Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Predictable and formulaic romantic Christmas movie.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Sarah (Gail O'Grady) runs a community center in New York City. She is a single parent to Jesse, a 9-year-old boy who still misses his father who died before he got to know him, but wishes his mother would find someone new. When a toy company announces a contest where they will give the winner anything they want for Christmas, Jesse enters the contest and sends a video to the company in which he asks for a boyfriend for his mother. Seeing a winning marketing campaign, the company decides to give Jesse the prize, which means they fix Sarah up on a series of bad dates with men who just aren't right for her. While these dates happen, Jesse hopes Sarah will realize that their friend and neighbor Ben -- a Boy Scout troop leader and journalist for a community paper -- is really the best guy for her. But in the meantime, one of the wealthy scions of the toy company (Greg Germann) falls for Sarah, and so she must decide what's best for her and Jesse as the Christmas snows start to fall.
Is It Any Good?
At the end of the day, ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS is a slightly tweaked, holiday-themed version of Sleepless in Seattle. While the film does make a decent attempt at honestly showing the difficulties single parents and their children contend with, the story itself adheres closely to a predictable, oft-seen formula, and many of the characters -- the single woman's brash friend who tells her she needs to date more, the spoiled rich guy who has never had to work with his hands, the nice guy next door who just can't catch a break -- aren't the most original.
While the actors do the best they can with such trite material, it isn't enough to make this worthwhile. Young kids will be bored with the emphasis more on love and less on Christmas, and older kids will have a good indication of how the film will end about 20 minutes in, if not sooner.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about love stories in Christmas movies. Why do the two often go together?
How accurately do you think this movie reflects the realities of single parents and their kids?
Did the movie end the way you thought it would? What would have improved the quality of this movie?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : October 21, 2008
- Cast : Gail O'Grady , Greg Germann , Robert Mailhouse
- Director : Harvey Frost
- Inclusion Information : Female Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Genius Entertainment
- Genre : Romance
- Topics : Holidays
- Run time : 86 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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