User Reviews

I have been a fan of Nancy McKeon since her "Facts of Life" days. She always made interesting films and this was no exception.

Now I know people get sick & tired twists on "It's a Wonderful Life" but this in reality isn't that. What this is about a modern woman who is riding high in her career and she doesn't ever see herself married with children. Then On Christmas Eve day she gets in a car wreck and wakes up to find herself married to a man she has never met. She also has 2 children.

The film is worth watching because the cast is great and they make the materiel pop. The dinner table scene at the end makes this worth watching. I cried because I have been in situations with a parent criticizing everything about my life and someone that I loved having my back!

Seek this film out. It is a winner

Jane (Nancy McKeon) has it all or so she thinks. She is a high-powered executive who drives a jag, has an equally well-connected boyfriend, and a wardrobe to die for. Her best friend is a working mother and they meet at the gym to discuss life's issues. Her friend advises her to consider the "whole package" of career and family and to try to find more suitable husband material than her present boyfriend. Jane laughs. However, on the way to a party on Christmas Eve, her car spins out of control and, when the 360 revolutions stop, she finds herself in a new life. She has a handsome and caring husband, two beautiful children, a station wagon and a closet-full of reasonably-priced clothing. Aghast, Jane runs to her old apartment, only to find it occupied by someone else. Having nowhere to go, she reluctantly goes back to her new family's home and tries to sort things out. Her acquired relatives go to church, help out at homeless shelters, and go ice skating. Can Jane learn to appreciate her new roles? This is a lovely movie for families to watch on any given evening, not just at holiday time. It has some good performances, good production values and great messages. How many of us get to "try out" a new path in life and discover the possibilities we may have missed? None of us do, except in a fine movie such as this one. Do you love movies that foster family values in a clean, fun way? Get yourself a copy of this one without delay.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Started watching and couldn't tear myself away. A feelgood experience that makes one realize, there are things in life more important than "things". I hope I get to watch it every year, it isn't often a classic in the making comes along.

A young career-minded woman has an accident and wakes up married with 2 children and a husband who works in a homeless shelter and drug rehab center. She is aghast to find that out because she is a "scrooge" type of person. Sounds familiar? One might call this a preview of an alternative life style. This easily reminds us of a great movie in the past, "It is A Wonderful Life" with James Stewart. It is actually rather nice to be able to see what your life will be like in 10 years. The trouble is that you might not be able to change anything even knowing what is coming. She could have been married to a gangster or a murderer. The acting is quite light weight. Nancy McKeon seems to be going through the motion. She treats her drastic change as if she found herself wearing a different outfit and wondering how it happens. The husband is unconvincingly nonchalant as is the 'doctor'. Post traumatic amnesia requires at least a hospital visit. However there is a small bright spot in this other lackluster movie; it is Dixie Carter as the insufferable mother with a Southern accent. One must not forget that this is a fantasy, one in which explanations are unnecessary about details like why Jane has not aged in 10 years. The movie is a minor variation on the same age-old theme. Do accept the imperfections and enjoy this little bonbon; it is, after all, Christmas.

After a mishap on the road, single advertising vice-president Nancy McKeon (as Jane Berry) finds herself married, with children. All mixed up, Ms. McKeon has apparently landed ten years in the future. You won't know what's going on until the end, but you may have seen this story before. They're calling it "situational amnesia." McKeon has traded her male model-type boyfriend for snuggly Steven Eckholdt (as Sam Keller), the director of a drug and alcohol center for the homeless. McKeon's work has become mothering two cute kids, cooking, cleaning and volunteering for churchy Connecticut groups. Funniest scenes involve bickering parents Paul Dooley and Dixie Carter (as George and Frederica Berry). Most tired scene involves McKeon's Jewish pal and four swishy Christmas chums watching "Sunset Boulevard" with Gloria Swanson. She's right, "It's the pictures that got small."

**** Comfort and Joy (12/1/03) Maggie Greenwald ~ Nancy McKeon, Steven Eckholdt, Dixie Carter, Paul Dooley

. . . Of The Family Man, in which Nicholas Cage plays a similar part. But this update is engaging, fun and less serious.

If you have seen the 2000 Nicholas Cage/Tea Leoni holiday comedy, "Family Man," then you have seen a much better version of a story similar to this movie, "Comfort and Joy." In "Family Man," Nicholas Cage plays the businessman who's 'gaurdian angel' magically plants him into the life of a middle-class suburban tire salesman husband/father. Though bizarre and confusing is this sudden new life that he experiences without much explanation of how he got there, he wades through it for several days to find out that in the end, the life he could of had (the life which he is briefly supplanted in) is much better than the life he did have.

"Comfort and Joy" is nearly the same thing. The main character (Nancy McKeonm, already a Lifetime TV regular) gets into a car accident and, when she recovers, thinks she is actually living ten years in the past. She doesn't recognize that the man and two kids before her are her husband and kids, and she can't figure out exactly why everyone keeps caller her mom. Same idea as the "Family Man," only much more nauseatingly "cutesy" as most Lifetime TV holiday repeats tend to me. The only real plus to this recycled story line is that Paul Dooley and Dixie Carter show up for a few amusing moments as the woman's parents.

If you're into overly sentimental holiday dramas, then this is a good one for you. Otherwise, I'd say skip it.

This is a lovely and charming Christmas movie. It's well written and well acted, with a clear storyline from beginning to end. No, you don't know why and you won't know why or how Jane remembers this other life she never lived, but you don't know the how or why of the fantasy of It's a Wonderful Life or A Christmas Carol either - or of all the other movies that feature a character who has some kind of awakening on Christmas Eve.

Comfort and Joy is a thoroughly enjoyable movie about finding the life you never knew you really wanted. It has a positive message, but it isn't the slightest bit sentimental or sugar-coated.

I'm delighted to have found Comfort and Joy; it's a great addition to our Christmas movie collection. I look forward to watching it every year along with all of our other favourites.

I don't know what the previous reviewer's eggnog was spiked with! I liked this little holiday offering with the underrated Nancy McKeon in the Jimmy Stewart role of this "it's A Wonderful Life" clone. But, hey, all the TV movies this time of year are versions of the great original, aren't they? I'm watching right now, so maybe the whole thing will get derailed later in the plot. Hope not. Different takes on Dicken's original "original" are always welcome and sure beat another Abflex infomercial! Oh, and that reviewer's line about the scenes with her parents? The fabulous Paul Dooley -- none other than Wimby from "Popeye" -- is always a joy to watch and is an understated delight here. Dixie Carter as the Mom is, well, Dixie Carter. I guess there are Grinches, even among anonymous reviewers. For the rest of you, enjoy! And that's the splendid Lou Rawls singing the Christmas Song during the crash scene. Very inventive!

Let's see, we have a workaholic overachiever who we just know is going to learn a big lesson about how she should want a husband and children because that is just the be-all, end-all of a woman's existence. Okay, it's not that sexist. But the way this TV movie goes about presenting the concept of a fulfilling personal life over career have barely a whiff of originality. The husband and kids, whether real or imagined, are so wholesome you just want to shoot them. But the absolute worst was a scene in which McKeon's character shows up at a get-together with four gay men, who are the gay version of minstrels. This cartoon-like depiction was the point at which I knew that there would be nothing redeeming about this. It's just another shameless plot line implying that a woman must choose between career and family. (Let's just say the suspense won't be killng you as to which lifestyle comes out on top.)

I watched this dribble and I found it a mess. It is very confusing. The whole thing is about a woman who has a car accident and while momentarily unconscious, dreams about her life with someone she always had a crush on. When she awakens, who should rescue her, but her Prince Charming of all people, and they sort of go off into the sunset and begin the life together she dreamed about. Just like that; no questions, nothing. Mind you, the man who rescues her, just placidly and calmly opens her car door. After this terrific crash, she has only a bruise on her forehead. No ambulance, no hospital, no confusion. He doesn't think she is some kind of a nut, but sort of goes along with it. I watched this crap, and that is what it is. The music is so juvenile and so overbearing and interferes with the already horrible and stiff acting. The movie was almost unwatchable. The scene with the parents is totally contrived, the the actor who plays the father is miscast. Dixie Carter is at her worst. The actor who plays Steve is stiff and totally wooden and hollow. The main character, doesn't seem to be able to pull it together with this plot. You can see, even she acts by the numbers. It is totally unrealistic. I repeat: the acting was so horrible, it was like an amateur production. It sort of has a moral about not desiring the materialistic, and this borders on the Christmas theme, but, it is one of the worst movies imaginable. Totally unrealistic and immature. Horrible acting and just ridiculous. Dribble and awful acting.

Review Date 2/6/2018

PLEASE BEWARE OF SOME REVIEWERS THAT ONLY HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW. I HAVE OVER 400 REVIEWS OF "CHRISTMAS RELATED FILMS & SPECIALS" WHEN ITS A POSITIVE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE PRODUCTION. NOW I HAVE NO AGENDA! I REVIEW MOVIES & SPECIALS AS A WAY TO KEEP TRACK OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN! I HAVE DISCOVERED MANY GEMS IN MY QUEST TO SEE AS MANY " C H R I S T M A S " MOVIES AS I CAN.

Now Someone keeps reporting my reviews. I guess they are jealous because I do tell the truth. I want to point out that I never make snide remarks about actors weight or real life sexual orientation. If there acting is terrible or limited "I talk about that". If a story is bad "I will mention that" So why am I being "picked on"? IMDB? When one of my reviews gets deleted IMDB will not even tell me what someone found offensive. Well on to this review.

Comfort and Joy is a TV movie directed by Maggie Greenwald, originally airing on the Lifetime cable network in 2003. It starred Nancy McKeon as Jane Berry. The life of Jane Berry was all materialist, until one Christmas Eve, she is involved in a car accident that changes her life forever. She wakes up to discover she is the mother of two, a wife and that her only job is in the house, besides her frequent volunteer work

This is so well made and just a huge delight to watch. It delivers on what is promised and has enough twist on a familiar premise that the film will hold your interest. In fact once you see it "You might want to see it again"

I purchased a copy of this movie to watch every Christmas season. The cast is perfect, especially Nancy.

I really liked the movie ,it is perhaps a note for people who are too much in the world and have no pity to help the old and homeless. It makes it possible for a person like Jane to change in to a good person like Sam.I think the acting in the movie is flawless and Steven Eckholdt is a very complete actor. It is certainly a thought provoking movie.Even the minute character of Sam's mother in law is full of life representing a women who thinks not beyond her materialistic world and is unhappy to see her successful daughter ending up in a life she would never choose for her.I think the understanding of the couple in the movie is serene and yes it is a movie worth watching.