A Christmas village brings the magic of Christmas to the lives of a woman and her family, healing old wounds and bringing new love to her and her family.
Image: Hallmark Media
The Wrong Kind of Christmas Magic
Hallmarkies love Christmas magic, and it's something the majority of holiday romcoms lacked in 2021.
Many fans petitioned for more movies to include enchanting elements like Santa, the North Pole, elves who find love and lose their pointy ears, and wish-granting snow globes. Others requested more inspirational stories, like Godwink movies, that focus on how faith brings about the miraculous at Christmas.
What has Hallmark been delivering in 2022? Nothing but mysticism and New Age mumbo jumbo, both arising from the Dark Side. It's no surprise, really. The new Hallmark leadership installed in 2020 has been systematically obliterating religious overtones and replacing them with left-wing propaganda in a large percentage of their new films. This is all part of the "inclusive" nature of Hallmark now--except if you're a person of faith, you are not "included."
Marlo Thomas plays Vivian, the eccentric and slightly irresponsible mother of successful architect, Summer (Alison Sweeney). Vivian must find a new place to live because her boyfriend, whom she has been living with, decides to move closer to his kids. This is a shocker. Under past leadership, Hallmark NEVER would have allowed unmarried people to live together.
Vivian does regular "meditations" to clear out "bad energy." She views the end of her relationship with Merle as the "universe's way" of telling her to move it along. She owns dream catchers and believes in
chakras.
What are chakras? It's a New Age style of spiritism that holds the body is an energetic system that affects parts of the body in different ways. Each chakra must be kept in balance to avoid the ramifications of negative energy. For example, the solar plexus chakra is believed to be between the rib cage and navel. When it's in balance, it's a source of energy and confidence. When it's out of balance, it can cause depression and low self-esteem emotionally, and physically lead to digestive and liver problems as well as diabetes.
Hallmark has cancelled God and replaced Him with
secular humanism. Secular humanism is a worldly lifestyle that is focused on the profane rather than the sacred, and its aim is to remove religious authority and replace it with mankind as the supreme being.
The magic of the Christmas village might aim for being whimsical, but it ends up being a little creepy. As Summer's daughter, Chloe, moves the figures around the village, it influences the behaviors of real people, as if the village is controlling them like some possessed object. It even lights up with no batteries or electricity. Let's save this type of magic for a Hallmark Horror channel.
The Dumbest Part of the Movie
The Christmas village characters are dressed in Victorian-era clothing. Chloe is flabbergasted when she sees Ryan Scott (Luke MacFarlane) dressed like the figure in her Christmas village. Ryan stays in costume to hand out toys to needy children during the annual toy drive.
Meanwhile, Summer knows Ryan has been offered a new job in another state. She doesn't want him to leave. Instead of waiting until they could have a private conversation where she could reveal her heart and ask him to stay, she dons a Victorian costume and interrupts him to publicly announce her feelings. He's handing out gifts to poor kids! No one in her right mind would pick this moment to declare her love.
Writers might defend their daft decision by saying the Christmas village magic caused Summer to behave in this manner. There is no excuse. Good writers would have found a way to put Summer in the costume but in a scene that made sense.
The Most Discussed Aspect of the Movie
Can you guess the number one topic of discussion surrounding A Magical Christmas Village?
Yes, Marlo Thomas's face.
While it's admirable that Thomas is still performing at age 85, celebrities have a real problem with ageing naturally and gracefully.
Like many other stars, Thomas apparently didn't know when enough plastic surgery was enough. She looks like she's peering through a plastic mask, and it's grotesquely distracting for viewers. You can't watch a close up scene and not fixate on how obvious it is that one nostril is significantly larger than the other.
Michael Jackson, Priscilla Presley, Kenny Rogers, and other big names in the industry like Thomas ruined their natural good looks in pursuit of perfection, all ending up looking like figures in a wax museum.
Thomas's plastic surgery debacle overshadows the story, making A Magical Christmas Village hard to watch.
My Christmas Tree Rating
A Magical Christmas Village had the potential to be the type of fantasy story fans have missed; however, Hallmark botched the opportunity.
Plus, did you notice how much wine is consumed in this movie? What happened to hot cocoa?
A Magical Christmas Village only earns two out of five Christmas trees.
Totally agree with this writer and that Hallmark is headed in the wrong direction with it's stories being woke and way too secular!
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