Movie Review: Get Him Back for Christmas

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Charming, sweet Christmas movie

Cons: Predictable; the lip-syncing is obvious

The Bottom Line:

Writing a new song

Will friends move to next level

Charming Christmas film

Does Music Have the Power to Restore Relationships?

Having watched some previous movies that husband and wife Carlos and Alexa PenaVega have done together, I decided to give Get Him Back for Christmas.  I’m glad I did since it proved to be completely charming.

Bella Harlan (Alexa PenaVega) has gotten her big break when she met mega popstar Sage Majors (Alan Powell).  Their two duets have swiftly climbed the charts, and the fact that they are dating has captured the nation.  However, it all comes crashing down on Bella before Christmas when Sage announces that he wants a break for the holidays.  It only gets worse when the press reports that the two have broken up.

So Bella does the only thing she can think of – she heads home to her small town in Texas.  It’s there that she reconnects with her old song writing partner, Jack Grayton (Carlos PenaVega).  The two secretly had feelings for each other when they were teens.  But Bella is intent on getting Sage back and asks Jack to help her write a song to help her do that.  Will they rediscover their feelings?

If you go into this movie and aren’t shocked by the developments along the way, you haven’t been paying attention to these made for TV Christmas movies.  But, as I always say, it’s more about the execution than the predictability.  In this case, I was having plenty of fun, so I don’t care that much that I knew where the story was going.  There were some nice subplots I wasn’t expecting along the way, and some real depth to the characters that helped bring me in.

Since this is set in Texas, this is now the second Christmas movie I’ve watched that didn’t include snow.  I’m a bit surprised, but not that upset since snow doesn’t feature into my Christmases either.

I will say that the singing was a bit weak.  Not the actual vocals, but the lip-syncing they did during the filming.  It looks fake.  But maybe that’s just me.

One thing I especially appreciated was the third act.  Again, the characters had been established, so the third act complications felt real, and I appreciated how the characters behaved.  I respected them for the choices they made.

There were some elements of the movie I wasn’t expecting, like the prominent place The Salvation Army had in the movie, or the roll that Mario Lopez played in the movie (as himself).  There’s also Jack’s younger brother.  I found their relationship very sweet.

The acting is good.  Alexa and Carlos carry the movie, but the rest of the cast are fine in their parts as well.

Ultimately, Get Him Back for Christmas is a sweet and charming Christmas movie.  If that is what you are looking for, you’ll be rewarded.