Coming Home For Christmas (movie review)

door wreath

This gem from last year was a very pleasant surprise. The first recommendation to pop up when I paid a visit to Netflix, it looked Christmassy enough for me, so I thought … why not? Per usual, I had to check the cast out on IMDB.

Except for Amy Jo Johnson (who plays the mother), I’d never heard of the other cast members. However, I know from long experience that just because I don’t know who an actor or actress is doesn’t mean they can’t act … and this holiday movie proved that in a big way. And not only are they all talented actors, most of them can sing.

So…

What did I like about this movie? Pretty much everything. It starts off early with the catalyst that threw the O’Brien family off course, followed by the sad news that Mom and Pop O’Brien lost the family home and now live in a townhouse in the city. To make matters worse, though Mom (Amy Jo Johnson) dreams of being able to buy the house back from the bank, on one of her daily drive-by’s (five years later), she discovers that it’s been sold.

Enter Mike. If he had a last name, I can’t remember, and it’s not listed anywhere online. But even without a last name, Mike is the perfect romantic hero – in more ways than one. In addition to being totally swoon-worthy, he’s also a war veteran. Add to that the fact that his best friend and fellow soldier died in combat, so Mike has taken his teenage son under his wing, becoming like a second father to Ryan.

But back to Kate O’Brien, a successful book editor who – five years ago – walked out on her sister’s wedding when she saw the groom with another woman before the ceremony. The family pretty much fell apart after that. Yeah, kind of a cheesy setup, but it worked for me.

Without giving too much away, the new owner of the family home – Mike – is smitten with Kate, but she isn’t the only reason he agrees to let the family use the house for Christmas. He has a sad secret we don’t learn about until near the end of the movie, one that has your rooting even more for him.

That’s all I’m going to tell you though. If you want to find out what the secret is, and how everything turns out, click on the blue Netflix link in the first paragraph (or right here) and watch it yourself. 🙂

As for me, Coming Home For Christmas easily made it onto my list of holiday favorites.

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