This is a fairly good mystery story in a Christmas and some romance jammed in. Several seemingly disjointed scenes begin the movie and start us on the mystery journey. There are actually a couple of mysteries going on revolving around each other. There is the little boy, Chris, who is apparently missing or hiding despite the fact that no parents show up to join the hunt that has become a huge circus in town. The second mystery is David's past. He too was lost as a little boy but he's not quite sure how he was rescued.
The acting is solid. Patricia Heaton and Rick Roberts work well together, but there really isn't much screen time devoted to developing any romance. Most of the screen time revolves around the mysteries. I thought the ending would be something else, so I would say the mystery wasn't overly predictable. Some of the results at the end were generally predictable, but after all it is a Christmas romance movie. (I saw it on a Hallmark channel, but the beginning didn't credit Hallmark.)
The story has some unnatural elements. Peter Falk is Max who seems to show up in interesting places to give them clues, but he can span distances in what seems like magic. He also paints pictures of mundane events in David and MJ's life and some of the paintings are in their possession before the events happen.
The acting is solid. Patricia Heaton and Rick Roberts work well together, but there really isn't much screen time devoted to developing any romance. Most of the screen time revolves around the mysteries. I thought the ending would be something else, so I would say the mystery wasn't overly predictable. Some of the results at the end were generally predictable, but after all it is a Christmas romance movie. (I saw it on a Hallmark channel, but the beginning didn't credit Hallmark.)
The story has some unnatural elements. Peter Falk is Max who seems to show up in interesting places to give them clues, but he can span distances in what seems like magic. He also paints pictures of mundane events in David and MJ's life and some of the paintings are in their possession before the events happen.