Hallmark Channel
Ernest Borgnine, Katherine Helmond, Juliette Goglia, Richard Libertini, Tracy Nelson, Jamie Farr, Quinn K Redeker
This is certainly one of the most heartwarming Christmas stories of them all. Bert (Ernest Borgnine) is an old song and dance man. An actor and a broadway producer. He receives a sudden call just before Christmas to let him know that his daughter has been in an accident, and that he has a granddaughter. Bert has not seen his daughter since he and his wife split on Christmas Eve when she was 2 years old. In a medically enduced coma, Bert finds out that he is going to have to take his granddaughter, as his ex-wife is dead and there’s no other family.
Bert is a confirmed batchelor and did not expect to be taking care of a little girl, something that he’s certainly not prepared for. To make it worse, his granddaughter thinks he’s a terrible monster, and her mother (Tracy Nelson) is not even willing to see or talk to Bert. “Never trust that man!” she warns Becca. (Juliette Goglia)
There is a lot that the girls do not know about Bert, and their opinions on him, without even knowing him, are based upon what their Mother (and grandmother) have told them.
This is a story of family, and love, and forgiveness. No one is right, no one is wrong, it just is what it is.
I enjoy this film very much and try to catch it every year because Ernest Borgnine is such a fine actor in this film, and Juliette Goglia is wonderful as the Granddaughter. She is one heck of a singer as well. Very excellent Christmas film.
** A Grandpa for Christmas (2007),
