"It's Christmas, Eve" is a different enough story, including location, to hold one's attention. It breaks away from a snowy mountain town, "North Pole" winter setting. I enjoy the mountains very much, but plots for Christmas romance movies set there soon run thin. When the scenery is the only thing that doesn't become monotonous, a movie can't be very good. So, this film is at least set in a different, more common setting, but one with a snowy clime in winter.
Also different is that it's not about an overworked corporate exec or grinch who finds redemption in a small town, along with romance. Instead, that one lead character is a traveling interim school superintendent, Eve, who specializes in helping bankrupt school districts get back on their feet. But, she has no children and lost her husband a few years ago, so she has buried herself in her work. Her current bailout job is taking her to her hometown for this Christmas and beyond. Her jobs usually last just a few months, and so she travels the country quite a lot.
The counterpart in this romance is the Franklin Ridge High School music teacher, Liam. He has a very talented and precocious daughter, Abby. But he is fairly new to town and the job, having just moved into the house next door to Eve's mother's home. The school board and principals all know that Eve is coming, and word had gotten around to the staffs. Liam knows that when schools have budget problems, the first things that go are the music and art programs. Liam shares having Abby during the year with her mother, a heart surgeon in Toronto. Abby stays with her mom in the summer, and with her dad during the school year.
Eve's dad died several years ago, and her mom remarried in her old age. Her new husband, John, is a retired fireman who dotes on her. Eve likes him and as she settles in for her first Christmas observance in a few years, with her mom, and meeting with school officials and boards before the holidays, she and Liam run into one another. After she begins to recover from her past loss, and she and Liam get close, she takes a new tact. Instead of pitching the cuts and layoffs to the school board on how to get its budget under control, she tries to find new ways for the school system to find the revenues so it doesn't have to make cuts.
The fact that Liam once had his own rock band will come into the picture, and music will help save the day - and maybe this romance. For the originality of the story, and some good performance (Tyler Hynes as Liam, Gwynyth Walsh as Eve's mom, Nella, and Eden Summer Gilmore as Abby), this film earns six stars. LeAnn Rimes seems too withdrawn in her character as Eve. And, while Liam shows signs of heart-strings for Eve, one has to wonder about it because she emotes nothing that would resemble what movie buffs call chemistry.
Also different is that it's not about an overworked corporate exec or grinch who finds redemption in a small town, along with romance. Instead, that one lead character is a traveling interim school superintendent, Eve, who specializes in helping bankrupt school districts get back on their feet. But, she has no children and lost her husband a few years ago, so she has buried herself in her work. Her current bailout job is taking her to her hometown for this Christmas and beyond. Her jobs usually last just a few months, and so she travels the country quite a lot.
The counterpart in this romance is the Franklin Ridge High School music teacher, Liam. He has a very talented and precocious daughter, Abby. But he is fairly new to town and the job, having just moved into the house next door to Eve's mother's home. The school board and principals all know that Eve is coming, and word had gotten around to the staffs. Liam knows that when schools have budget problems, the first things that go are the music and art programs. Liam shares having Abby during the year with her mother, a heart surgeon in Toronto. Abby stays with her mom in the summer, and with her dad during the school year.
Eve's dad died several years ago, and her mom remarried in her old age. Her new husband, John, is a retired fireman who dotes on her. Eve likes him and as she settles in for her first Christmas observance in a few years, with her mom, and meeting with school officials and boards before the holidays, she and Liam run into one another. After she begins to recover from her past loss, and she and Liam get close, she takes a new tact. Instead of pitching the cuts and layoffs to the school board on how to get its budget under control, she tries to find new ways for the school system to find the revenues so it doesn't have to make cuts.
The fact that Liam once had his own rock band will come into the picture, and music will help save the day - and maybe this romance. For the originality of the story, and some good performance (Tyler Hynes as Liam, Gwynyth Walsh as Eve's mom, Nella, and Eden Summer Gilmore as Abby), this film earns six stars. LeAnn Rimes seems too withdrawn in her character as Eve. And, while Liam shows signs of heart-strings for Eve, one has to wonder about it because she emotes nothing that would resemble what movie buffs call chemistry.