Comfort and Joy (2003) (TV)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Maggie Greenwald

Writer (WGA):

Judd Parkin (written by)

Release Date:

1 December 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Comedy | Drama

Plot:

The life of Jane Berry was all materialist, until one Christmas Eve, she is involved in a car accident that changes her life forever...

Plot Keywords:

Car Accident | Christmas

Cast

Nancy McKeon	...	Jane
Steven Eckholdt	...	Sam
Paul Dooley	...	George
Andrew Chalmers	...	Troy Keller
Jordy Benattar	...	Heather Keller
Maria Herrera	...	Alison Phillips
Dixie Carter	...	Frederica
Sandi Ross	...	Dr. Frances Atkinson
Lindsay Leese	...	Renee Becker
Myriam Sirois	...	Jessica
Grant Nickalls	...	Richard Devries
Jim Feather	...	Nate
Dwight Ireland	...	Albert
Smok-ee Allen	...	Alicia Philips
A.J. Saudin	...	Derek Phillips

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:PG | Argentina:13

Company:

Lifetime Television

Movie Connections:

Features Sunset Blvd. (1950)

A play-by-play rip off of "The Family Man."

If you have seen the 2000 Nicholas Cage/Tea Leoni holiday comedy, "Family Man," then you have seen a much better version of a story similar to this movie, "Comfort and Joy." In "Family Man," Nicholas Cage plays the businessman who's 'gaurdian angel' magically plants him into the life of a middle-class suburban tire salesman husband/father. Though bizarre and confusing is this sudden new life that he experiences without much explanation of how he got there, he wades through it for several days to find out that in the end, the life he could of had (the life which he is briefly supplanted in) is much better than the life he did have.

"Comfort and Joy" is nearly the same thing. The main character (Nancy McKeonm, already a Lifetime TV regular) gets into a car accident and, when she recovers, thinks she is actually living ten years in the past. She doesn't recognize that the man and two kids before her are her husband and kids, and she can't figure out exactly why everyone keeps caller her mom. Same idea as the "Family Man," only much more nauseatingly "cutesy" as most Lifetime TV holiday repeats tend to me. The only real plus to this recycled story line is that Paul Dooley and Dixie Carter show up for a few amusing moments as the woman's parents.

If you're into overly sentimental holiday dramas, then this is a good one for you. Otherwise, I'd say skip it.