Hallmark Review: The Christmas Choir (2008, dir. Peter Svatek)


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There isn’t a whole lot to talk about with this one. And that’s a good thing. This isn’t another Hallmark romance, and they kept it simple. Basically, take the choir portions of Sister Act (1992) and merge it with the full employment speech from Dave (1993). The speech where he says, “it’s not about the paycheck. It’s about respect. It’s about looking in the mirror, and knowing you’ve done something valuable with your day.”

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That’s Peter Brockman (Jason Gedrick) who has just been reminded by his secretary that he’s supposed to go see his girlfriend Jill (Cindy Sampson). Jill promptly breaks up with him cause he’s basically just too busy and living in a work bubble. This leads him to a bar where he meets a man named Bob (Tyrone Benskin).

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He follows Bob back to where he lives, which happens to be a homeless shelter run by Sister Agatha (Rhea Perlman). Of course she gives him a little speech, and in short order Peter decides to do something to help. He wants to round up the guys into a choir in order to give them something to do that can also earn them some extra money.

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That’s it! There’s a couple little subplots involving a woman at the subway and Peter’s father, but they really don’t matter. What you are getting here is a nice a little story about a guy who in the process of trying to help some others, also helps himself. The only thing I thought was an actual problem was the minor wrench they throw into things at the last minute. It’s like including a birth narrative because you don’t think the audience will accept the story without it being pre-ordained. Here it’s people will feel let down if it doesn’t end on a super high note.

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Nothing to seek out, but it’s a perfectly fine little Hallmark Christmas movie.

5 responses to “Hallmark Review: The Christmas Choir (2008, dir. Peter Svatek)

      • Just a fair warning do you don’t put too much expectations on Iron Eagles, it’s a predictable and old school 80s film. I think they were trying to jump on the bandwagon of Top Gun.

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          • Oh, Iron Eagle is a great action flick that is a great example of the excesses and ridiculousness of 80’s action cinema. Michelle got it right that it tried to ride the coattails of the Top Gun phenomena at that time (not to mention Reagan-era foreign policy towards the Middle East especially Libya). It felt like it was written by a teenager with an overactive imagination after walking out of a screening of Top Gun and trying to fulfill every wish they had on what they’d do to combat Libyan terrorists.

            I think Lou Gossett, Jr. saves the flick from going full on campy and we know that one should never go full on campy.

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