"Coming Home for Christmas" tries to pack way too much in one film. Two sisters are estranged over one walking out on the other's wedding five years earlier. The one sister's marriage is on the rocks, and there's no sign of her husband anywhere. The girls' parents lose their family home due to tough times financially. The parents then squabble and split up after the dad brings a puppy home to their condo where mom runs a day care center. An American veteran from the war in Afghanistan shows up in their town of Oceanside, Oregon, and buys the family home. Staying with him is the older teenage son of his best friend who was killed in Afghanistan. The veteran has opened a wood-working shop in the town and he's helping the widow of his friend by keeping Ryan under his wing and teaching him the trade.
The story is supposed to be about the two sisters reconciling and getting their parents back together again. That would be enough for any feature film, and it needed much more focus without the many other minor plots and diversions in this film. Instead, it comes off as a hurried conclusion to finish a movie. In jamming all of this into under 90 minutes, it does short shrift to the characters and the many pieces. So, in place of a good film with a happy family ending, this seems more like a hurried-together fairy tale. And the romance between Kate and Mike is very rushed and tepid at best.
There are more than a couple oddities thrown into this mishmash. The mom, Wendy, is so attached to the old family home that she drives up to it often while it's for sale. Then, when a sold sign is posted, she is furious and backs over he sign. The dad, Al, has an over-attachment to his puppy and plans to take the dog with him on a vacation over Christmas to Costa Rica. Now, it's never clear why Al and Wendy didn't have sufficient income to make their house payments, but now when they are separated Al can afford to fly and take a holiday to Costa Rica. If their financial straits were because of a weak economy, where did Wendy find the clients that could afford her day care for their kids? And how much need, demand and business would there be for Mike to open a wood-working shop, especially in a town where he knew no one?
Unlike most movies made for the holidays - romance, comedies, dramas - whether good or bad, this film doesn't set up the story background clearly. It has one after another anomaly that nags at one's mind and detracts from the story. What was behind the parents losing their home? Did their dad get fired from his job? Did he have a business that bellied up? We never know why all of a sudden they no longer have the money to make their house payments. After all, the girls have left home so their food and clothing bills should be much less. This is just one example of a snag that is put in a screenplay that comes back to bother some of the audience. There are others. Ryan stays with Mike over Christmas instead of being with his mother?
A couple other reviewers have noted the discrepancies over Mike's military service. He's wearing an Army blues uniform (which, incidentally is only worn for very formal occasions, dinners, and ceremonies - not as the everyday dress uniform (Army dress greens). But he's supposed to have been a Marine. The uniforms are quite different. All of these aspects of this TV movie point to its being a cheap production.
I don't think the acting is all wooden or bad across the board. The two McKillip sisters of real life who play the sisters, Kate and Melanie, do the best acting. But the jam-packed story and weak screenplay (I guess it's called "teleplay" for TV) really hurt this film. My rating would be a notch lower even, but for one other thing - the great scenery.
Of course, it was filmed in British Columbia, and not Oregon. While the Oregon coast has areas of low coastline and some where the hills of the Coast Range run right up to the water's edge, there's no place that looks anything like the Oceanside in this film. One scene shows a quaint nearby harbor and another has a snow-capped peak in the background. These were scenes at Porteau Cove on Howe Sound, and at Squamish, B. C., with the snow-capped peak in the background probably Mt. Sedgwick, elevation 6,830 feet (2,082 m). I've driven through those places on the scenic Canada Highway 99 from Vancouver to Whistler.
By contrast, the Coast Range in Oregon has an average elevation of about 1,500 feet. It is 30 to 60 miles wide. The highest point is Mary's Peak, just under 4,100 feet, located 25 miles inland from the coast about 120 miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River. In my 20 years of living in Portland, I spent a lot of time on the Oregon and Washington coasts - fishing, clamming, crabbing, agate hunting, whale watching, berry-picking, photographing lighthouses, and hiking. The Oregon Coast, too, has marvelous scenery, but snow is something else. The Coast Range inland may get one to three inches some winters. But snow on the beaches and their towns is very rare.
In January 1990, I stayed on the Oregon Coast near the unincorporated villages of Oceanside and Netarts. The first night it snowed about two to three inches, covering the beaches. A woman who owned the grocery and general story in Netarts said she had lived there all her life. The last and only time before she had seen snow on the beaches was when she was a young girl in the winter of 1948-49.
The story is supposed to be about the two sisters reconciling and getting their parents back together again. That would be enough for any feature film, and it needed much more focus without the many other minor plots and diversions in this film. Instead, it comes off as a hurried conclusion to finish a movie. In jamming all of this into under 90 minutes, it does short shrift to the characters and the many pieces. So, in place of a good film with a happy family ending, this seems more like a hurried-together fairy tale. And the romance between Kate and Mike is very rushed and tepid at best.
There are more than a couple oddities thrown into this mishmash. The mom, Wendy, is so attached to the old family home that she drives up to it often while it's for sale. Then, when a sold sign is posted, she is furious and backs over he sign. The dad, Al, has an over-attachment to his puppy and plans to take the dog with him on a vacation over Christmas to Costa Rica. Now, it's never clear why Al and Wendy didn't have sufficient income to make their house payments, but now when they are separated Al can afford to fly and take a holiday to Costa Rica. If their financial straits were because of a weak economy, where did Wendy find the clients that could afford her day care for their kids? And how much need, demand and business would there be for Mike to open a wood-working shop, especially in a town where he knew no one?
Unlike most movies made for the holidays - romance, comedies, dramas - whether good or bad, this film doesn't set up the story background clearly. It has one after another anomaly that nags at one's mind and detracts from the story. What was behind the parents losing their home? Did their dad get fired from his job? Did he have a business that bellied up? We never know why all of a sudden they no longer have the money to make their house payments. After all, the girls have left home so their food and clothing bills should be much less. This is just one example of a snag that is put in a screenplay that comes back to bother some of the audience. There are others. Ryan stays with Mike over Christmas instead of being with his mother?
A couple other reviewers have noted the discrepancies over Mike's military service. He's wearing an Army blues uniform (which, incidentally is only worn for very formal occasions, dinners, and ceremonies - not as the everyday dress uniform (Army dress greens). But he's supposed to have been a Marine. The uniforms are quite different. All of these aspects of this TV movie point to its being a cheap production.
I don't think the acting is all wooden or bad across the board. The two McKillip sisters of real life who play the sisters, Kate and Melanie, do the best acting. But the jam-packed story and weak screenplay (I guess it's called "teleplay" for TV) really hurt this film. My rating would be a notch lower even, but for one other thing - the great scenery.
Of course, it was filmed in British Columbia, and not Oregon. While the Oregon coast has areas of low coastline and some where the hills of the Coast Range run right up to the water's edge, there's no place that looks anything like the Oceanside in this film. One scene shows a quaint nearby harbor and another has a snow-capped peak in the background. These were scenes at Porteau Cove on Howe Sound, and at Squamish, B. C., with the snow-capped peak in the background probably Mt. Sedgwick, elevation 6,830 feet (2,082 m). I've driven through those places on the scenic Canada Highway 99 from Vancouver to Whistler.
By contrast, the Coast Range in Oregon has an average elevation of about 1,500 feet. It is 30 to 60 miles wide. The highest point is Mary's Peak, just under 4,100 feet, located 25 miles inland from the coast about 120 miles south of the mouth of the Columbia River. In my 20 years of living in Portland, I spent a lot of time on the Oregon and Washington coasts - fishing, clamming, crabbing, agate hunting, whale watching, berry-picking, photographing lighthouses, and hiking. The Oregon Coast, too, has marvelous scenery, but snow is something else. The Coast Range inland may get one to three inches some winters. But snow on the beaches and their towns is very rare.
In January 1990, I stayed on the Oregon Coast near the unincorporated villages of Oceanside and Netarts. The first night it snowed about two to three inches, covering the beaches. A woman who owned the grocery and general story in Netarts said she had lived there all her life. The last and only time before she had seen snow on the beaches was when she was a young girl in the winter of 1948-49.