Baby's First Christmas (2012 TV Movie) User Reviews

This baby has a smelly diaper

[Christmas-Reviewer · 5/10 · 21 August 2016]

In the first 4 minutes you know the complete story of this film and you know how it is going to end. Now I don't mind stories that are well made but this one isn't.

In this film Kyle Lockwood (Casper Van Dien) and Jenna Ford (Rachel Wilson), two lawyers at a prestigious law firm, could not be more different. Kyle, a designer-clad conservative and Jenna, his global warming concerned liberal counterpart are constantly butting heads. When Jenna and Kyle's siblings Trisha (Natalie Lisinska) and Jim (Noah Cappe) fall in love, it binds the two together by default. When Jenna and Kyle visit their siblings for Christmas, Jenna's sister goes into labor. In the midst of Chrismtas Eve chaos, romantic sparks fly, and they need a Christmas miracle to help their families to a new start.

The film is by the number in every way. This film took zero chances at surprising the audience. As Forgettable as last nights dinner

Cas was good but Rachel/Jenna is an embarrassment

[saahrae2 · 6/10 · 29 December 2013]

The story does have some good, "real" elements but the script fails because the characters are caricatures. Yes this is a Christmas movie but that doesn't excuse the lack of nuance. Too many clichés in this holiday effort. With all of these limitations, the movie still would have been more effective but the final nail is the character Jenna, played by Rachel Wilson. Jenna is supposed to be a lawyer but she is so juvenile that any story illusion is thwarted. It's disruptive how she flip-flops between 'girl scout' and 'bitter harpy' with too little reason. For example, why does she instantly forgive Kyle singing a Christmas carol, joining him in song? Accordingly, how could Kyle fall in love with Jenna who she is seething with intense hate towards him for much of the movie? Perhaps the problems with Jenna are a combination of the script's shortcomings and Rachel Wilson's performance, portraying Jenna as literally screaming and petulant. It was embarrassing to watch, this caricature of an empowered female?

Too many miracles

[Jackbv123 · 4/10 · 4 November 2017]

We always expect to suspend some of our expectation of reality in these movies, but this one movie pushes that from start to finish. I have less trouble accepting a movie when Santa uses Christmas magic.

If you can overcome reality, this might be a tolerable movie for Christmas. There are some heartwarming moments, even if they are piled on a little high.

The movie is a bit preachy about believing in Christmas and miracles. There are enough real and serious problems for anyone. The family having the baby is in very deep debt and we find out that foreclosure on their house can't or at least won't be stopped. Add to that a myriad of other problems from small to large.

You might find some of the situations humorous, at least I think that was the intention.

But the biggest, most ridiculous miracles are the ones that involve deeply set personality traits and beliefs that are suddenly changed 180 degrees, not the least of which are in Kyle and Jenna. They even know at the start that peace between them is unlikely. For one thing, Kyle is a complete jerk for most of the movie. His one good trait early on appears to be his generosity, but we see that even that has a selfish bent to it.

Much of the acting is terrible but is it the acting or the script? Casper Van Dien leads the way with bad acting. Noah Cappe is close behind. Much of the rest of the cast is just mediocre. The one high point is Ella Ballentine who can almost make us believe in Christmas miracles even when she is trying to sell a script that is pie-in-the-sky.

Poorly Executed Christmas Movie

[charcnc · 1/10 · 13 November 2017]

Hands down, this is at the bottom of the Hallmark Movie list. The female lead was abrasive, so the male lead had little to work with. She was constantly mad at him about the world. She was supposed to be a lawyer, but I didn't see anything analytical or thoughtful about her. She'd spout off at the mouth with such negativity so quickly, it was extremely unattractive.

The attempt at romantic dialogue made no sense. The male lead asks her, "Why didn't we ever date?" Seriously? She's been screaming at you for hours. At one point, she yells at him that she thought he'd changed. Even if the problem was his fault, when would he have changed? The story is all taking place on Christmas Eve.

Even the serious emotional issues the male lead had with his father was handled poorly. The grandfather threw out insults even though he was responsible for the bad family history. Yet, we were supposed to believe that the male lead was the villain of the entire story. Totally don't understand why they still air this.

Horrible Acting, Just Horrible

[psychassist · 1/10 · 31 October 2017]

If these two are ever in any movie again, I will not watch it. Surely, there is a plethora of talent in LA. Wanna be actors would do a better job. I looked up Casper's resume because I thought he must be a newbie but nope. The guy actually works...a lot!

The plot is soooo predictable. Characters are unlikeable. I turned it off. With so many Christmas movie choices, I realized I could spend my time better elsewhere.

Move on to another movie, you will thank me.

Run away as fast as you can!

[baqueen · 1/10 · 1 December 2014]

These Christmas movies are all cheesy, that's true. I love them anyway. I will watch them no matter how stupid, because they're sweet at heart, even though silly.

Until this one! This is horrible! Two totally unlikeable people, who do nothing but harp at each other constantly. They turn on each other on a dime, with barely the slightest provocation. Constant bickering that's mean-spirited and screeching.

Combine that with plot lines that you could drive a truck through, they're so ridiculous. Absolutely nothing to make the movie worthwhile. I ended up turning it off for good with the last 15 minutes unwatched - I honestly couldn't have cared less about any of the characters, or cared if they got together. More than that, listening to this was tying my stomach up in knots with the unpleasantness. Hardly a feel-good movie.

Machetunim

[boblipton · 7/10 · 15 December 2012]

Casper van Dien's sister is married to Rachel Wilson's brother and they are about to become an aunt and uncle for the second time. Of course they hate each other and of course they fall in love.

This Christmas-themed Hallmark has several issues that raise it above average. First, the problems in the center of this movie and that they encounter on the way are real problems. Their siblings have real issues: no job, credit running out and a baby on the way, medical issues and a lost dog: real problems solved by real people. The other is the obvious charm of the two leads and their ability to hold a quiet conversation and be utterly winning. All too often these Hallmark TV movies are held together by the supporting cast. It's very pleasant to see one where a good script and good central actors show how good these movies can be.

A good premise poorly executed

[kyrie_eleison-35609 · 1/10 · 22 December 2018]

I usually love Hallmark Channel movies, but not this one. It's basically a leftist's view of conservatives. Jenna's a leftist, good, kind and compassionate. Kyle is a conservative, greedy, and selfish. The story's all about how he changes to become more like her so they can be together. Blech! Yuck!

The usual from Hollywood. Leftists preaching to conservatives about how to become more like them. Spare me.

Slow beginning but a nice adventure.

[chellixi · 7/10 · 29 June 2022]

This film has a slow, boring beginning, I don't remember exactly when it started to have a nice pace and realized that, although it's not categorized as such, there is an Adventure film on the TV, and one with pleasant reconciliative feels and a nice Hallmark romantic twist.

An unbearable first Christmas

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 17 March 2020]

Please don't consider me a Scrooge or a humbug. That title sounds like Christmas being a terrible time of year for me. It's not. In fact, it's my favourite time of year and the period where the fondest memories of my life are from. There are many classic Christmas films, specials, cartoons etc, watched every year without fail by me and my family. But there are ones that are really not good in almost every shape or form, so lets get any conceptions of bias out of the way.

Very like 'Baby's First Christmas'. It takes a lot for me to irredeemably hate on a film and give it the lowest possible rating here especially in recent years, it's actually one of my least given out ratings being an often generous but firm reviewer. But 'Baby's First Christmas' deserves it. One of the worst Christmas films ever in my view, towards the bottom of the pile when it comes to Hallmark Christmas films and the worst overall film seen since 1988's 'The Wicked Stepmother' at the beginning of last month. The last 1/10 rating given out for anything though being for a 'Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders' episode.

'Baby's First Christmas' really is that bad and others have said what is wrong with the film already, not an awful lot to add. It is pretty much wrecked especially by its completely unlikeable and downright irritating lead character, the non-sparkling and actually painful to watch chemistry between the leads (consisting of constant arguing and anger) and Rachel Wilson's insufferable over-acting.

And we are talking about a film full of unlikeable characters that only throw insults at each other for the sake of it, awkward chemistry and actors clearly told to overact to the heavens. One actually finds themselves surprised at how Casper Van Dien, who also overdoes it embarrassingly to almost pantomimic effect, still continues to get prolific work after seeing his performance here. Just that the above were especially bad.

We also have a story where everything is easily foreseeable in the first 15 minutes or so with no surprises or risk-taking, literally nothing makes sense (such as scenes constantly seeming to ignore what happened in the previous scene), where everything is unintentionally campy and where sentiment gets really sickly. Even that though comes in spurts because the over-the-top-ness just gets far too much. The dialogue, with some real howlers, has pretty much the same effect, where the interaction between the leads is so choppily handled and throughout it has such an unfinished first draft without checking feel. In real life it is highly unlikely in my view that somebody who read the draft would have approved it, it's that bad.

Even the production values are not enough to save 'Baby's First Christmas', the film looks drab and like it was made in a rush. The direction is pedestrian and the music is overbearing in tone and placement. Nothing is interesting, there is no charm or heart whatsoever (just hammy and mean-spirited) and the pace never ignites.

In a nutshell, very poor and often unbearable. 1/10

Excellent Movie

[athompsonblue · 9/10 · 29 September 2021]

This film deserves more positive reviews on here. It's a feel-good Christmas movie with heart and substance. And the acting was good enough for me.

Hope and what?

[tabigirl · 5/10 · 5 December 2020]

The story is beautiful and full of hope! It made me cry along with the whole range of other emotions. The major flaw is they're in-laws right? If my sister fell in love with my husband's brother I would be totally creeped out! Am I wrong?