Moonlight & Mistletoe (2008)

Excellent but underrated film

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

After seeing "Moonlight and Mistletoe," I wondered why Hollywood or TV hadn't come up with the idea for such a plot long before 2008. Kudos to Hallmark for having an original and interesting plot. It seems like a natural, and the setting of this TV film in Chester, Vermont, apparently gave the community a tourism shot for the next several years. While the story is a good one, this movie unfortunately suffers in a number of areas. The screenplay seems to skip a beat here and there. Some of the situations are overly hokey or a little hard to believe. The most obvious is Nick's accident and injury. His runaway horse-drawn sleigh crashes into a tree? The film is billed as a drama, romance, family movie – no mention of comedy. So, we're to believe that a horse that had been pulling Santa's sleigh for more than 20 years all of a sudden went wild (in its old age) and ran its sleigh head-on into a tree? A somewhat lesser, but still very obvious far-fetched scene is toward the end when Holly all of a sudden is in love with Peter. Until that scene she was so-so, even a little attracted to Ben. But when Ben turns out to be a bad guy, Holly suddenly falls for Peter. It's a bit much. Perhaps the writers and/or director could have had this build up a little earlier – and not have it appear right on the heels of Ben's fall from grace. Finally, the acting. Most of the cast were passable to good only. Tom Arnold as Nick was just enough overboard in his enthusiasm (I know, it's a part of his normal persona), that he came across as being oblivious to his dire circumstances. And, while Candace Bure portrayed the hectic Holly as a businesswoman, I think it was overdone to the point that we in the audience can't buy her sudden return to earth with her nostalgia for the past. If her fast-paced, hectic busy-ness had been reduced just a bit, the return to normalcy would have seemed more natural and believable. The exaggeration of those two performances detracted considerably from the story. This film isn't bad, but it misses its potential for a number of these shortcomings. Most people may enjoy it once, but aside from some pictures of toys, I doubt that the fast action of Holly and her dad will keep young ones interested.

Holly (Candace Cameron Bure) grew up helping her father Nick (Tom Arnold) run his Santaville Christmas theme park but now she is a successful sales executive without any Christmas spirit. When her dad is hurt, she has to return to Santaville to help out and discovers the bank is about to foreclose on the place. She tries to find a way to save Santaville while dealing with her daddy issues and two potential suitors.Nice little Christmas TV movie. Nothing groundbreaking but sweet, sentimental, and charming. Candace is beautiful and very likable. Tom Arnold's great although he sounds like he has a cold throughout the whole movie. One of Candace's guys is a little too good to be true. He's handsome, kind, and "went to college for like a decade and got several degrees" before going to Santaville to work for free making toys while he waited for Candace to come back because he met her once as a kid. Yeah right. But stuff like that is to be expected from this kind of movie. This is the first Christmas TV movie Candace did. She's done several more since and they're always pleasant and enjoyable.

"You can never be too busy for Christmas." Another formulaic story but does it work? Eh, so so. This made-for-TV movie from the Hallmark Channel stars Candace Cameron Bure (D.J. Tanner in Full House) and the usually entertaining Tom Arnold. She stinks but he's great and really brings true charm and Christmas warmth to the screen. Great location in Chester, Vermont -- that's the name of the town it takes in and the name of the town where it was filmed which is different from so many movies where a fictional name is used. Overall, not a terrible Christmas movie but nothing special.5.5 / 10 stars--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

I thought it was a clean movie and I sat down with my kids to watch it. We enjoyed it very much. Candace still looks as beautiful as ever and my 13 year old has a crush on her. I didn't have to cover the kids ears or eyes during the movie. Thank you. I thought the story line was overall a 10 very sensitive and adorable. The sweetness of the romance moved me. I wish we had a Santa town like that it would be fun. Traditions are fun specially when it brings the family together. Hardships are displayed here as another way to get them working together for the same cause. The villain did a great job too. There is such a reality to that. So many schemers waiting out there to take your money.Great movie.