The film is full of some great actors, most of whom usually play a supporting part and in an ensemble piece like this they are perfect.

It has everything you could need, romance, comedy, mystery and twists as well as snow and Christmas Carol's. It's well put together and a very interesting story that is really quite different from most films with the word Christmas in their title.

It's perfect for watching on a Sunday afternoon during the festive season, with a hot chocolate and a blanket and someone you love. It has an appeal that isn't necessarily restricted to the usual follower of the Christmas film. Heck even my Gruncle liked it.

A Christmas story on a train!

"The Christmas Train" had tremendous possibilities, but is flat as a pancake. I enjoy Christmas-themed movies over the holidays, but some just don't stand up as very good. A film has to be uplifting, or very funny, or with a believable romance, or with a good family story. Unfortunately, this TV movie misses on all those points.

My five stars may even be over-rating it, but they are for the scenery and a couple of roles that I think were played very well - Joan Cusack as Agnes and John Innes as John Kelly. Danny Glover was okay as Max Powers, in a familiar type of persona in his late acting career. But, even with Glover and Cusack, this film couldn't rise above a weak script and some poor acting, especially by the male lead, Dermot Mulroney.

It's really too bad, because what a novel idea it was -- even if it is a little bit unbelievable. More on that later. But the makings for a very good story are here, with human interest of several different passengers on a train, a coincidental meeting of two people who were in love and together years before, and even with a surprise ending and the cross-country, 3,000-mile train ride itself.

So what are the drawbacks? There is a woodenness in many of the characters. Except for the established names already mentioned, most of the others seems rigid. It reminds me of stage fright, and it shows in their rather blasé delivery of their lines. Even the young couple don't emote excitement about their eloping, as they feign it with smiles. The biggest drawback is in Mulroney, the male lead, as Tom Langdon. Hey, who doesn't want to like this guy? The whole story on the train ride, with meeting of the various other characters, revolves around him. That's why it sets the film back so far when he comes across so blasé, without any life or emotion in his lines or face.

The script has this guy with an answer or wise or decent quip for just about any situation. But, except for a couple of closeups when we see his eyebrows raise when he tries to elude Agnes, there is no sign of any real emotion, feelings or life in this character. And that does a great deal to deflate the whole movie. Less woodenness among the rest of the cast could have lifted it some, but instead most of the scenes come across as a staged rehearsal needing some direction.

As to the Christmas Train - it's fictional. There's no such train that operates from New York to California. Not on Amtrak. There may have been special things about Christmas travel on trains in the early to mid-20th century, but I could find nothing about there ever being a coast-to-coast Christmas train. Of course, it's okay to make something up like this for a story and/or movie. But this train is beyond anything that might be real itself. Just look at the space in the train cars. And rooms or studios that look more like hotel rooms. Even the original and real Pullman cars of the passenger railroad era didn't have such spacious private rooms.

Now, I can relate a personal experience of what train travel was like in 1990 over the Christmas holidays on Amtrak. I hadn't ridden a train since the mid-1960s, so I thought it might be a fun, relaxing way to travel from the Pacific Northwest to the Midwest that Christmas. I rode the Pioneer Train that operated between Seattle and Chicago (it stopped running after a few more years). We didn't have an avalanche to block our route, as in this film, but we had three delays along the route. So, the train arrived at my destination eight hours late in mid-afternoon on Christmas Day. There weren't any sleeping berths on that train - passengers slept in the recliner-type of seats. They were comfortable enough. The dining and lounge cars were quite sparse - a far cry from the days of great train travel. The water systems froze in all the cars except one. So, everyone had to use one bathroom to shave and wash up in. The old trains had small lounges in each of the men's and women's restrooms, but those on my train were more like the cramped closet restrooms on airplanes.

I have also ridden trains in Europe and Japan - the latter, in 2001. Those weren't nearly as long trips, but they were several hours and were quite scenic and enjoyable. Well, I survived my last American train ride, but that was probably my last one. If the U. S. were ever to develop a high speed system and train service on the level of Europe or Japan, I would probably give it a try. That is, if I'd still be around by then.

Somebody should try this film again with a pepped up screenplay and cast. It could be quite good and fun. Here are some lines from this film.

Tom Langdon, "Maybe this is fate." Eleanor Carter, "No, it's not. This is bad luck, that's all."

Langdon, to the young couple eloping, "Well, 20 years from now you'll be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than the things you did." Steve, "Is that from personal experience?" Langdon, "No. That's from Mark Twain."

Tom Langdon, "This is not the story I wanted to write." Max Powers, "Sometimes those are the ones that end the best."

Cynical reporter Tom Langdon (Dermot Mulroney) decides to take the Christmas Train from Washington to his girlfriend in LA for the story. The train is full of characters. Agnes (Joan Cusack) is the nosy passenger and a Christmas Train veteran. Max Powers (Danny Glover) is a famous movie director and he has brought onboard script doctor Eleanor Carter (Kimberly Williams-Paisley) to write him a script. Steve and Julie are eloping on the train. It turns out that Tom and Eleanor are combative exes with a rocky past.

It's a Hallmark movie with a couple of bigger stars. It's rather flat. The combative banter between Tom and Eleanor needs to be funnier and zippier. One would expect better energy from these veteran actors. Nevertheless, it's a functional Hallmark Christmas romance until the final reveal. It's almost a cheat where the supposed magic from the Christmas Train is sapped away. Whatever good it has is retroactively revoked. There might be a way to make the twist cool but it's not here and it's not for Hallmark.