Every Christmas Has a Story (2016)

Perfect cast and a good story

Masterful Cinema

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Just saw this movie and we live in North Dakota. There would be no way people would be walking around with unzipped coats or lighter clothing. The license plates were correct and the GPS map she was using was also correct, just way colder than the movie portrayed. Also, not all that many trees in North Dakota. I liked the story, but mostly just liked that fact that it took place in North Dakota. Wish it would have been filmed here.

OK...I felt this movie lacked hearat! It's about a famous news anchor/reporter and her "best"friend from college/producer that ended up going to a small town to report on Christmas. I am a big fan of Lifetime movies and no matter how corny, predictable, etc. I still love them. This one was disappointing! I like Lori Loughlin but in this movie, I didn't feel it with her. She seemed negative from beginning to end. Very little emotion and warmth. There is a scene in the beginning where the two check into a hotel. A teenager, who works at the hotel, (Loughlin's actual daughter) carries their heavy suitcases up the stairs and neither character offers to help this woman, a star-struck girl. Like I said, it just lacked any warmth, love, emotion, etc.

This was a weak premise but was bolstered by likable leads, two mysteries, and a nice romance. There was even a bit of a twist at the end regarding the nature of one of the mysteries that I didn't see coming.I must say off the bat that even though Lori Loughlin is 6 years older than her co-star, she looks great and the match was very believable. If she has had work done, one certainly can't tell, unlike some other older actresses that Hallmark casts inappropriately. Had to get that off my chest. Of course one has to suspend disbelief in order to find an excuse to get Lori out of the city to the small town that will help her find her Christmas spirit. Once there, the mystery of why the annual town Christmas trees, that were the town's main attraction during the season quit coming, and why Lori lost her Christmas spirit to begin with. What is the town trying to hide from talk-show host/journalist? It did keep my interest, although the deep dark secret wasn't too deep, or all that dark. I thought it was kind of clever that the whole town was conspiring to create a phony mystery that the journalist could "investigate" and thus help them out. They pulled a fast one on the audience and Lori!

When newsreader Lori Loughlin says on air that she doesn't like Christmas, she and her producer, ex-lover Colin Ferguson are shipped to Christmas-centric Hollyvale so she can "find her Christmas spirit". Can she do that when the town seems to be losing its own? I sat down to watch this Hallmark TV Christmas movie, expecting it to be pretty much predictable, standard fare, but soon found it something entirely different. The script started in one direction and quickly veered into a mystery about the town and then into yet another one, eventually revealing itself as a meditation on what Christmas means to people in a secular age.Although the stand-out role in these movies is usually some old-time performer in a support role, intended to please old geezers like me ("These young whippersnappers don't know how to hold your attention!"), here the laurels belong to Mr. Ferguson with his rubber-faced reaction shots. Well done all around!