All She Wants for Christmas (2006) starring Monica Keena, Tobias Mehler, Steve Bacic, Ali Liebert, Sonya Salomaa, Denise Galik, Nelson Wong directed by Ron Oliver Movie Review

All She Wants for Christmas (2006)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Monica Keena in All She Wants for Christmas (2006)

The Economics of Christmas

Judith 'Noelle' Dunn (Monica Keena) is preparing to move away from Forest City after Christmas to further her business studies but in the meantime she is working at the Aikens Christmas Decoration factory where she has been trying to improve efficiency. An accident with a giant inflatable snowman brings her to traveller Justin Allen (Tobias Mehler) who she offers to find some temp work for at the factory whilst they go out. All is well until a few things happen; firstly Judith discovers that the late old man Aikens had been using his personal wealth to keep the company afloat, secondly Aikens' grand daughter Ashley (Sonya Salomaa) arrives to over see the company and thirdly she keeps catching Justin and Ashley together despite his promise that nothing is going on.

Apologies to one and all but to discuss "All She Wants for Christmas" I need to give something away and so for those who don't like spoilers I suggest you go away and watch "All She Wants for Christmas" because it is a watchable but not great Christmas movie.

Tobias Mehler in All She Wants for Christmas (2006)

Okay so as I said "All She Wants for Christmas" is not a great Christmas movie, it is quite a corny Christmas movie but it has one thing going for it, economics. Yes you did read that right, I said economics because this is a Christmas movie which touches on the subject of business and what it means not only when a business is likely to be closed down but when a franchise moves in and threatens a smaller business. As such we have wannabee business woman Noelle who believes any business which isn't profitable should be shut down until she discovers that is exactly what could happen to Aikens and we also have the diner run by Kenny who faces probably closure because a franchise is moving in and will steal business from him. I am not saying that the look of these economic situations is good but it makes a change to see a Christmas movie using a real life situation as the vehicle.

Having said that the real situation is purely a vehicle for some typical Christmas romantic confusion as Noelle falls for Justin but believes he is double timing her with Ashley. We have a meet cute involving a giant inflatable snowman and with it being a Christmas movies some sweet romantic scenes surrounding Christmas decorations. None of which is in the least bit subtle, in fact at times "All She Wants for Christmas" is excruciatingly and uncomfortably corny, in fact more often than not it is so corny that if it wasn't for the economic vehicle I would end up rating it a lot lower. Of course there is the mystery of who Justin is which to be honest is not such a mystery which leads to various complications but of course we are talking a Christmas romance so needless to say things have to have a happy ever after ending.

As for the acting well it feels like the cast should be in a sitcom rather than a movie, they have that sort of good looking appeal and ability to deliver corny lines. As such whilst we have good looking people in Monica Keena, Tobias Mehler, Ali Liebert and Nelson Wong there characters are vacuous at best.

What this all boils down to is that whilst "All She Wants for Christmas" has an appealing cast the real appeal comes from it using a real economic situation as the basis of some typical Christmas romance.

Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies


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