First of all, it's absurd this movie is rated PG. The language and the bloody, violent scene towards the end should push this up to a PG-13 rating.
As for an actual review: This is one of those "family torn apart by tragedy and they come together thanks to the power of Christ" movies, except in this movie, the message doesn't work at all. One character, who's a drug user, gets his girlfriend pregnant, is in a gang, and uses the foul language that should keep this movie from a PG rating, just all of a sudden changes for the better after cursing out God after his girlfriend gets stabbed in the stomach. Really, his change comes pretty much out of nowhere.
The main character's change for the better is more gradual and makes a bit more sense - she's convinced to help with a church's nativity play, and that mostly combined with the friendly carpenter changes her from being a clubbing, drunken mess to a more put-together young lady.
But that's not enough to save this movie. The plot overall is slow, and there's somehow too many plot threads and yet not enough. The characters are almost entirely unlikable, and nobody ever calls out the step-mom for her obvious preference for her biological son and her blindness to his drug use and stealing her money and how absurdly critical she is of her step-daughter; at one point the step-daughter shows up in short shorts and a sparkly shirt, and the step-mother says "Did you get that at a thrift store?" with contempt. Which is absurd - she's more concerned that her step-daughter may have bought clothes secondhand than that her step-daughter is dressed like a hooker and keeps coming home drunk.
But then in the end we find out the step-mother is responsible for the death of her step-daughter's biological mother, but her new husband (the step-daughter biological father) is fine with that, and the drug-using son says "Hey God, please let my girlfriend live" and then there's a mediocre duet of "Mary Did You Know?" that then repeats during the credits immediately after the duet first ends.
There's plenty of other Christmas movies that have a "redeeming power of Christ" message that have much more solid plots and likable characters than this one.
As for an actual review: This is one of those "family torn apart by tragedy and they come together thanks to the power of Christ" movies, except in this movie, the message doesn't work at all. One character, who's a drug user, gets his girlfriend pregnant, is in a gang, and uses the foul language that should keep this movie from a PG rating, just all of a sudden changes for the better after cursing out God after his girlfriend gets stabbed in the stomach. Really, his change comes pretty much out of nowhere.
The main character's change for the better is more gradual and makes a bit more sense - she's convinced to help with a church's nativity play, and that mostly combined with the friendly carpenter changes her from being a clubbing, drunken mess to a more put-together young lady.
But that's not enough to save this movie. The plot overall is slow, and there's somehow too many plot threads and yet not enough. The characters are almost entirely unlikable, and nobody ever calls out the step-mom for her obvious preference for her biological son and her blindness to his drug use and stealing her money and how absurdly critical she is of her step-daughter; at one point the step-daughter shows up in short shorts and a sparkly shirt, and the step-mother says "Did you get that at a thrift store?" with contempt. Which is absurd - she's more concerned that her step-daughter may have bought clothes secondhand than that her step-daughter is dressed like a hooker and keeps coming home drunk.
But then in the end we find out the step-mother is responsible for the death of her step-daughter's biological mother, but her new husband (the step-daughter biological father) is fine with that, and the drug-using son says "Hey God, please let my girlfriend live" and then there's a mediocre duet of "Mary Did You Know?" that then repeats during the credits immediately after the duet first ends.
There's plenty of other Christmas movies that have a "redeeming power of Christ" message that have much more solid plots and likable characters than this one.