What happens when nothing happens? Rebuilding A Dream Christmas happens.
When real estate broker, Abbey (Meggan Kaiser), is forced to go back to her hometown to fix a broken window in her late grandmother’s house, she hires Josh (Zane Stephens) to do the work. Abbey gets more than she bargained for when she finds herself connecting with Josh’s son, Noah (Bryson JonSteele).
Oh, there are so many things wrong with this movie. I’m going to start off with: NOTHING HAPPENS. Abbey is told that, since her grandmother’s house is on the historic buildings list, the owner has to show up in person to fill out the permit for any outside work. This is the entire reason the movie happens. It’s not a real thing and it’s dumb. Of course, the permit process gets dragged out, which is why Abbey has to stay so long. So instead of doing anything else, Abbey basically just waits around doing nothing. There is one montage of her making some Christmas ornaments but it’s not as big a plotline as Lifetime wants you to think.
My next problem with the movie is the way it treats relationships. All of the relationships are extremely superficial. Abbey was raised by her grandmother but she doesn’t live in her grandmother’s house, she just covers up the furniture and lets the house sit there. Josh says all of the right words to be a caring single father but there is no emotion behind anything. Josh and Noah might as well be two strangers hanging out together. Even the big “nemesis,” aptly named Karen (Ashton Leigh), feels like she only wants a romance with Josh because someone somewhere told her she did. It’s annoying.
But I think my biggest problem with the movie is the character of Nick (Jon W Sparks). We are supposed to think he is Santa Claus. However, he is barely in the movie. I think the character was supposed to have a bigger role but it got cut way down. Nick does some Santa-ish things - collects the letters to Santa from the mailbox, goes caroling around town, gives some good-natured but cryptic advice - but we don’t see him doing anything that would make him anything more than the guy in town that happens to look like Santa. If you are going to have a Santa character, USE HIM.
Needless to say, don’t bother watching Rebuilding A Dream Christmas. Or Christmas Comes Home. Or My Christmas Wish. Yes, this movie was so terrible that it had to change names three times before it aired. That should tell you something.