NJS
I loved this movie! It just shows you that you can't always trust ratings. We all have our standards I guess. I'm a lover of Hallmark movies and I hate sad endings. For me, this movie was incredibly heart-warming and gave the message that doing the right thing will always win. Jason Gray-Stanford (some of you may remember him from Monk as Lt. Randy Disher) was 100% believable in his character. At first the movie seemed like a slap-stick sort of comedy but it quickly became clear there was more depth to it after awhile. Don't shy away from this movie because of the beginning. Stay with it and you'll be pleasantly surprised. One of my top favs.
Stephen Abell
This is not really a Christmas film, it's a romance set at Christmas time. So there's no real festive spirit or seasonal joy.What you do get though is a more realistic, than normal, love story. Elizabeth Berkley does a great job playing the struggling mother who wants to give her son everything while having the job she dreams of. She works hard at three jobs trying to bring her dreams to fruition. So when she wins the lottery all her dreams come true... only to be ripped to shreds when her car is "borrowed", along with the winning lottery ticket. She does a great job showing the emotional roller-coaster she's on... and before things get better they get worse.Jason Grey-Stanford does a passable job of depicting the charmer who, unintentionally gets pulled into Elizabeth Berkley's life. There are a few laughs and heartwarming moments along the way, but I doff my cap to the writers and director for taking a more realistic storytelling path.In all the glitzy, schmaltzy, Christmas tales this is a breath of fresh air; one that I would recommend. If it's repeated in a couple of years I'll probably give it a second viewing.
MattyGibbs
The run up to Christmas is the one time of year I am prepared to watch predictable and cheesy films. This film is just about as predictable as it gets, you know what is coming from the first minute and you aren't proved wrong. Sometimes however you really do just want to watch something undemanding and this fits the bill. What makes this an above average TV Movie is the cast. It suddenly clicked halfway through that Elizabeth Berkeley is the 'star' of the infamous 'Showgirls'- but she is OK in this movie. The real star however is Jason Gray-Stanford who I thought excellent in this. I watched this film with my wife and kids and we all enjoyed it so I recommend it to those who know what to expect.
findingdina
What I like about this film is that it foregrounds class issues, two people who don't have much money, yet one holds a lottery ticket that belongs to the other. And, thus, it becomes this nice allegory of how we should share wealth among poor folks. No one person should possess such a "ticket to ride." And, by the way, I am annoyed by the previous reviewer who is trying to compare a Hallmark produced film to Rene Clair's 1931 film "Le Million." Of course, the lottery tale is a cliché, it's one of the greatest clichés in all of cinema (the Cinderella tale is an equivalent). Yet, this film's Hallmark cliché worked for me (after a day of house cleaning, mind you): a mise-en-scene of old cars, cramped living quarters, and manly construction sites. And, people wanting to find each other through/in isolation. Too bad there's not a ticket for all of us.
AD
