The Borrowed Christmas

I am in a sappy mood these days. I have been watching the lowest of the low budget films. Stumbling upon this film I decided to go ahead and watch because I like the name. Even though the actors seem to be young in the movie business I found them refreshing sounding like normal people in any normal given day.

Story goes how middle-aged man who has no family decides to go to a rental store and rent a Christmas, the works. He seems Enchanted by the store owner and she with him. So she agrees to supply him all the necessary items to make a Norman Rockwell type Christmas for him.

She can't rent the actors for the time needed so she and her employee along with some orphaned children decide to play the parts of the man's family. Voila! A Borrowed Christmas.

Even though this film seems a little sappy I really hope people enjoy it. I've actually watched it twice because I enjoyed it so much the first time

I love Christmas movies, even the shamelessly insipid ones. I can forgive the over-emoted, always-good-hearted, low-stakes movies because they are fun, guilty pleasures.

This movie is none f those things. It's a church play that didn't get beyond the rehearsal stage. Obviously flubbed lines, or awkward pauses while the actors try to remember their lines, and completely unbelievable emotions. Truly, it felt like a run thru the got accidentally recorded.

There is nothing redeeming here. It's not even worth a "so good it's bad" watch.

I loved the premise of this movie, and I can stay with pretty much any movie even if the actors are a bit off, but I found this uncomfortable to watch. I see many reviewers compare it to a high school play and that is what it seemed like. The acting was very disjointed, cues looked to be missed and it seemed that they were a bit uncomfortable as well.

This is the most awkward and uncomfortable situation I have ever experienced. Who would ever agree to a situation where a Borrowed Christmas was something a "Rent Shop" would be able to provide. Not to mention the pacing is excruciating. The weird music in the background and a lack of transition from scene to scene is as low budget as you can get. I don't even know how I'm supposed to feel. It's got a weird suggestive relationship going on and I would be happy to never watch this movie again in my life. I can't believe this movie even got made. It'll make you skin crawl but hope that maybe it will get better but then it just doesn't.

Maybe in the hands of a better producer/director, writer and better players A Borrowed Christmas might have gone as high as some of the more maudlin items from the Hallmark Channel. But this film didn't have the benefit of those talents.

The protagonist Jeff Rose a successful businessman gets a nostalgic yearning for an old fashioned family style Christmas. Only problem is that he's got no family anywhere in reasonable distance. What does he do but goes to a place where he has a mortgage and the local Cratchit like woman Sherry Morriss creates a family Christmas from central casting. Everything but Marley's spirit.

A maudlin idea not helped by a bunch of amateurish players who wouldn't make the cut in my favorite high school theatrical troupe, The Hanover Footlighters. Even church audiences are going to strain with this one.