‘Every Christmas should contain at least one soppy Christmas movie,’ my husband said as we perused the shelves of the video shop.
We opted for ‘The Christmas Cottage.’ The alternative title is ‘Home for Christmas.’ When you’re not feeling well as Mick hasn’t been, the last thing you need is something heavy. Sometimes a piece of light entertainment is exactly what’s called for.
Mick isn’t a fan of stories based on true life events but for some reason the blurb about this one appealed to both of us. It is about the artist Thomas Kincade
The only actors we knew that were in it were Jared Padalecki and Peter O’Toole. The last movie I liked Peter O’ Toole in was ‘How to Steal a Million’ with Audrey Hepburn. This is a favorite movie of Mick’s and mine, though Mick also liked him in ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ which bored me to tears. Shows how different our tastes are sometimes. Jared Padalecki we’d seen as Dean in the Gilmore Girls. He is a very good actor. At one stage when he ends up in tears in the story, I was crying right along with him.
At the end of the movie Thomas Kincade speaks about the story which he co-produced along with his wife Nanette and he also speaks of his art. Mick is usually keen to watch all the extra bits that come with a DVD like the deleted scenes, making of the film etc I’m not mostly. But this time I was also keen to see what Thomas Kincade had to say. Anyone who has seen Thomas Kincade’s paintings knows how heavily they rely on light. Little wonder he is known as ‘the painter of light.’ He says, ‘In the end, love is the brightest light of all.’
Mick and I found his comments interesting, especially his thoughts about home. ‘Home is the gathering place of the family, the place where memories are made, the resting place for the heart and the most sacred environment. It is the place of refuge.’ I wonder if, as you look at your marriage and your home this Christmas if you see it that way?
Thomas Kincade says of the old artist who inspired him, ‘Glen did not teach me how to paint. He taught me why to paint.’
The story is one of a mother who sacrifices her life for her children. The father is not around. It is the story of ‘the love of an old artist who gives of himself to save a family.’ Yes, it is all about, ‘sacrificial love,’ Thomas Kincade says and, after all, ‘Isn’t that the message of Christmas?’
If you want a movie to share with your loved ones this Christmas, you could do worse than this one.
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