Honestly, I just rented this film on two whims. 1. I had recently co-starred in a film (Coyote County Loser) that had three principal actors from this movie as our leads and one of the crewmembers was actually our direction. 2. I absolutely love interconnecting storyline films. From Babel, Crash and Amores Perros, when I heard a Christian one (or at least Christian undertoned) was made I was more than happy. Usually interconnecting films have an extreme amount of violence, cussing, sex, etc. and their intense films for that reason but I was wondering if they could possibly get rid of that for this film.

They did, and in a good way. The story follows five principal characters: Lefty, a recently jobless and homeless man in search of redemption in the wrong places; Eva, an elderly woman who feels she has nothing left to live for; Mary, a mother who is dealing with her husbands' brain damage after a car accident; Kirk, a gas station owner whose past dreams were shattered, and Mitch, a youth pastor who feels his existence in to the church is nowhere near relevant.

K Callan as Eva and Mary Thornton as Mary were my favorite characters and actors, though all five did great. The women's emotions were kept well hidden throughout the film. You weren't sure how they were feeling until they let it out. Callan and Thornton's performances were stellar and completely rolled the story for the lack of development from Lefty, Kirk, and Mitch's stories. If they would've developed Kirk and Mitch a little more the movie would've been incredible, as it is, but among all audiences. I feel Eva and Mary were also the most interesting characters. Lefty had too much character, not enough was shrouded in mystery.

Considering I had a terrible Christmas myself, to see the small acts of kindness the five people in this film do, causing them to intersect made me think of just how much one small thing you can do for a person might actually change their life. A lot of films never make me think about them afterwards but Midnight Clear has stuck with me. I just purchased the film and am loving it. You just think about it at a certain time in your life and when you watch. I would suggest this film to anyone who just needs a little uplifting. You could now.

I saw this at the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan.

This was an okay film, but I felt with a better script it could have been a lot more engaging. It takes place on Christmas Eve in a small town in Arizona. Following a lonely old woman, a jobless man, a gas station worker, a grieving mother, and a young depressed youth pastor, the film shows them crossing paths and experience the holiday evening in different ways.

The problem with the film is that some of the story lines aren't as interesting as the others and some of them aren't as developed. I personally preferred the jobless Lefty (played by Stephen Baldwin, in a well acted dramatic role) and the old woman (wonderfully played by K Callan). There wasn't enough time spent on the youth pastor thus making his story seem unfinished. And there was too much time spent on the mother and the gas station worker, it wasn't a very interesting story.

The ending was nice, in fact, a little too nice, it seemed like everything came together too perfectly. But it wasn't that bad of a film. If during the holiday season, you're looking for a film to watch, I'd recommend this film before recommending one of those studio films that get released every holiday season to make big bucks.

Stephen Baldwin youngest of the acting Baldwin clan stars in this Christian based film about several people who are not having it real good on Christmas Eve. Baldwin named Lefty since childhood not because he's left handed, but because his family was so poor he played with his brother's old left handed baseball glove and was truly bad with it.

K Callan is a lonely old woman at Christmas time her kids gone off and left her and she's just alone with memories. Not even a cat for companionship and they are great companions. Mary Thornton is a mother with young Dominic Scott Key who just visited her brain damaged husband in the hospital and has to get to her family for Christmas a bit of a drive away. There's also Kirk Woller who is stuck at his gas station/ convenience store for Christmas Eve which doesn't make that much money in normal hours. There's also Mitchell Jarvis youth pastor of a church whose youth group ain't that crazy about doing Christmas carol singing on Christmas Eve. After all it's hardly a hip modern tradition so the kids feel.

All of them interconnect with the others at some point and have an up close and personal experience with the Christmas spirit. Baldwin is the most desperate of all. A degenerate alcohol abuser, has lost his wife and kids and job and he's got himself a gun. He will do harm to someone or to himself at some point it looks like.

This is a nice no frills type Christmas story and is definitely good for more than church audiences.