Weihnachten auf der Bühne

Amy Acker as Lily and Sascha Radetsky as Mark play ballet dancers and former flames that are reunited years later when Lily's niece is cast as Clara in a production of The Nutcracker that Mark is directing. Lily long ago left the ballet world and Mark after the death of her sister. Will they reunite, will the ballet go on? A delightful movie answers all of that and more. Worth a watch!

The first temptation is to criticize it. without mercy. for flaws, for sugar exces, for the story who is not only predictable but ...fake. but the ballet moments are good motif for be lenient. because, in essence, it is only a Hallmark film. not the best, not the worse. with a nice pretext and a not credible plot but that is not the great sin. maybe, the performances are not the most inspired . but the film works. and it is not surprise - the love stories are useful heart for each film of genre.

It would take a lot to dislodge in my memory the Anne Bancroft/Shirley MacLaine portrayal of how the passion to dance opened a grand story line about deep wounds and profound regrets--life altering critical decisions. Turning Point had an indefinable sharpness and very raw edge to every part of the story line, including sub-plots. A Nutcracker Christmas doesn't even begin to shadow a remake, if that was even subliminally intended. BUT, it's almost as difficult to conceive that Hallmark would actually have the foresight to mount a production of this type. It's not quite as predictable--oh, there's still the boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl in the end--but it just didn't seem as saccharin to me as most of all other Hallmark movies. It would certainly be nice if they could branch out and come up with story lines set in other disciplines of the arts. Find some better script writers who knew what they were doing and then casting appropriately. Also, it was disappointingly lacking in the actual on-stage dancing. I'm reminded of Clare Peller's line: "Where's the Beef"? Except in this case it should be "Where's the dancing?"

Because our granddaughter is a dancer we have learned quite a bit about the effort and dedication needed to be even a decent dancer and the dancers in this movie are much more than 'decent', they are really good. So on that alone this is worth watching. However, it also had good production values, good dialog, and good acting. This is one we watched on the DVR and did not delete after watching. I'm sure we'll watch it at least once more this season.

Headlined by Amy Acker as a ballerina who must face several emotional challenges, A Nutcracker Christmas unfolds as most popular Christmas movies with the rather superior inclusion of actual extended choreographed dance scenes. Unlike the more cult-following ice skating romance feature, The Cutting Edge (1992), a considerable amount of effort as well as physical performance undertaking was required and included in A Nutcracker Christmas with Amy Acker having plenty of opportunity to actually dance. One must assume that an actual Nutcracker cast was used for the last portion of the rousing classic ballet performances. This normally enjoyable romance Holiday movie has the added bonus of its wonderful artistic performances.