Radio Christmas

source: Radio Christmas

Heart touching. A real Christmas movie! I love the story line. I am going to watch it again.

I have to say that I completed a jigsaw whilst watching this, because it really didn't grab me that much at all. I wasn't attracted to any of the characters or interested in their stories, which is a shame because the search she does could have provided a really good story for this film, but it was all very lightly achieved and so didn't quite have the passion and drama it could have done. It's not that bad, it's not that good.

"Radio Christmas" is a Lifetime movie released in 2019 for its Christmas marathon. This one is pretty good even if it's totally predictable. A radio DJ's building in Philly conveniently becomes unavailable for her use. Her employer reassigns her to the "small town" of Bethlehem. Having never visited Pennsylvania outside of the airport, I was aware of the town. Wikipedia reports that it is the seventh largest house in Pennsylvania. Why pick such a large town? Why not make the film take place in a smaller place such as DuBois? The DJ is played by Keshia Pulliam as Kara. Kara meets a hunky single dad DJ by the name of Scott (Michael Xavier). Scott is a passionate, small town guy who loves his local town. He is apparently also form Philly but keeps that under wraps. Kara informs Scott that she has heard of a "Secret Santa" who donates thousands of dollars to various local projects. It's not hard to figure out who the Secret Santa is. Regardless of that, the film has good energy and a well written love story. The leads have a gentleness to them and their romance doesn't feel forced. Scott is especially busy taking care of his daughter whom he doesn't understand. Andie (Nakai Takawira), as the daughter is a good movie kid. She is able to be curious without being cute. I often feel that these kinds of movies use children as a cheap source of sentimentality. Kara interacts with Andie who clearly would like to have a mother figure and for her father to have a spouse figure. The Secret Santa is revealed by a podcast recording Kara accidentally makes. There is a twist ending you may not see coming. The revelation forces a conversation between Scott and his father who didn't approve of Scott's charitable donations. Men can be headstrong and generally don't communicate well. The forcing out of the emotion is welcome for their family and is a good positive message overall. I say let this one pass in spite of its strange setting.

Most of the Hallmark movies & characters are so superficial and pretentious, they aren't appealing! Loved the the lead characters in Radio Christmas! The male lead & his daughter were particularly lovable. Nice to see roles that seemed believable. That Outdoor hockey game in Winnipeg sure would be cold, though! Let's see more of these actors, with the same writers. Almost forgot to say how nice it was to see Tim Reid on TV again! Good Christmas movie.

Yes, the story of Bethlehem PA is not accurate. So you dis the whole movie? Perhaps it would be worthwhile to look at some things about the movie beyond that one glaring problem. (BTW - I have done the same thing at least partially and I apologize for it. I usually try to avoid it but if I do have a problem getting past one sticking point, I still try to bring out other things positive and negative in any review I write.) The story should have been Bethlehem, Iowa, or Utah, or anywhere we can file away as made up. If you do that, this is a unique story. The radio/podcast angle is nice. It does lead to the common reporter-investigates-a-secret trope, but even that is not as worn out as some themes. I knew almost immediately who was the Secret Santa, but the whole audience learns that fairly early in the movie. As soon as Kara said she'd keep the secret, it was a pretty certain guess that somehow she would fail. For me these movies are about relationships and I really enjoyed the relationships between Keshia Knight Pulliam's Kara, Michael Xavier's Scott, and Nakai Takawira's Andie. I loved that Andie is a hockey player, but that's minor compared to how warm that three-way relationship became. This is a Lifetime movie, but as many of them do, it has what we tend to call a Hallmark ending. To do that, they used some unexpected things and some predictable ones.

To those complaining about the movie not being true to the movie location...this is ridiculous. Almost all Hallmark and Lifetime movies are filmed in Canada and the movie location is usually Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago or locales in Vermont. It is cheaper to film and produce made-for-tv movies in Canada. They have a studio, homes and towns they use year round to make almost all of their movies. Otherwise they would have 3 or 4 Christmas movies per year rather than the 20 plus they make. It costs millions to block off streets and shoot movies in the cities they say the location really is. Many of these movies are based on books, short stories or novellas and they try to stay within the geographic location of the original story. Some use fictitious towns. Very few movies...including million dollar blockbusters...are filmed in the location that is represented in the movie. It wouldn't be financially feasible to film a made-for-tv movie in a city of 75,000.

You info on the founding of Bethlehem was wrong in the movie. If your going to mention this town. Be accountable for the Information . Disappointing!!

Unfortunately, I couldn't watch more than 15 minutes of this movie. Forget 90+ minutes! The false eyelashes of the main actor, Keshia Knight Pulliam, were so distracting the story was lost on me.

Bethlehem PA is a medium sized City with a large casino, a huge old steel factory turned entertainment venue and a vibrant downtown. It hosts an enormous Musikfest and Celtic fest which attracts hundreds of thousands annually. It's not a quaint small town. There's no town square where they light the little tree. It's way older than 100 years. There's more like 50,000 residents rather than 50, so twenty people with shovels couldn't dig it out from a blizzard. And it certainly is not a small town just outside Harrisburg, so you can't break down there on your way from Philly to Pittsburgh. Ah, and the guy who runs the local radio station is not the most prominent citizen. Pro tip, next time you set a movie in an actual locale, maybe read its Wikipedia page. The best part about it is that it's residents are ridiculously hometown proud. I call em Beth Heads. Beth heads eyes and ears will bleed, cause the whole place is a little more involved than the courtyard outside the radio station and the B&B around the corner. Drop. Dead. Hilarious. Hahaha