The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
A Christmas Wish
Romance · Comedy · Drama · 2019
Every December in the small town of Ponchatoula, Louisiana a wooden wishing box is placed in the park as a Christmas tradition. After a night out together, Maddie encourages her sister Faith to put a wish in the box - a wish to experience true love for the first time. Faith and Maddie are surprised the next day when she meets the very handsome and eligible Andrew. As Christmas nears, Faith begins to wonder if Andrew is really perfect for her, or if the wish is leading her to her best friend, Wyatt.
Movie details
A Christmas Wish
2019 Romance · Comedy · Drama 1h 30m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.5 / 10
Community rating
Every December in the small town of Ponchatoula, Louisiana a wooden wishing box is placed in the park as a Christmas tradition. After a night out together, Maddie encourages her sister Faith to put a wish in the box - a wish to experience true love for the first time. Faith and Maddie are surprised the next day when she meets the very handsome and eligible Andrew. As Christmas nears, Faith begins to wonder if Andrew is really perfect for her, or if the wish is leading her to her best friend, Wyatt.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over A Christmas Wish?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
A California Christmas: City Lights
Romance · 2021
Follows Callie and Joseph one year after they fell in love, now running a dairy farm and winery, but their romance is threatened when business and family obligations call Joseph back to the city.
A California Christmas
Comedy · 2020
With his carefree lifestyle on the line, a wealthy charmer poses as a ranch hand to get a hardworking farmer to sell her family’s land before Christmas.
Father of the Bride
Romance · 2022
A father comes to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family.
An Unexpected Christmas
Comedy · 2021
Jamie hasn’t told his family that he and his now ex-girlfriend Emily broke up. After an inopportune run-in with Emily at the train station in his hometown, Jamie convinces her to pretend they’re still a couple to avoid ruining Christmas for his family.
The Noel Diary
Romance · 2022
Cleaning out his childhood home at Christmas, a novelist meets a woman searching for her birth mother. Will an old diary unlock their pasts — and hearts?
Which Brings Me to You
Romance · 2023
Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend’s wedding. After a disastrous hookup in the coatroom, the two spend the next 24 hours together, trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreak, on the off chance that this fling might be the real thing.
Love in Taipei
Romance · 2023
A young American woman is sent by her parents to a cultural immersion program in Taipei where she begins a new journey of self-discovery and romance.
A Merry Christmas Match
Drama · 2019
Corey Calvin lives in a ski village where she works at her late father's local antique shop, having sidelined her her big city dreams of becoming a theater director. When Los Angeles hunk Ryder Donnelly comes into her shop, sparks fly and she starts to wonder what could be.
Christmas in Evergreen
Romance · 2017
Allie, a veterinarian in Evergreen, reluctantly will spend Christmas with her long-distance boyfriend. Bound for the airport, she has engine trouble, and Ryan, headed to Florida with his daughter Zoe, stops to help. Sure they won’t meet again, they ignore their attraction, and part ways. At the diner, Zoe wishes on a snow globe, and a storm seems to grant her wish.
Picture a Perfect Christmas
Romance · 2019
An extreme-sports photographer returns home for the holiday to take care of her grandmother, only to have a neighbor grab her attention as he needs assistance watching his young nephew.
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Emily Moss Wilson
Written by
Emily Moss Wilson
Hilarie Burton Morgan
Faith
Tyler Hilton
Wyatt
Megan Park
Maddie
Lee Norris
Ryan
Cristián de la Fuente
Andrew
Colin Fickes
Grant
Ryan Broussard
James
Court is in session
Put A Christmas Wish on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.