Review of Comfort and Joy

The intention was to make a Christmas fantasy, sort of like "It's a Wonderful Life." But, whereas "Life" had its angel (Clarence) to warn you up front that it was a fantasy, "Comfort" played it straight, inviting you to expect a rational explanation for the time travel. There was no explanation, because this is a totally incoherent screenplay. Worse, the film tries too hard to send PC messages. I'm all for films with morals and for films that uplift, but when the overriding message is that career women are nice but home-making women are nice, too, straights are nice but gays are nice, too - well, you get the idea. The first priority of a screenwriter is to tell a good story, not to send messages. This is a badly flawed story, because it is neither pure fantasy nor pure realism, and it leaves you feeling cheated at the end. The leads are good actors who did the best they could with the sappy material. The writers deserve the blame. The movie was obviously made on a shoestring, which was appropriate.