One Magic Christmas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| One Magic Christmas | |
|---|---|
 One Magic Christmas DVD |
|
| Directed by | Phillip Borsos |
| Written by | Phillip Borsos Barry Healey Thomas Meehan |
| Starring | Mary Steenburgen Harry Dean Stanton Wayne Robson Sarah Polley |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 22, 1985 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | US/Canada |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
One Magic Christmas is a 1985 holiday film from Walt Disney Pictures, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Mary Steenburgen.
[edit] Synopsis
Ginny Grainger (Steenburgen) is the mother of two children, Abbie (Harnois) and Cal (Magwood). Her husband, Jack (Basarba), attempts to run a bike shop out of the basement in order to give a bike to his children's friend, Molly Monaham, who is poor and that's all she wants for Christmas. Due to this, Jack is out of work and Ginny must work as a cashier at a grocery store in order to survive. But Christmas is also looming on the horizon which is causing even more troubles for Ginny and ike Scrooge, she loses sight of what the true meaning of Christmas is.
One night, Abbie goes across the street to the mailbox to send a letter to Santa Claus. After she mails it, Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton), an angel who has been watching the Graingers, receives Abbie's letter from the mailbox and returns it to her saying that her mother should mail it. Abbie agrees, but when she's crossing the street to return to the house, a car barrels down the road towards her. Gideon then stops the impending accident and allows Abbie to cross the street without incident.
The next day, the Graingers visit Ginny's father. The Grandfather gives the children presents: Cal a book his mother used to read to him and Abbie a snow globe of the North Pole. That night Gideon visits Abbie in her room to learn again that Ginny did not mail Abbie's letter. While talking to her her purposly dropes the snow globe and it breaks, but then he magically repairs it. He says he can fix a glass ball, but not her mother. Gideon then tells Abbie that some things are going to happen tomorrow and not to be afraid. Meanwhile, Ginny and Jack go for a walk to talk things out and they have a fight over the bike business and Jack walks away. Ominously, all the Christmas lights begin turning off all around her.
The next day, Christmas Eve, Ginny stops at a gas station where a man is trying to sell a camp stove. She ignores this and goes on with her day. Jack is at the bank attempting to take some money out of their savings. While in the car, Abbie enters the grocery store where Ginny is working and informs her mother of the situation. Ginny storms out of the store to take Abbie back to the car only to have her boss see her leave and fires her. Ginny puts Abbie back in the car and enters the bank only to discover that the man who was trying to sell the camp stove earlier putting the bank in a hold up. Jack attempts to quell the situation in the bank, but the man shoots Jack. In a panic, the gunman flees the bank and hops into Ginny's car with Abbie and Cal in the back seat. In the bank, Jack dies and Ginny finds out that the gunman just stole the car with her son and daughter in it, so she steals the gunman's car and chases after the him, but the car runs out of gas before she can catch up with them. The gunman makes it to a bridge where the police have it blocked off. He tries to turn, but slips on the ice and off the bridge into the river.
In a daze, Ginny returns home to an empty house, sits on the edge of the bathtub, and weeps. Suddenly, Ginny's father comes to her house to inform her that the kids have been found standing on the side of the road and believes that the gunman dropped them off before the crash when in reality Gideon had rescued the children from the river. When the kids return home, Ginny informs the children that their father has died and is not coming back.
Later that night, Abbie runs away to the town's Christmas tree in hopes of finding Gideon because he fixed her snow globe and he might make her dad "not dead." Gideon tells Abbie that he can't fix things like what has happened to her father. He tells her that the only person who can is Santa Claus. Meanwhile, Ginny goes into a panic looking for Abbie.
Gideon takes Abbie with him to the North Pole to talk with Santa Claus. Santa informs Abbie that he too cannot fix what has happened, nor can he bring the Christmas spirit back to Ginny but, Abbie can. Santa then takes Abbie through his factory which is ran by angels, not elves. In the mailroom, he retrieves a letter that Ginny had written to Santa years ago when she was a child.
Gideon returns Abbie to her house and Abbie gives her mother the letter. Ginny reads it and finally realizes the true meaning of Christmas: To celebrate what you have and not what you want. Ginny walks outside to the mailbox and mails Abbie's letter to Santa. Gideon appears next to Ginny and says, "Merry Christmas." She smiles and returns the "Merry Christmas." Just then, all the Christmas lights begin to come back on and from around the corner, Jack reappears and she runs to hug him. It's as if nothing today never happened and she can change it.
The next day, Ginny relives the events of that Christmas Eve, but this time with a different attitude. On her trip to the gas station and buys the camp stove from would-be gunman who thanks her and wishes her a Merry Christmas. At work, she tells her boss that she wouldn't be coming into work on Christmas. The boss responds, "Fine, then get out of here and never come back." The boss then smiles and says, "Until Thursday morning." Then she writes a check to Jack for the bike business and the kids give Molly a bike. That night, Ginny hears something downstairs and finds Santa putting presents under the tree. He then stops and looks and her and says, "Merry Christmas, Ginny." She smiles and says, "Merry Christmas".
[edit] Production
The movie was filmed in Ontario, in Meaford, Collingwood, and Owen Sound. In many ways it is a Canadian movie, with many Canadian references throughout, including the destinctive red, round Canada Post mailboxes.
Actor Jan Rubes, who portrays Santa Claus, also played the Amish patriarch in another 1985 film, Witness.
