A Runaway Father
When Matt's (Kristopher Turner) girlfriend Megan (Emma Taylor-Isherwood) fell pregnant her mum was less than happy and took her away for 5 months. When they returned home Matt is over the moon to see Megan but is not happy when she says that not only won't she marry him but she will put the baby up for adoption whether he likes it or not. After Megan gives birth to a boy she tells Matt he has no say in what happens to their son as they are not married and she is going to sign the consent forms after the 7 day period she has to wait. Fearing losing his son forever Matt takes the baby from the hospital and heads via bus to where his grandmother (Louise Fletcher) lives as a recluse who reluctantly agrees to let them stay.
I believe "A Dad for Christmas" was originally released under the name of "Me and Luke" which to be honest is the better title with the change seeming little more than a ploy to attract Christmas movie loving audiences to watch. I say this because the focus of "A Dad for Christmas" is not about Christmas but Matt bonding with his son, of course bonding with his grandma and when he meets a pretty young girl where his grandma lives well you can pretty much guess where that may lead. But it doesn't stop there as we also have someone trying to force Matt's grandmother off of her land and who is willing to make life tough for Matt to get what he wants.
What this means that whilst "A Dad for Christmas" is entertaining and emotional it also comes across as incredibly manufactured. The combination of everything whilst leading on from each other seems too extreme and too coincidental. To be more specific we have the local trying to scare Matt's grandma of her land who realises that Matt has snatched his baby and will blackmail him to keep quiet. It could have worked but everything moves from one thing to another too quickly with things seemingly resolved much too quickly almost in a rush to get to the pretty inevitable outcome.
What this all boils down to is that "A Dad for Christmas" is an okay Lifetime movie and will appeal to those who will like the good hearted nature of it. But for me it had various flaws which stopped it from being the powerful movie it could have been and ended up a movie just keeping to about average.
Tags: Christmas Movies
