His and Her Christmas (2005)

To me, this movie is perfection.

People are voting emotionally.

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

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

For a few years now it has been a tradition of mine to watch a Christmas special or movie I haven't seen before on the wee hours of Christmas morning. This year, I was skimming through my PVR and thought the summary of this little movie sounded cute, reminiscent of You've Got Mail. So, I gave it a try.I am glad I did! It was pure fluff and rather a poor man's You've Got Mail, but after the stresses of shopping, it was good to sit down and watch something lighthearted. Not for someone with overtly high expectations and/or looking for a deep storyline, but worth a try. I really enjoyed the storyline and the chemistry between the actors. The lovely shots from British Columbia were a bonus.

This movie was very good and enjoyable to watch. The two leads Dina Meyer(Liz) and David Sutcliffe(Tom) are talented actors and went well together as well as the other actors in this movie they all had great chemistry on screen. The plot you could tell where it was going to end but was still a great movie, and did not get boring and tiresome like some holiday movies get. I am waiting now to buy it so I can add it to my collection of holiday movies. I have seen the lead actors in other movies but it took awhile to remember what movies. I am looking forward to see these actors in other movies I hope, particularly Dina Meyer and David Sutcliffe they are very captivating.

I liked seeing David in something other than GG. He's a very nice looking man, and not a half bad actor; however, I'd like to see him in more mature roles concerning something more domestic or even more dramatic. Don't get me wrong, he's great at the roles he has been in - mostly comedy driven. I would just like to see how well he can extend himself as an actor. Like a lot of actors, they are only seen as that one main character they portray (for him it would be Chris on GG), and then those like me can't get past him playing anything else. Most actors will agree they get typecast when going out and auditioning roles. I'd just like to see David doing something a bit different.

The one thing you can count on with Lifetime movies is that they will feel like Lifetime movies. This one is no different as they team up with Walgreens ("Don't worry we can get everything we need at Walgreens.") to retell "You've got Mail," only it is kind of Christmasy. David Sutcliffe, who plays nearly an identical character on "Gilmore Girls," here plays Tom Lane a sexy suave career columnist who is far above the quaint community he lives in. His current reason for being is to bring culture to middle America, by golly, so his own TV show is in the works to do just that. Then, thanks to the magic of contrivance, he gets involved in a blood feud with a rival newspaper columnist. Liz (Dina Meyer) works at a paper that is sadly going out of business, but she is convinced that her and her gumption can save it. So she begins writing a pro-Christmas column for her paper (edgy, I know) and circulation skyrockets. Tom feels as though he has to respond because the survival of her newspaper spells the end of his TV show (I didn't buy it either). They fight, they squabble, they fall in love. We learn that corporations can never stand in the way of true love. In the end the CEO says down with profits and gives the beleaguered paper a reprieve. It is all very fantasyland-ish, and that is fine. Only when Liz implores you to get away from the TV and the video games and spend some quality time with your family I (and forgive the cliché) threw up a little. . .in my mouth.The film wasn't good, but it wasn't half bad either. The Scrooge in me enjoyed Tom's anti-Christmas columns. Sorry, but it is not evil to point out that Christmas is a commercial holiday. It is just that there isn't an unpredictable bone in its body. Of course he's a playa and she's on her way to becoming a spinster and of course only they can save themselves from these terrible fates. Being a Lifetime movie it was none to kind to the idea of bachelorhood. Somehow these pro-marriage types seem to think that invoking the image of you growing old by yourself is their ultimate trump card, as though the world will actually still be here in 40 years. I did like that the film took the side of newspapers, something that I read every day. I'm just saying that the whole production was so blah that having it on your side really isn't a net gain. All the great Christmas movies out there ("Christmas Vacation," "Elf," "Bad Santa") realize that there is something a little perverse about our obsession over this one holiday. "His and Her Christmas" made no such realization. It serves up an idealized view of the holiday and our world in general. One where the vigorous defense of Christmas is enough to sell papers, and where the religious aspect of it is whitewashed out of the picture, and where the commercial side of it is only there so that employers can actually keep their employees (that's right kids, no Christmas equals no jobs). Fine. The film was entertaining at times, but mostly just tedious. One big, tedious Walgreens commercial. **3/4