Waste of time

Too much of everything

Admirable film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

BEWARE OF BOGUS REVIEWS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE MOVIE. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM VERY FARE ABOUT THESE FILMS.This is a nice little Christmas film that was part of the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" production banner. In this film a single father runs a Christmas Tree Farm with his 2 teenage children. Once a year they go to New York City and sell the trees. Upon the latest Christmas the man gets into a physical fight with his son. The son who is only 16 years old but he is a gifted photographer. After runs away he become homeless but is surviving by getting work at a newspaper. He is the unknown photographer taking pictures in the "LOOK UP CAMPAIGN".The picture works well. The film has a message that was well worth exploring. This film however is not for people with no attention span. Men under 40 will hate this. Children will be bored.

I really didn't like this production. The title sets up a metaphor which signals the "big message". There are two problems with the "big message". First, it's delivered with hammer-like subtlety -- okay, Hallmark is not particularly good with subtlety, but still, why use a metaphor if you're going to hit us over the head with its meaning? The metaphor itself becomes little more than a scavenger hunt to find the (literal) silver bells. Second, the metaphor really doesn't match the plot. The central conflict between father and son is not well developed and doesn't make sense. The inevitable explosion seems completely out of character. I get it, son rebels against Dad's career choice for him, an age-old dilemma. But what happens here is out of character and overwrought. And what does any of this have to do with "silver bells"? The message of the metaphor would not solve the father/son conflict. Add to these issues the fact that there is absolutely no chemistry between Anne Heche and Tate Donovan. Chemistry is critical to the Hallmark formula! In fact, the relationship here is not even at the center of the story, which is a mistake, because Hallmark is all about that relationship. I would just as soon have skipped this one -- and it has to be pretty bad for me to say that!

Danny and Bridget Byrne, who lost their mother several years ago, are being raised by their father Christy, who runs a Christmas tree farm in Nova Scotia. Danny takes pictures for his high school yearbook and he has a deadline, but his father thinks the farm is more important because, after all, it pays the bills, and Danny is to take over someday.After the harvest, the family delivers trees to New York City and sets up a stand to sell them. As usual, they stay with nice old Mrs. Quinn. As usual, widowed 'museum lady' Catherine O'Meara won't buy a tree. Danny visits her workplace with samples of his photography, and Catherine is impressed.When the time comes for the family to return home, Danny is missing. A year later, he has been replaced on the farm, and Bridget and Christy return once again to New York City to sell more trees. Rip, one of New York's finest, still does not have good news for Christy, who has returned to the city several times hoping to find his son. The 'silver bells' of the movie's title refer to a photograph that is part of the museum's 'look up' promotion. The Post is asking people to guess the location of the bells, and if no one does by Christmas, the paper will print the answer. Catherine's boss, a real estate developer, likes the idea, but his son thinks it's a waste of time.You don't have to be Allison Dubois to figure out the rest. Though there is one unexpected development that could complicate things.This is a pleasant family movie overall, but nothing really outstanding. It's at least as good as other Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations. I would say it is well-acted with the usual formula feel-good writing, though I like the formula. The only thing that might be considered offensive: a dispute between Danny and his father gets physical, which I found unnecessary.Anne Heche is pleasant enough and attractive with long hair, though I might have been happier with a different actress.It's a good film if you like this sort of thing. Which I do.

Seemingly typical for Hallmark presentations, "Silver Bells" becomes a bit syrupy during its final act, and takes its time getting there. The story, set in Nova Scotia and New York, gets off to a good start with a father/son conflict in the family Christmas tree business. But the vast middle was difficult for me to watch because a lot of time is spent observing the characters without anything new going on. It was as if they took a good 45 minute film and stretched it to two hours (with commercials).Tate Donovan is Christy Byrne, single father of teenagers Danny (Michael MItchell, looking like a chubby faced Leo DiCaprio) and Bridget (cute Courtney Jines). In November everyone pitches in to harvest the year's crop of trees, bag them, and get them ready to haul to their usual spot in NYC to sell them. But Danny, 16, doesn't look forward to inheriting the tree farm, instead he is an artist, an avid photographer. Tension develops when dad makes him work through the day instead of letting him meet a deadline for pictures for the school yearbook. So the whole movie is about trying to resolve the father/son conflict, and to let both of them experience growth after mom's premature death. Only moderately interesting.SPOILERS. Anne Heche is Catherine Tierney, recently widowed, and works in news and photography, and happens to live very near where the Byrne family has been setting up for years selling their trees. As this particular year of tree sales progresses, young Danny wanders off with his Leica, mesmerized by the city. He and dad have a big argument, Danny strikes him, runs away, dad and sis have to go home without him, police cannot locate him. One year later, back in NYC selling trees, Danny appears, he has been living best he could, Catherine has been giving him odd photography jobs, he studies for his GED, he wants to stay in NY and go to college. He is finally caught after falling from a rooftop trying to elude police, badly injured and brought to the hospital, when he recovers he and dad make a deal, he will stay in NY, and by the way, dad and Catherine end up together in the end. No surprise there. Although, I wonder why he didn't marry the nice homely lady they stayed with when they came to town each year??