other shows, but it just didn't work here. It might not be their fault, though. It could be because the movie kept jumping around and never held still long enough to maintain emotion. In any case, your time would probably be better spent watching one or more of the other Christmas movies instead of this trippy imitation.

Alicia Witt is a producer who goes to dream land. There she is married to Donald Faison and she learns they have two kids, a boy and a girl. It is a fantasy but hey it is a Christmas film. Putting on a Christmas play for the town she tries to get the cast together but there is some division among the kids. The mayor, who is a physical copy of her old fiancée, comes on to her even though he is married. Christina Milian plays a spirit who is trying to set Alicia on the right path. As the Christmas play goes on in rehearsal egos come out and some of the kids kind of blow up. Then the mayor serves a notice of eviction on the family home. Seems he has bought the woods from a local man that includes the house. The man has sold because no one seems to be into preserving the past. Alicia now tries to raise the equivalent sum so the woods will stay as they are. Then there is the Christmas play by the kids. The man who sold the woods if also the guy that played Santa. Thinking he is out of the play he shows up as Santa and donates enough money to save the woods. So Witt comes too on the set and having learned the true meaning of giving goes to her boyfriends house. Here she discovers that Faison is not married and has no kids. Chistina Milian turns out to be Faison's passed mother. At the end she is very happy when Alicia and Earl Faison finally hook up.

Apparently, the snow globe-alternate-universe-Christmas movie genera is here to stay. Unfortunately, this one is not as good as the 2007, one-word Snowglobe version.In this edition, Meg (Alicia Witt) thinks the shows she produces misleads people into thinking dreams really can come true. After bonking herself on the head with a snow globe, she ends up in it's perfect snow-covered town. She never quite fits into this universe though everyone in town tries to accept her. It all starts to unravel when her negative attitudes impacts the town folks. Just as she starts to realize she likes her snow globe universe better than her real one, she returns to reality with another bonk on the head.While there is a nice, semi-predictable twist at the end of this movie, its your basic Lifetime Channel Christmas movie fare that you will forget minutes after the movie is over.