Thanksgiving is over, and that means it's officially Christmas season! (Of course, Christmas season seems to have begun immediately post-Halloween this year, but we won't dwell on clichés about how “Christmas seems to start earlier every year.”) My own personal family tradition started it off on Thanksgiving night with the annual viewing of a Christmas movie which will remain unnamed due to the fact that every year I see more and more how terrible it really is (although I still love it). The Christmas movie is a time-honored tradition, and everybody has their favorites. Most will name It's a Wonderful Life as the best ever (we'll talk about this later – I have some fun theories on the ending). The hardcore will smugly (and “ironically”) claim Die Hard, although some among us feel that it is a bit of a stretch to call this a “Christmas movie.” The truly enlightened may declare classics such as Home Alone or A Christmas Story as the superior holiday films – standard answers to be sure, but there is a reason for this.
Today, though, we are talking about Miracle on 34th Street, the original 1947 film, which is playing twice at Cinemark Tinseltown. It tells the story of Kris Kringle, a man who takes on the roll of Santa Claus in the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A convincing performance lands him a job as Santa Claus at the flagship Macy's store in New York City. As time goes on, many begin to believe that he is perhaps the actual Santa Claus – a viewpoint he endorses, and which gets him institutionalized. The attorney Fred Gailey decides to represent him by way of a radical approach – attempting to prove to the court that Kringle really is Santa Claus.
It's a Christmas classic for the whole family, and it will play today at 2:00 and 7:00. Tinseltown is located at 4400 Towne Center Drive. Further theater information and showtimes can be found at the Tinseltown website.
Image: Internet Movie Database
