The Santa Box movie review by Movie Review Mom

MOVIE TITLE: The Santa Box

In theaters November 6, 2020

RATING: PG

LENGTH: 1 hour, 41 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B

IN A NUTSHELL:

Excel Entertainment and Covenant Communications present a lovely Christmas film that shares a sugary-sweet story that illustrates a lesson in kindness. The family-friendly dramedy was written, directed, and produced by Spanky Dustin Ward. He had been thinking about the story idea for a couple of years, but then finally began shooting this August during the 2020 Covid-19 season, as you can see in some of these pictures of cast members on set:

The director explained, “Filming during this crazy time brought some unique challenges, but we acclimated to it very quickly,” said Ward. “Everyone on the production team strictly adhered to safe production guidelines implemented by the health officers we had on set. Thanks to those practices, everyone in the cast and crew stayed healthy and the production went off without a hitch.”

The story is about a teenage girl who feels like her family is cursed by Christmas. After losing her father and home in prior years, Kallie and her mom move into a home in a new area with hardly anything to their name until a mysterious “Santa Box” suddenly appears on their doorstep…

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

No profanity. Yay!
There are MANY important lessons, both spoken and illustrated, that both kids and adults need to learn.
Some German is spoken with subtitles.
You might need to explain to younger kids about Germans and Jews during WWII.
Talk to your family about how you can bring love to others this Christmas season! You might even be inspired by this movie to begin your own “Santa box”! What a wonderful tradition.
Talk of death.

THEMES:

Life is not fair.
Kindness, having an open heart
Bullying
Friendship
Ego and focus on self
Labels
Service to others
Keeping promises
“Love is the gift of Christmas.” – closing song
“We can’t control when bad things happen but we can control when good things do.” – Rachel Watts (Tatum Langton)
“That’s the gift Christmas gives everyone: the chance to change the world for someone that needs a little help.” – Rachel Watts (Tatum Langton)
“The bad times helped us appreciate the good times.” – Otto (Shawn Stevens)
“What am I meant to learn from all this?” – Otto (Shawn Stevens)

THINGS I LIKED:

Newcomer Cami Carver is super cute and does a great job as Kallie. She has a good future in acting if she wants it. The director stated, “For the role of Kallie, we auditioned dozens of young actresses and Cami originally auditioned for a different role, but she absolutely knocked our socks off! We instantly knew she was our Kallie.”
Most of the 20-plus cast members were home-grown in Utah where the movie was filmed in Bountiful, West Jordan, and Herriman, Utah. Surprisingly, some of the shots were also filmed in Rustavi, Georgia (Sakartvelo)!
Shawn Stevens, a favorite local actor, showed his acting chops as Otto and said, “The Otto character is an 85-year-old German immigrant, and naturally, Spanky originally wanted to cast an actor who was around that age. But, luckily for me, with the help of an amazing makeup artist, Vanae Morris, I was able to convince Spanky that I could pull off a great performance of an old German man. And the character was an absolute joy to play.” Otto Is kind of like a Yoda character, constantly sharing words of profound wisdom. I always write down the inspiring lines I hear while I watch movies, but I finally stopped writing them because there were just so many in this movie!
There are a couple of mysteries that unfold during the story. Sweet! I love twists!
I love it when directors put themselves in scenes! Spanky Dustin Ward plays the doctor toward the end of the movie.
Even those who don’t celebrate Christmas can enjoy this movie. Otto is Jewish, yet he recognizes that Christmas is a wonderful, magical time of the year.
The song at the end was really lovely. It’s called, “The Gift of Christmas” and was written by Scott Barrier, Donna DeSopo, and Shantell Ogden.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

Some of the actors smile too much as if they’re just super excited to be in a real movie. Even still, the many Extras were pretty good, especially considering they probably didn’t have much training in acting. There were definitely some overacting moments though, which made some of the characters feel more like exaggerated cartoon characters than real people.
There is one scene where the sound quality is noticeably bad. The movie was filmed rather quickly, so the audio must have just messed up in that space.
Some stiff dialogue.
I love it when directors really pay attention to details. Unfortunately, there were some little things that were missed in this film. For example, Kallie is supposed to be a poor girl, yet she appears to have really nice gel nails. Two of the girls wear the same necklace. Props were in different places in various scenes that shouldn’t have been moved.
Some of the edits are a bit rough.
So much lip gloss in this movie! One of the actresses kept squeezing her lips together, which is a distracting tick that can easily be avoided with more practice acting.
Some people might complain that the musical score is super cheesy like the kind heard in Hallmark movies. I spoke with the composer, Russ Whitelock, and he explained, “I felt the score to be very melodic and heartwarming, which is what a Christmas movie should be. I’m sure if you felt some level of emotion watching this movie, the music played a part in bringing feelings and human lessons of this story to life.” He definitely did something I could never do, so I appreciate his talents and contribution to the movie.

INTERESTING LINES:

“To err is human. To forgive, divine. Forgiveness frees us from anger, hatred, and pain. At my age, I wish to spend my life in as little pain as possible.” – Otto (Shawn Stevens)
“If you’re going to be my friend, you cannot be caught talking to losers like Sue.” – Lisa Green (Sarah Eichner)
“Conservation is the heart and soul of economy.” – Otto (Shawn Stevens)
“You either lose a friend or a fortune. The choice is yours.” – Nelly Green (Cindy Perez)
“I am like a man who fishes. I throw a line of joy out in the world. Sometimes, I get a bite. Sometimes I get bit, but I keep fishing.” – Otto (Shawn Stevens)
“One never knows. Small moments created can bring big changes.” – Otto (Shawn Stevens)