User reviews

I mostly hate x-mas season on TV, 'cause there are thousands of ridiculous movies about it. However, this is an exception: it's intelligently made, with good performances (Katharine Hepburn, want more?) and, although it handles feelings and sensibility (just like a Christmas story), it gets away from common places and cliches. Don't miss it next x-mas!

An important snapshot into these lives, demonstrating that people have an effect upon each other which help shape us, and who we are really does matter to others.

The characters say it themselves. The father character made bad choices, finding himself disenchanted, pursuant of dreams he couldn't make happen, and slipped into quite a derogatory role in life. This is how easy a well-meaning person can find themselves in a bad place, where the surreal becomes the ordinary. Thank goodness he wants to be at a respectable level and that he keeps a stiff upper lip, realizes he has to stop making excuses for not being the person he would rather be, and that he has the energy to follow through with what he realizes is what he really wants... one decision at a time. Thank goodness he is surrounded by good people. Lets hope he sticks with it. I would hope he would work now to right some of the wrongs he has caused, to repair his reputation and respect with those people who see the good in him and who have been silent about his recklessness, his lack of respect. I wondered how in the world he was affording a house keeper. ~spoiler alert

The other main characters were adorable. Each with their own shade of true-hearted. I did really like the way the conversation went between father's love interest and her aunt, and subsequently, with the father. A woman expected to take the responsibility for her own happiness in those days, rather than depending on another person to bring it to her, and her thoughtful and honest delivery of her decision. Of course, despite the brevity, Katharine Hepburn plays a strong and adorable role.