A Wish for Christmas (2016)

Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Nice effects though.

Let's be realistic.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Sara Thomas (Lacey Chabert) is an awesome team player at marketing firm that is basically a pushover that allows others to take advantage of her good nature. At the company's Christmas party her marketing director promotes her project as his own. Santa offers to grant a Christmas list that would will only last for 48 hours. Sara wished for courage to stand up for herself. This wish takes Sara on a journey with her firm's CEO Peter Williams (Paul Greene) that includes a road trip, confronting an unreasonable client, strained family relations, and so much more.The chemistry between Sara and Paul is believable and you find yourself cheering for them. Chabert is my favorite HM leading lady, and Williams is also a favorite.

Lacey Chabert plays a total doormat who is turned into an assertive, confident closer via a Christmas wish. Question is, after getting the wish granted, should she still have some of that overly-apologetic wimpy character. My opinion is that it should be a lot less than the way it is played. Chabert goes back and forth from assertive to apologizing. Constantly. I guess the writers and/or director thinks otherwise, but to me it came off badly. Chabert didn't seem convincing in either one.Green also flip flopped. In the beginning he was over-demanding, shouting negative orders at the one guy who seemed to be his assistant. When he is with Sara on the road, he is ready to give up and only she salvages the car rental and the appointment. At times he seems to let her lead him around and at other times he seems angry that she is at least taking a last shot when there is nothing left to lose. He frequently has uncertainty in his eyes which is not consistent with the CEO of this company. After she seems to blow the pitch, he gets angry and bossy again. Then he shows up at work on Christmas as a nice guy again.I read reviews that complain the ending is too abrupt. While I agree that it wasn't totally comfortable, I also disagree thinking that there was no real mystery about what took place off screen. Neither scene, whether the client or the dad, would have been easy to film, or entertaining.I also read a review that said Sara returned to being wimpy. (BTW, that review has spoilers and is not marked as such.) But, her apologies to her boss after the failed pitch are no different than several apologies that took place earlier and it was certainly no wimp that climbed into the limo with the client. And she did not wimp out with her boss in the final scene.The film was lacking in romantic moments. It doesn't totally make sense that they are kissing at the end. And I don't remember a lot of humor. But there was a heartwarming sense of pride each time Sara took charge, and in the scene with the little girl, and with Peter's family. I was thinking we should call Sara "the fixer".I had trouble rating this movie. The first time I watched it, I left a rating of 9. After the second time, I downgraded it mostly because of the lack of romance.

Very cute, but terrible ending. This woman made everything okedoke at the end by going back to her wimpy self, not speaking her mind, not standing up for herself. To make her man happy, she needed to endure abusive, demeaning comments from the man they were trying to get a contract with. She apologizes to him, goes to her man, he finds out she wimped out but got the contract, and he liked her again. No apology from the boyfriend. Bad Christmas movie. Bad. Not to mention appearing to leave out important parts.Very cute, but terrible ending. This woman made everything okedoke at the end by going back to her wimpy self, not speaking her mind, not standing up for herself. To make her man happy, she needed to endure abusive, demeaning comments from the man they were trying to get a contract with. She apologizes to him, goes to her man, he finds out she wimped out but got the contract, and he liked her again. No apology from the boyfriend. Bad Christmas movie. Bad. Not to mention appearing to leave out important parts.

Lacey Chabert has made a niche for herself in the popular Hallmark movies of Christmas. Generally her movies have been above the norm and quite good. Unfortunately this one was not.A Hallmark Christmas romantic comedy has a narrow range of possibilities and outcomes so four factors make it work or not.One, is it romantic. Sorry, but not here. The male leads character was a jerk who makes his employees work on Christmas and refusing to see his family on the Holidays even though he was in town. The better romance would have been between him and Lacey's co-worker. Her role should have been expanded as it would have made the movie at least more comedic.Two, it is funny. No, this one was not generally funny nor really tried to be.Three, is it supported by good side characters and subplots that make the story enjoyable. This is more true here but still it was below par.Four, does it have meaning to the Christmas season. While this is kind of true here, it still could have been set in March by finding a leprechaun as easily as it was set in the Christmas season.All in all, while to be fair there are some good moments, specifically Lacey telling off her supervisor at the Christmas party, and nice elements generally it fails to really be romantic or funny which is not a good combination for a romantic comedy.