O Melhor Presente de Natal

Well, it is original, in the sense that I have not seen many Christmas movies about a magical car bringing people together. The story is a warm one, but it did take me a while to be drawn into it. As another reviewer pointed out, it is, at times, a bit...how should I say this...slow. And some of the scenes felt rushed and underdeveloped. For example, the scene towards the end, where they stopped in the street and started randomly handing out gifts, seemed a bit off to me. That said, the acting was fairly good overall. Tiya Sircar (as Ashely) is a decent actor. Her performance here was solid. Michael Xavier too had a good performance. I am not sure I saw any believable chemistry between the two. At times, it felt like they were becoming good friends as opposed to getting romantically involved. If there was chemistry, then it was very low key. I was surprised to see no kissing scene at the end, which is the typical ending in this genre of film. Hmmm...maybe this is a bit refreshing. The supporting cast was decent too. Kristen Kurnik (as Hannah) had a good performance. At first, I thought there was something a bit off with Randy Thomas's (as Tony, the uncle) performance, but by the end, I warmed up to him. The scenery, props and sets were not bad, but not as polished as, e.g., Hallmark films. It was a bit funny at times when Ashely referred to 100-year-old antiques that looked like they were recently purchased in Kmart (nothing against Kmart). Overall, it is a good enough, middle of the road Christmas movie with an original story and some solid acting.