Saw this last night, and I enjoyed, it's the perfect kind of holiday movie, it's light but with enough poignancy to resonate with you, and remind you about family, religion, faith, whatever.....lets be clear though, these were never well written movies, and they aren't any better now, an array of contrivances litter the screenplay, but the characters are well acted and grounded enough to sell it. The dialogue isn't sharp enough, and it veers uncomfortably between parody and drama, and an unfortunate tendency to inject somewhat insulting and embarassing cliches....and Taye Diggs has never been a good actor, and he stumbles all over this movie... and Morris Chestnutt of all people outshines him with embarrassing ease, which says it all. Chestnutt delivers a restrained, impassioned performance, aside from the gratuitous shirtless shots.
The female characters are at times pushed to the point of caricature, without getting to feel like real characters..and yes, as I said they have never been well written, or scripted, it's strengths lay in the characters, their feelings, it's sincerity, and it's glossy and well directed approach to it's material, but due to it's running time, and the serious themes throughout, I'm not sure the movie earns it's way to those subjects. To have a certain incident take place 3 days after Christmas was a little much to believe, and felt tacked on...Terrance Howard and all the supporting actors were great, though Harold character never really finds his ground, never really has either...the point is in spite of these flaws it's an enjoyable, even emotional holiday movie...