A Truce which is Hard to Remember
When a tentative 24 hour truce is called during the Battle of the Bulge, American Captain John Myers (Craig Anthony Olejnik - Eyewitness) meets Alina Hammond (Ali Liebert - A Gift to Remember) a Belgium farm girl. They share a few romantic hours to remember and when they have to part ways they make a promise to meet again once the war is over under a specific bell tower they both know.
As ideas go "Christmas Truce" has some potential to deliver a memorable war time romance drama even if the idea is not that original. What I mean is that a soldier getting to spend time getting to know a local girl, doing some CHristmassy things and so on as they become close it not only entertaining but has the potential to be beautiful as well as romantic. And then you have added to that the question of whether or not they will meet again once the war is over.
Unfortunately the potential of "Christmas Truce" is wasted with a look which whilst sharp lacks depth and basically comes across as being too clean and manufactured to be believable for a movie set during the war. But then there is the dialogue and I have to say that the nature of the dialogue is less romantic and more banal. It is a case that pretty much the movie's entire potential is wasted on a look which is false and dialogue which is uninteresting and certainly not attention grabbing or romantic.
The one thing "Christmas Truce" has is that it isn't lacking in actor appeal and Craig Anthony Olejnik has one of those faces which shares features with Bradley Cooper making him some what handsome and charming. And Ali Liebert brings plenty of classic war time appeal with her hair and lipstick having that distinct 1940s style. But their characters along with the dialogue is utterly forgettable.
What this all boils down to is that "Christmas Truce" is a movie with an idea which has potential but all it does is prove that it is very hard to make an effective war time romantic melodrama on a TV movie budget as this comes up short time after time.
Tags: TV Christmas Movies, Christmas Movies
