Review of Angel of Christmas

Christmas Angel is about a newspaper staffer who is trying to catch her big break by writing some story about her grandmother's wooden angel as this is apparently what the New York Times will run as their front page story. The angel kind of looks like a man in a woman's wig, but we won't focus on that aspect of the movie too much. I had a hard time believing that this newspaper staffer, who supposedly has not caught her big break, somehow lives in a giant apartment in Manhattan furnished by Jennifer Convertibles. The average rent in Manhattan topped $3,700/month this year; there is no way a struggling newspaper staffer would be able to afford her posh apartment in Soho. My wife also furiously pointed out that there is no way that she can come and go from her parent's house in the suburbs and be back in her huge Manhattan apartment on the night before her big article is due as if she was just driving down the block. How does she even own a car??? Parking alone would probably cost her annual salary. And then she goes to Murphysport, of all places, on Christmas Eve with no traffic! And this artist, who the movie established as someone who doesn't have his own studio somehow has this enormous cabin in Murphytown in upstate New York!! My wife and I were enraged at this beyond-belief fictional representation of New York City. I had supplemental rage at the fact that she was given something like two weeks to write this puff piece for the New York Times. That doesn't seem realistic. Her editor must have owed Struggling Susie a favor or something.

Also, this movie needed more Patrick Muldoon. Patrick Muldoon was not in this movie at all, and, as one of the great Christmas movie actors of our generation, he would have really provided the spark that this movie lacked. Though it was a close call, this movie, fortunately, did not ruin Christmas for my wife and me. My wife did threaten to kick the TV, but I talked her down with the promise of hot cocoa.