Part Three of Hallmark's most poignant trilogy of Xmas movies premiered last night. And it had me shamelessly weeping at all the right spots!
Refreshingly, the primary subplot this time around focused on the mystery of Miranda's matrilineal past. Although, it was somewhat predictable. My guess concerning the true identity of the stocky bald gentleman proving only half-right.
The secondary subplot focused on the wedding preparations, themselves. Would Miranda find the courage to ask Margaret (her future stepmother-in-law) to cease her well-intended-but-overzealous meddling? Would Margaret, herself, find the courage to fall in love a second time? And would poor Ian ever get the wording right for his self-written wedding vows?
The only reason I don't give this a perfect ten is that replacing Aaliyah O'Brien, with Julia Benson (as Ellie Whitcomb) wasn't exactly unnoticeable. And, therefore, not quite acceptable. To me, anyway! Plus, there's the inexplicable absences of Bethany Brown as Annie (Miranda's former secretary at her old Seattle workplace) and Jordana Largy as Blair (Miranda's school teacher friend).
Even if Annie had been promoted to Miranda's successor, would it actually have killed the writers to come up with one or two lines of in-story explanation for that absence? Like, say, too much of a holiday workload at that place? And what about Blair? I've always thought she was the daughter of Miranda's foster mother. That is; the old friend of Eve Chester who raised Miranda after Eve's death circa 1996. So there's no way, in the real world, Blair would have failed to attend Miranda's wedding!
Those nitpicks aside, however, this conclusion to the "Father Christmas" trilogy was everything I hoped it would be. Well worth the year-long wait!
Refreshingly, the primary subplot this time around focused on the mystery of Miranda's matrilineal past. Although, it was somewhat predictable. My guess concerning the true identity of the stocky bald gentleman proving only half-right.
The secondary subplot focused on the wedding preparations, themselves. Would Miranda find the courage to ask Margaret (her future stepmother-in-law) to cease her well-intended-but-overzealous meddling? Would Margaret, herself, find the courage to fall in love a second time? And would poor Ian ever get the wording right for his self-written wedding vows?
The only reason I don't give this a perfect ten is that replacing Aaliyah O'Brien, with Julia Benson (as Ellie Whitcomb) wasn't exactly unnoticeable. And, therefore, not quite acceptable. To me, anyway! Plus, there's the inexplicable absences of Bethany Brown as Annie (Miranda's former secretary at her old Seattle workplace) and Jordana Largy as Blair (Miranda's school teacher friend).
Even if Annie had been promoted to Miranda's successor, would it actually have killed the writers to come up with one or two lines of in-story explanation for that absence? Like, say, too much of a holiday workload at that place? And what about Blair? I've always thought she was the daughter of Miranda's foster mother. That is; the old friend of Eve Chester who raised Miranda after Eve's death circa 1996. So there's no way, in the real world, Blair would have failed to attend Miranda's wedding!
Those nitpicks aside, however, this conclusion to the "Father Christmas" trilogy was everything I hoped it would be. Well worth the year-long wait!