Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage
by Michael Campus
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DVD details
Actor: Aaron Ashmore, Jared Padalecki, Marcia Gay Harden, Peter O'Toole, Richard BurgiDirector: Michael Campus
Brand: Lions Gate
Producer: Arla Dietz Campus
Producer: Donna Sloan
Producer: Gordon Mark
Producer: Jason Constantine
Producer: Julie Yorn
Producer: Marc Gordon
Writer: Ken LaZebnik
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 96 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-11
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
DVD Reviews of Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage
DVD Review: Heartwarming and bittersweet
Summary: 4 Stars
A young Thomas Kinkade (Padalecki) returns home from Berkeley, where he soon finds out that his philanthropic mother (Harden) is dead broke and is facing the loss of the family home. Glen (O'Toole), a famous painter who lives next door and inspired Tom to take up painting in the first place, is watching his mind and body succumb to tremors and mental time skips that impact his art and leave him in despair. As Tom begins painting a mural of the town, he finds himself noticing fresh beauty in the people around him. Finding the spirit of Christmas--love--allows the townspeople to see themselves and leads them to do the right thing.
Jared Padalecki delivers a touching performance in his role, as does Peter O'Toole.
Peter especially holds true to his tendency to play characters that no matter what condition they are in (ie, the deterioration that his character experiences), the viewer gets the impression that they are larger than life and filled with a great roiling of emotion and intelligence.
Jared does a fine job as always of playing a kind, earnest character, and in my opinion, he does a lovely job especially on a very sweet monologue towards the end. Plus, he's adorable and his smile lights up the screen. Not a bad thing at all!
Not being familiar with Marcia Harden's work, I have no frame of reference for her performance. I thought it was quite good and that her character was sweetly self-sacrificing.
What makes this movie less than it could be is the writing. The actors are excellent but the writing renders even the main characters two-dimensional, to say nothing of the minor characters, which are obviously rather quirky, but little "meaty" backstory is given to more than a few of them. For instance:
'Quite touching is the father who lost his son in Vietnam and finally brings himself to stand in front of his boy's grave and take a step towards coping with the pain of his grief. This doesn't need much explaining, but a little more development of the character would have pleased me.
'Kinkade's father is portrayed as a bum whom it is hinted ran off and abandoned his family. Whatever happened, it doesn't appear to be openly mentioned.
'The organist in the church is an elderly woman who apparently drinks like a fish on occasion and refuses to play any of the Christmas pageant music out of order. This character could have been an excellent source of entertainment, but again, not much is given to her character.
If you were looking for a movie that insistently throws God in your face as the main source of any plot, you will be disappointed. This is a movie that handles the religious overtones gently, like a hummingbird in the hand. Personally, I find it more to my liking because it shows that determination, kindness, and inner strength in the face of despair can rekindle a light (God's light, if you prefer) inside one's heart, and does not require someone making religious references every 5 minutes to get the point across. Because I can also picture the movie as what it could be, I personally like it quite a bit. However, as is, it is mostly a light, sweet story that ends on a bittersweet but extremely heartwarming note.
While not a masterpiece, I would certainly recommend it.
''Final notes:
I had previously read all of the reviews (out of boredom) after seeing part of this movie on the Hallmark channel. The 1-star reviews especially perplexed me--there are so many people genuinely horrified and angry about this movie, some of them actually quite vehement in their anger. In some cases, they have a lot of hurt feelings directed at Kinkade. So I found the DVD, rewatched the movie, and was fully expecting that I'd just missed some really crass moments that would genuinely make the movie as terrible as the 1-star reviews claimed.
Not so. Not so at all. Turns out, the only thing that makes the movie _somewhat_ in poor taste is the Lifetime Movie-esque writing. Is there swearing? Sure, but the only word I actually took note of was "b****in'" and the others I barely noticed, if at all.
I did keep an eye out for the supposedly awful things in the movie, and found that in context, they're really a blip on the radar--if that. I was raised Mormon, so I am quite aware of the no-swearin', showing-anything-above-the-knees-is-a-sin, no-sexual-innuendo-at-all-or-you're-a-bad-person mentality. But like I said; un-exaggerated, taken in context, those oh-so-awful plot points really don't ruin the movie.
That being said, even my extremely proper, very strict, very Mormon mother watched and greatly enjoyed this movie. Apparently, she paid attention to the plotline instead of the tiny details.
'So, should Ernie have cast the town bike as Mary in the play? Obviously no, but it's a plot point that displays how they'd lost touch with the meaning of Christmas--and also that Ernie's an idiot.
'Should the aforementioned town bike have pulled her robe about 3 inches above her knees to sit down on stage? No, but it was a ham-handed attempt at humor by the writers; and if it was meant to be scandalous, it would have been a lot more than 3 inches.
'Should Tom's father have brought them skin mags (with a comparatively tame cover illustration, by the way) as gifts? No, but it displays that character's awkwardness with functioning as a father.
'Does the swearing "ruin" the movie? Only if you take an _extreme_ offense to comparatively mild language.
'Is it kid-friendly? Not if your kids are the Ned Flanders type. There's nothing in the movie that would scar a child for life or send their immortal souls catapulting into Hell--but if you're sure your kid would be instantaneously turned into an immoral heathen, then there's always the stop-motion Rudolph movies from the 70s.
Description of Thomas Kinkade's Christmas Cottage
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