Baby's First Christmas

We always expect to suspend some of our expectation of reality in these movies, but this one movie pushes that from start to finish. I have less trouble accepting a movie when Santa uses Christmas magic.

If you can overcome reality, this might be a tolerable movie for Christmas. There are some heartwarming moments, even if they are piled on a little high.

The movie is a bit preachy about believing in Christmas and miracles. There are enough real and serious problems for anyone. The family having the baby is in very deep debt and we find out that foreclosure on their house can't or at least won't be stopped. Add to that a myriad of other problems from small to large.

You might find some of the situations humorous, at least I think that was the intention.

But the biggest, most ridiculous miracles are the ones that involve deeply set personality traits and beliefs that are suddenly changed 180 degrees, not the least of which are in Kyle and Jenna. They even know at the start that peace between them is unlikely. For one thing, Kyle is a complete jerk for most of the movie. His one good trait early on appears to be his generosity, but we see that even that has a selfish bent to it.

Much of the acting is terrible but is it the acting or the script? Casper Van Dien leads the way with bad acting. Noah Cappe is close behind. Much of the rest of the cast is just mediocre. The one high point is Ella Ballentine who can almost make us believe in Christmas miracles even when she is trying to sell a script that is pie-in-the-sky.