Finding John Christmas - The Memorable TV DVD Review

A newspaper photographer is moving around the city taking Christmas related photos, one such photo is of a Santa talking to a lonely looking man but when the photo is developed Santa has disappeared from it. His editor sees the photo but is not told about Santa, however the editor decides to use the photo on the front page of the paper and decides to mount a search for the man as it would be a good publicity stunt.

Cut to the local hospital where a nurse, Kathleen sees the photo and recognises it as her brother who walked out 25 years ago. Why has he returned? To help answer this she seeks out the photographer who agrees to help her look for the missing brother. A relationship develops between them ,after a couple of near misses they find the brother, then she learns that the ER Ward in the hospital where she works is going to be closed because of cost cutting., this is a very emotional time for her So can all these matters be resolved?

SO IS IT ANY GOOD?

I found this to be a very low impact film, it is a film for those who like too good to be true characters, squeaky clean children and a non surprise ending. I must comment that Valerie Bertinelli who has made a range of different films works hard at making her character believable but gets little support from other cast members.

On more than one occasion I asked myself why did the talented Peter Falk get involved in this piece of fluff, he plays a character who drifts in and out of the film and he’s not really there at all, I think that Falk would rather not be there at all during filming. This is a radical change for director Andy Wolk whose last films have been about crime and punishment, here with this genre he has been too glib and there has been no depth to characters in general. Watch this if you wish but if after 20 minutes you have worked out the ending - well so did I.

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

None.