In very few words: "A young boy tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for his dying mother, while a lawyer tries to deal with the break-up of his marriage."
Two separate stories mesh - in the first, a young music teacher, Maggie Andrews, begins dying of a heart condition and her son Nathan tries to get a pair of Christmas shoes for her before she dies. In the second, lawyer Robert Layton and his wife Kate are slowly drifting apart and the matter comes to a head during Christmas when Kate takes over for Maggie for the school choir and declines a job in Robert's firm. When Robert's mother passes away, he begins to reconsider things and his and Nathan's paths cross on Christmas Eve as Nathan tries to raise the money for the shoes and Robert tries to get a present for his daughter.
Max Morrow was excellent as "Nathan":
Maggie Andrews: "Honey, what's the matter?"
Nathan Andrews: "Your heart. I just wanted to see if it was still beating."
When I heard this movie was coming out, I knew that I would love it. I read the book, The Christmas Shoes and loved it. When I saw the movie, I truly knew that it was just as good as the book. The acting was just incredible. Rob Lowe did a great job of playing a workaholic lawyer who barely spent any time with his family. What really made me love this movie and book was Nathan (Max Morrow). When he saw those Christmas shoes in the store, the look on his face was priceless... This movie and the book go to prove that miracles really do happen. My favorite moment in the movie was near the end when Robert, his wife, and his daughter were standing in front of Nathan's house. The expressions on their faces was so sad but so real. I highly recommend this wonderful holiday movie to anyone who believes in miracles, and even to those who don't--this movie may change what you think about miracles happening.
100 minutes. Filmed in Dartmouth and Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Click HERE to view the trailer. Minimum of two hankies required for the film's last few minutes.
Available 11-15-10 at Amazon.
