1st watched 12/24/2009 – 4 out of 10 (Dir-Robert Ellis Miller): Emotional Christmas fluff that doesn't really get specific enough to explain how the real story happened in this factual-based incident of a man who is wrongly put in jail trying to get a job for his family to make Christmas happen for them. The three kids in the family then run away from home on a trek to Washington D.C. to enlist the then President of the United States, Herbert Hoover. This trek provides some side stories like their positive encounters with a hobo and a puppeteer, which makes the story kind of like a Disney "animals on the run" movie and doesn't quite fit here. At the ending, there isn't any details given as to how the President helped the family and this is another downpoint to the movie, in my opinion. The movie does eventually bring tears, but it takes too long to get to this. The movie isn't supposed to have been an original TV movie(according to IMDb) but it has the obvious fade-outs that make it look this way – so I'm not sure their information is accurate. All in all, this is a simple movie(that could have been more complex) with a happy Christmas-like story but blandly played and without a lot of substance.

The editor of this TV drama really needed a Hoover to vacuum up the idiocy of this supposed feel good Christmas film. Diana Scarwid of "Mommie Dearest" notoriety delivers another superficial performance as the wife of Robert Urich who is arrested while out of town applying for a job that doesn't exist. She is busy trying to get information about it when her children (Teagan Moss, Britney Irvin, and Alexander Pollock) sneak out and board a train to go to Washington D.C. to plead their case with the president. They end up in the baggage compartment of a train, get to witness a "Hooverville" and then hitchhike. Scarwid follows them to the direction of what she's been told by railroad personnel, then hitches a ride herself. At one earlier point, she shouted out "I'm not mad at you, Bernice" to her daughter, to which I couldn't resist shouting back, "I'm mad at the dirt!"

This truly is one silly film, featuring a puppet show with a Hoover puppet, and a female puppet that looks exactly like a combination between Madame and Lady Elaine from "Mister Rogers Neighborhood". Both Urich and Scarwid at different times encounter needy people, and pretty much give away their last bit of food or their last bit of change, and everyone around them seems to be in a sweet spirit of giving even though it's the depression and people really don't have anything to give. Script is one of the most insipid I had seen in a while with dialogue exchanges that make up slowly no sense and bizarre situations that just seemed too outlandish to happen in a short period of time.

Thomas Peacocke as Herbert Hoover is supposed to represent the chicken in every pot president, but they're just seems to be a lot of jokes at his expense that just aren't funny. The fact that this ends up with them arriving in Washington as Christmas is being celebrated was an excuse for video companies to promote this as a Christmas film, but that only seems to be ripping off the musical of "Annie" which also took potshots at Hoover during the Christmas season. The three children are also quite cloying which makes this painful to deal with for 90 minutes. When one of the girls breaks into "O Little Town of Bethlehem", I felt a need to plug my ears. TV movies about Christmas are hit or miss, and this one is definitely the later.

I loved this the first time I saw it, and I saw it even more this time.

This is a feel-good movie that is based on a real-life incident, though I understand that the real Bernice Feagan actually took a bus from Detroit to Washington, with support from others. But it was wonderful imagining that three kids could try to travel on their own without the help.

The actual charge was different. Their father was in jail for car theft, not murder, but again, that does not detract from the movie.

What's wonderful about the movie is that it gives a fairly accurate (if dramatic fictional) look at the times, Hooverville's did exist, hobos did ride the rails, and there was an entire network of information that helped people know what R.R. stops had the worst reputations for arresting the rail-riders.

They even managed to include the dangers of hitchhiking. Don't ride with drunks, and strangers might take advantage of children (and adults) traveling alone.

I will watch this excellent movie again in years to come. It is a wonderful movie that is semi-historical both with the story and with its depression-era settings.

John