MovieChat Forums > Love's Christmas Journey (2011) Discussion > A 94-year-old Ernest Borgnine was wonder...

A 94-year-old Ernest Borgnine was wonderful in this made for TV movie.

posted 10 years ago by cleargraphics
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In Love's Christmas Journey (2011), a 94-year-old Ernest Borgnine was wonderful doing the Nicholas character in this made for TV movie. He reminds me of the Jonathan character her played in the 1974 Season 1 episode of Little House on the Prairie called, The Lord is my Shepard.

In both episodes he played a seemingly heaven sent character whose help was so vital and timely, he could have been an angel from heaven. In both characters, in both stories, he mysteriously disappears after he completes his good deed and allows some of the audience to believe that he was a mere mortal man, if they wanted to see him that way, while also allowing some of the audience to believe that he was a supernatural visiter, if they wanted to.

In both stories for TV, Ernest Borgnine did a great job. What a wonderful life to be a vital film and TV actor all the way up to the age of 95, before he passed. This long movie is worth seeing just to see Ernest Borgnine's performance but it was still a good family movie with a number of good actors and characters.

[–] cbjslp 10 years ago

Totally agree!

[–] mlaiuppa 8 years ago

I really enjoyed Ernest Borgnine. He is always good and didn't disappoint.

The rest of this movie did.

It was hardly about Christmas.

More like an extended Christmas episode of some Western. I have nothing against Westerns but when I'm looking for Christmas movies to watch and the word Christmas is in the title, I expect a movie to be mostly about Christmas, not about a robber and a land grabber a missing Sheriff.

[–] cleargraphics 8 years ago

All the negative stuff seemed to be fitting for a Christmas movie because, for grown-ups, Christmas seems to be a time of the year when everything seems to be going all to hell and adults, with their families, need to hold steady and have faith in success. Sometimes, in real life, things turnaround just in time for Christmas morning.

The 1940s Christmas film, It's a Wonderful Life, plays on this theme of finding the good when everything seems to be going all wrong.

This was a more violent and dramatic episode in the Loves Come Softly series but it is a compelling movie when presented as a Christmas TV special and when viewed on home DVD.