Dear Secret Santa (2013)
Beverly Hills banker/workaholic Jennifer comes home to her small Northern California town just before Christmas when her dad, Ted, takes a bad fall while putting up decorations. While home, Jenny begins getting romantic Christmas cards from an unknown admirer, who turns out to be her old neighbor and the unrealized love of her life, Jack. There's just one problem - Jack died in a car accident three years ago.
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Redundant and unnecessary.
A different way of telling a story
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.
Much has been made in previous reviews (from 5 users and 1 critic) of this film being a rip-off or a sequel of "The Lake House" (2006) (which I haven't seen).If that's the case, I would submit then so is "The Edge of the Garden," a TV Movie from 2011.On the other hand, however, I would further suggest that "The Lake House" and the others could all be copies of sorts of "The Love Letter," a TV movie from 1998, or who knows what before that? In any event, I liked it, especially that it employed several actors who are familiar to me.
You've seen this movie if you've seen pretty much any time traveling romance or romance-with-a-ghost movies/T.V. shows (The Lake House, Premonition, The Time Traveler's Wife, etc.). As a fan of the genre, it's great to see a supernatural movie with people of color and LGBT characters. The acting is really good, which is surprising since there is some Donnie Darko-style gibberish about holes in the time-space continuum that would be hard to say with a straight face. Curiously, there is also a scene with a church mass, so there's an implication that we don't entirely understand science and spirituality so there's a chance that both have a capacity for 'miracles.' Maybe not big miracles that can change the course of events, but the little things that bring purpose and meaning into our individual lives. After all, what else would you expect from a movie with Della Reese from Touched By An Angel?
As a fan of Christmas movies and I have watched 90 of them this year I can honestly say this is the worst one I have seen. The acting is horrible. The attempt at comedy is lame at best. It is sad the writer could not come up with an original thought. As I sat and watched this movie I was hoping to find at least one good thing to say. It did not happen. Putting up a few lights and sticking antlers on a dog does not portray the meaning or the spirit of Christmas. The movie does not belong in the classification of a Christmas movie. If there was a way to give it a negative star rating I would have done it without hesitating. Time is too precious to waste on this bomb.
If you've seen "The Lake House", then you have seen this movie. In it, Jennifer (Tatyana Ali) carries on a time-bending relationship with a dead boyfriend from the past via letters sent through a mailbox in front of his old house. She decides to try and change history in order to save him and if you've seen "The Lake House", you can predict know how its going to end.If you haven't seen "The Lake House", you will like "Dear Secret Santa". If you liked "The Lake House" and wish they had made a sequel or are obsessed with time travel, you will probably like this movie. If you don't fall into any of those categories, you might want to skip this one and watch "Santa Clause Conquers the Martians".