User reviews

A very wise alternative for teens, and parents, looking for more than the standard collection of Christmas holiday cartoons and films.

The title has a clear tie-in with the film, but then gets multiple meanings added to it throughout. There's no lingering or dwelling upon it. The story moves quickly along and stays adventurous. Whether you interpret it as a setup for a sequel or a seed planter, the ending is a masterpiece. It's not a simple wrap-up that lets you disregard the rest of the film. Instead, it reinforces emphasis on the story as a whole.

It's main weaknesses are mostly budget related. It has the made for TV look (though the camera angles and work are still excellent), would have benefited greatly from a couple better actors/castings in the adult roles (the main 3 kids all show exceptional skill), and about 5 more minutes of plot development and scene pauses/extensions throughout the film to help reinforce critical parts that less focused people may otherwise miss.

An unassuming no-budget film (there's a long list of Kickstarter contributors in the credits) that has its heart in the right place, even if production values are a bit shaky. Writer/director Stephen Cone doesn't have much of a flair for natural-sounding dialogue, though I was impressed that he gives his most effective speeches to one teenage character (Laura, beautifully played by Allison Torrem) who's not having a crisis of conscience and who stoutly defends the values of the conservative Baptist community she was born into; in two of the more engaging scenes, she explains why she finds female preachers "kind of creepy" (cf. 1 Cor. 13:34, 35) and, later on, pleads with her BFF not to lose her faith because "I totally want to be with you in Heaven."

The more conventional coming-of-age crises of the other main characters didn't seem as compelling, though the performances are perfectly fine; the closeted drama coach's moment of what used to be called homosexual panic is certainly one that any viewer with functioning gaydar will have seen coming from a long way down the road. I agree with other viewers that the film seems to be heavily padded with random atmospherics and drawn-out reaction shots that don't do much to advance the plot; the best line in the script is a barely audible throwaway—a cast member in a Nativity play gets off a wisecrack to the effect of "That's why you'll always be a shepherd and never a Wise Man."