Chuck Neumann's Reviews > The Christmas Note

I wanted to read this book so I could compare it to a TV movie they made from the book. It was a Hallmark Christmas movie, which I normally aren't crazy about. This film was different, one of the few that was not about a young man and a young woman, usually one has children, falling in love with Christmas playing some kind of role in the love affair. This story was about a wife and mother (Gretchen) moving to a new town to be close to her family to await the arrival of her wounded army husband from a hospital in Germany. She meets and befriends an aloof neighbor (Melissa) who just lost her mother. Melissa disliked - with good reason - her mother but was shocked to discover she had a sister or brother she never knew about. Gretchen and her family helped Melissa discover who that sibling is. No love affair, just a heartfelt story with a Christmas background. Except for a scene late in the film, Christmas had little to do with the story. I always like to compare books to films based on them. In this case the author (Donna VanLiere) had no role in the screenplay, according to the credits. Even so, the film stayed very close to the book. There were changes of course. In the book Gretchen had two children, a boy and a girl, but in the film only a boy remained. In the booth Melissa discovers she had a brother and a sister, in the film only the sister remains. A key character in the book, Gloria, is gone from the film. Her role is taken by Betty, a minor character in the book Most of these changes reduce the number of characters which help the film. A big change is in Melissa's mother Ramona, who we never meet in either the book or film. In the book she is a terrible mother, abusing her daughter and with a different John every night. In the film she was a single mother who spent most of her time working and little time with Melissa. The break between the two was more of Melissa's fault than her mother's. But, overall the two stories were the same. The film was note worthy also in the people involved were middle class with money concerns and everyday troubles unlike most Hallmark Christmas films which usually show wealthy and beautiful people. The book was a fun read and well worth reading. A good plot and interesting characters. Recommended.