User reviews

I thought this was hilarious! A very different Christmas Movie!

In this 2018 Freeform channel Christmas movie Kali Hawk plays Jillian Welles, a young political consultant and girlfriend to city councilman George (Damon Dayoub) who spins white lies to further her boyfriends political career. Jillian, who must undertake some last minute shopping for George, finds herself lying to a little girl so that she can get the "it toy", a talking robotic sphere called a Poppy Dot. "Gucci Santa" becomes fed up with all the lying and curses Jillian to only be able to tell the truth. The bulk of the movie consists of unintentionally cringy interactions between Jillian and George's family who she is meeting for the first time. It tries way too hard to be relatable to younger audiences by injecting millennial slang and laughably bad modern renditions of classic Christmas songs. Throughout the movie there's also this strange romantic tension between Jillian and George's brother Blake (Ali Ghandour) that goes nowhere in the end, with even the movie poster hinting at this love triangle that in reality appears nowhere in the film. The movie also includes unnecessary scenes in attempts to draw extra laughs from the audience but they fall flat, such as one scene where Jillian suddenly becomes a stand up comedian in the local bar and garners more laughs from her audience than the average viewer will let out over the course of the entire movie. In the end the best part of the whole movie is simply the plethora of strange and random noises that Jillian lets out over the course of the film.

It's a creepy movie and the premise is terrible but at times you have to look at the intention - and the intention appears to be good.

In my opinion, this movie is absolutely terrible. I would give them credits . . . at least they tried. But really bad story writing. No character development. Wasted 90 minutes watching people trying to convey the message on how lying is terrible and can get you in trouble. Only funny thing about this movie is weird background music (If you like such thing). Low budget movie but good if you want to watch weird acting. *_*

As cringy Christmas movies go, this title, The Truth About Christmas, follows the Santa suit. The premise of this movie, enlists the charm of Jillian, played by Kali Hawk, as the whimsical, progressive, and intelligent protagonist to propel the narrative of being honest with yourself. As a political consultant for the upcoming New York mayoral election, Jillian has fallen into the trap of spinning stories for her boyfriend George, which have now turned into full on lies, even to a young girl with the last "IT" toy of the season, the "poppy dot." After procuring the toy from the little girl, "Gucci" Santa ominously appears and curses Jillian with the inability to lie. Exacerbating this problem, Jillian and George are supposed to visit George's family for Christmas this weekend. Hilarity ensues as the "toxic soup" and creepy owl pictures are Jillian's first impressions with the family. Throughout the film, best friend Zoe, played by Michela Cannon, rings in to advance the plot and "Rudolph" Jilian on this journey to finding her "true" self. Receiving 8 stars out of 10, The Truth About Christmas, is a energetic, comic, and heartfelt family film to be enjoyed with a hot cup of cocoa with lots of marshmallows.

Everyone appreciates a feel-good movie around the holidays. One that incites the Christmas spirit and is reminiscent of past holiday joy. Too bad this never happens. The Truth About Christmas is a "holiday" movie meant to exemplify the importance of honesty. When the lead character Jillian is cursed by "Gucci Santa" after lying to a child, she is forced to confront her true feelings about her environment. Although a good message, it is portrayed horribly wrong. The movie has too many subplots. *womp womp* Wishy-washy romantic tension with other characters, Jillian's sudden love for stand-up, and an undiagnosed bird fetish. These unresolved plot points accompanied by Jillian's random caveman grunts and groans, music from Target commercials, and the sad attempt at incorporating modern lingo makes this movie B to the A to the D. Would not recommend.

After screwing a little girl out of the last toy for christmas by lying, a spin doctor is cursed to from now on be perfectly honest. Right before meeting her partner's family for the first time.

The setup seems like heavily inspired by Jim Carrey's "Liar Liar", but it is worse.

The premise has the fundamental flaw that a spin doctor, like most lawyers, is not likeable per se, so unless there are "exonerating circumstances", it is impossible to root for the "protagonist". Same for her coming from old money politician partner.

But whereas you take a general liking to Jim Carrey's character in "Liar Liar", because 1) he's a dad, so you want him to do better for his child's sake 2) Jim Carrey's over the top acting displays the inner conflict in a hilarious way 3) the truths he tells create hilarious situations and 4) you can see that some of his forced truths are "good truths", like when he goes against the judge giving custody to his own evil client and 5) there are actual stakes and consequences (which we see when he lands in jail for the latter and gets fired) none of this can be said for this film's protagonist.

I'm not saying she should act out like Jim Carrey, but it was just so lackluster, you could not see any conflict at all, even when she's on the phone with her friend literally describing her conflict out aloud and escaping the situation.

The truths she tells don't create hilarious situations and are mostly either just awkward or hurtful to other people, like what she says about the painting.

And there are no stakes, and no consequences. Every family member she insults just goes "ok, I still like her, because she's the protagonist". No consequences at all.

And then she does this stand up comedy performance, which came out of nowhere. Not an ounce of funny in there (writers' fault), and performed the exact same lackluster, unenthusiastic way as the lead actress did in all the scenes where you should see conflict, but don't (actress & director's fault). And in that moment, they're insinuating an ensuing love triangle with her partner's brother.

The whole staging and enactment is just inauthentic and boring. On top of that, you get your 100% classic hallmark movie cast: 2-3 lead characters around their mid 20s to mid 30s who all are mildly attractive with a blemish so that you, the viewer are neither threatened by their beauty nor appalled by their appearance, but faces that you will have completely forgotten about a day after seeing the movie. And then your typical family supporting cast, parents, siblings, nephews.

SPOILER FROM HERE: And then the movie ends without actually ending, giving the film a somewhat open end, implying that the love triangle with her partner's brother is a thing, and that her partner (or at this point possibly ex-partner) is totally cool with that. Which just proves my point once more: No stakes, no consequences.

This movie is garbage. It's just a really bad Christmas version of "Liar Liar". The humor is not funny. The only time I even remotely laughed was when I was thinking about how bad the movie was. The movie is full of false foreshadowing, which led to a very misleading and undesirable ending. Don't waste your time watching this and if you have seen it I don't recommend rewatching it.

What a Christmas surprise. I enjoy watching Christmas movies. With that said, so many of them are cheesy and similar plot lines. Thought this would be one but I can actually watch this one again. Take a chance people, I'm sure you'll enjoy.

This movie is pretty darn boring like shoveling up horse dung out of my drive way cause darn kids had horse out of my stables. and like wth is a guchi santa like what in tarnation. that disco ball toy was just plain dumb . the ending was garbage but had good message of being truth with yerself that was about all i got but wouldnt watch this movie again welp gotta get back to lookin for the ducks people hungry

The acting in The Truth About Christmas is really bad. The characters are also written in one dimension with virtually no depth. In other words, there's nothing for the actors to breath life into.The set design is also terrible, looking more like a short film on YouTube than a major network production. There's dialogue about George's bland taste in decor, but his parent's house is an equally boring locale for a majority of the film. Many scenes in the movie are driven by unappealing and forced humor. I think I'd rather spend my evening watching paint dry then watch this movie again

The makeup and eye lashes of the main character and her friend was really distracting. And the acting was annoying. I wouldn't exactly call this a romance either.

A movie about a couple in the politics. Meeting the parents for the first time. Everything that can go wrong hoes wrong. I like Christmas movies and I started watching without knowing what it was about. It's a nice idea that you shouldn't tell lies. And that santa is involved. But it fails because the lead actor is bad at acting. She breath worse the the boards in Fortnite. (It's probably because of after sync but it's bad). And when she speaks the truth she's over acting and not really selling it. She's not believable. A Christmas movie that wants to teach us something but fails because of bad acting.

When I sat down to watch the 2018 movie "The Truth About Christmas" it was because I hadn't already seen the movie, and since I am on Christmas movie bender this year, I figured I would slip writer Kelly Bowe's 2018 movie into the pile as well, as the opportunity to watch it was there.

But who knew that the truth about Christmas would be so bland and boring? Huh. Go figure.

This movie was a swing and a miss, and writer Kelly Bowe virtually gave director Jay Karas next to nothing to work with in terms of a properly written and interesting script and storyline, nor were there interesting or appealing characters in the story. So it all made for a bland mush.

If you enjoy Christmas movies, then you should do yourself a favor and save your time and effort, and don't watch "The Truth About Christmas", because there are far, far better Christmas movies out there in great abundance.

It was sort of cringeworthy to watch Kali Hawk (playing Jillian) mill about the movie like a beheaded chicken.

My rating of "The Truth About Christmas" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

If you can get past the first 6 minutes, I think you will be delighted with this little movie. It was set at Christmas, but it is really not "Christmassy"...just funny. You won't be ROFL..but it is good for a giggle. IMHO.

Honestly I lost interest in this one after about 2 minutes, but I watched it for roughly 15 and decided I didn't want to bother any further.

I can't really say anything about it, because nothing was noteworthy in those first minutes. It may be that I just wasn't in the mood, so I may consider watching it again next year, but I doubt it.

No score, as unfinished.

Not a particularly novel film, but I enjoyed Kali Hawk's sympathetic performance as Jillian. The breakfast scene, where Jillian admits how hungry she is, is a definite laugh out loud moment.

So nothing new here, but it's not a bad way to pass your time if you're looking to wind down in the run up to Xmas.

Hallmark vibe but with a leading lady who has some flare. Really enjoyed it!

I really liked this movie I like how it focused more on how Jillian needed to focus on not changing herself so much and believing more in herself. It was a very nice change as most holidays movies focus on the romance more. This is now one of my top Christmas movies I will be watching each year.