It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Child actor Maurice Cole is just a little angel figuratively and literally. Maurice Cole who plays an orphaned 7 year old boy named Eli walks unexpectedly into the lives of married couple Zooey (Toni Collette) and Alec (Ioan Gruffudd) just before Christmas. Zooey manages a children's bookstore with her mother and Zooey's husband Alec owns and operates an old fashioned toy factory which his deceased father opened 50 years ago. Alec has been running into tough financial problems the past two years and his older workforce on the toy factory floor who used to work for his father in their hey days are growing impatient due to business slowly evaporating as are their salaries.Now this little 7 year old orphan boy Eli insists on dressing impeccably each day in a neat dress suit, business tie and a fedora and his knowledge of the world economy and politics is astounding. Eli is as cute as a button and he gradually wins over the hearts and then the souls of the heartbroken couple Zooey and Alec who two years earlier suffered a great loss of their own.This is a story of despair, tragic events, financial turmoil, unexplained miracles and a few angels in the house. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry and it will make you feel loved with a spirit greater than the feeling one gets just by saying those magic words...Merry Christmas.A Christmas themed film with a deserving 8 out of 10 rating.

What a great heart felt Movie. I loved this movie. Eli played such a magical part in this movie. I even cried during parts of it. Thanks so much for making such a caring and heart felt movie. I truly loved the spirit of this movie. I hope to see many more movies like this. They just bring the best out of people. I wish, life could be more like this everyday. The cast of this movie was wonderful. Please continue to make more movies like this. I would love to know more movies with Maurice Cole in them. He is a great little actor. Thanks again for bringing the Christmas Spirit into our lives. More people should live their lives this way and get back to the simple things in life, that truly matter. We need to get back down to earth and get away from all of the electronics, that seem to have taken over our lives. We all need to get back to what family means and cherish the families that we have.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet the creepiest movie child ever.This kid is a real piece of work. He walks around everywhere in a hat and suit. He watches news channels rather than cartoons. He'd rather read War And Peace than children's books. He uses big words like he'd swallowed a dictionary. He knows more about business than Donald Trump and Alan Sugar put together. He is, in short, a precocious little brat who needs a clip round the ear. But in the misguided world of this director, I supposed he's meant to be 'cute' and 'loveable'. Man, how wrong can you be...We know when we're supposed to be moved by a scene, because the orchestra swells in the background. This is done because the screenplay fails to achieve that aim itself, and so has to resort to emotional manipulation. We get an extended segment in Legoland, of our family going on rides, enjoying the ice cream etc. This is of course, pivotal to the plot and in no way is influenced by Lego dumping a truckload of cash on the producer's front lawn, oh no. We have Richard E Grant playing a tramp, in rather a pointless appearance where he simply stares at fireflies and offers familiar homilies about life and loss. This is a bit rich coming from a dirty hobo who has nothing to his name, other than a twinkling smile.Oh, I forgot to mention the best part. Basically, this weird little lad's foster daddy runs a toy company, and thanks to the recession and his outdated products everything's gone a bit Pete Tong. He enlists the help of his adopted son to save his ailing factory, and what do they come up together? Why, a MYSTERY BOX. What is in the BOX you might say? Well, five random toys. The same toys that no-one was buying before, which were sinking the company. But because they're suddenly packaged in a crate with a question mark on them, the stockists go apesh*t over them. At a five minute board meeting, based on this stupid idea, all the head honchos order 10k, 20k of this product... Despite it being the same tat that WASN'T selling before, just more of it. No-one there must have heard of market research. And then we get a little plug in for Hamley's. NICE WORK GUYS.As for the mother, she's been a sad sack throughout. Why? Glad you asked! She lost her natural born child two years ago in a tragic accident, and since then has been unable to conceive due to the trauma of that incident. Hence the reason they took the freakish kid on in the first place. And as the movie progresses, her new four-eyed charge brings new hope and light to her existence, and she finally learns to love life against. Towards the end of the film on Christmas Eve, we see her throwing up in a toilet... Which by this point, is a feeling I can sympathise with. I know why I felt like vomiting, but what about her? Clue: It wasn't the sprouts. Then, she packages something up, and gives to her husband as an early present with a big grin on her face. He thinks it's a Rolex. INCORRECT. It is something that won't leave you with much time on your hands though (Tee Hee).She then goes to tell speccy the 'good news'... and there, I'm afraid I must close the book on this sorry saga. The ending might have worked in a better movie, but I doubt it. Too many inconsistencies, plot holes, suspension of disbelief etc. needed. Sufficed to say, it's yet another attempt to wring tears out of us, But I'm afraid by now the well is dry. In fact, it was barren to begin with. Some say I'm too cynical. A misery guts. Mr Grumpy. But in a choice between being morose, or losing my dignity being affected by phony, badly written, artificial rubbish such as this, just call me Ebenezer Scrooge. BAH, HUMBUG!! 3/10

I agree with the last guy. I'm not very good at suspending reality and for this reason I'm attracted to films about real life which is what I was hoping for. An otherwise amazing Australian actor doing a shite Scottish accent was the first thing to distract me, but the fact they live in a show-home style mews building in Chelsea with only a failing toy factory and an empty bookshop to finance them is totally ridiculous. Alec saying to an old man 'I was at your wedding,' etc was also plain weird. To top it off the melty-cheese soundtrack and ever-present weepy incidental music made each sensitive moment into a Lassie Come Home vom-fest. The kid Eli is spooky and the fact the mum figure confides her adult problems in him like a marriage therapist is bordering on abuse!! The whole thing comes off like a 'terribly iiinglish' film made with Hollywood in mind by someone who has no clue about our culture but has managed to drag in some of our best actors to make them look like idiots.