Great American
Rating: 🎄🎄
Description: In A Christmas Prayer Tradition, Natalie prepares for the launch of her debut children’s book, Adeline the Angel, while Wes continues to deepen his faith journey. When Caroline (Madeline Cox) quietly begins a mission to answer the prayers and needs of those around her community, the family discovers that some of God’s greatest works are accomplished through simple acts of kindness. As Christmas approaches, Bellford Falls once again becomes a place where hope is restored, prayers are answered, and hearts are drawn closer to the reason for the season.
Overall Review: Sequels already have an uphill battle. A Christmas Prayer Tradition decided to climb that hill wearing ankle weights. This movie was bad. It was wooden, lackluster, and painfully amateurish. The actors are perfectly capable and I’ve seen them excel in other movies, but Great American has a remarkable ability to make professional performers look like the biggest stars in somebody’s home movies. Everyone seems to be acting, but nobody seems to be inhabiting an actual human being.
The plot itself is fine, which almost makes the whole thing more frustrating. There’s a perfectly serviceable story here, but the execution never gives it a chance. And here’s where I really want Great American to do better. I genuinely appreciate the network’s commitment to incorporating faith into Christmas movies. There’s room for meaningful Christian storytelling in this genre, and I’d love to see it reach a wider audience. But good intentions don’t excuse bad filmmaking. If you want people beyond your existing audience to engage with the message, you have to give them a movie worth watching. Faith shouldn’t have to carry the weight of wooden dialogue and uninspired production.
The Christmas decorations were marginally better than what I’ve come to expect from the network, although someone somewhere still believes that placing artificial Christmas trees at random intervals on a sidewalk creates a festive atmosphere. Nothing says authentic small-town Christmas like a fully decorated six-foot tree inexplicably growing out of the pavement.
On the bright side, nobody carried a fake Christmas tree while pretending it was freshly cut. At this point, I’ll take my victories wherever I can find them.
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