Bonneville Worldwide Entertainment, Madison Avenue Productions Inc., The Polson Company
Neil Patrick Harris, Debbie Reynolds, Naomi Watts, Alesandra Wilson, Beverly Archer, Ian Meltzer, Gary Bayer, James Greene, Jerry Douglas, Michael Fairman
Will Martin (Harris) is a sleek Wall Street executive who comes home to his Grandmother’s house for the holidays. His grandfather has just passed away leaving a real estate company. Will is trying to modernize the company and has brought in a new manager to bright the company into the 21st century and modernize the procedures and policies as well as a new way of doing business. The rest of the employees hate him as they call him heartless. Grandmother has began reading her husbands journals and found a lot of entries about a mysterious woman she doesn’t know named Lillian. Thinking it couldn’t possibly be an affair, but not knowing what else it could be, she asks for only one gift from her grandson for Christmas. Her “Christmas Wish” is for Will to find out who Lillian is and why his grandfather kept it a secret from her all these years. Sometimes you don’t want to know the truth, but sometimes you just need to know.
This is a strong “values” movie, with lots of lessons of what is important and such, but it’s surrounded by a mystery that has twists and turns throughout. The more Will digs, the more it looks like his Grandfather was up to something shady. It’s a grand Christmas tale of love and caring. This is one unique tale and one that’s well worth watching.
** Christmas Wish (1998),
