At Thanksgiving, a lawyer trying to make partner is shown the joys of living a more balanced life.
I remember seeing 2010's A Family Thanksgiving many years ago, but didn't remember much about it, except for crushing over daddy Dan Payne. Thankfully, the film is on Youtube, (HERE:) so I was able to check back in, and the story all came back. It didn't take back, like so many Hallmark holiday films, the story is follows along the lines of the Charles Dicken's book, A Christmas Carol.
For this version, there's just one 'Ghost' named Gina played by Faye Dunaway. Gina is a mysterious older woman who makes it her goal to teach Claudia some moral lessons. Gina takes Claudia to an alternative world, where Claudia is a lower profile happily married minivan-driving 'soccer mom' with two children
Of course, we all get busy, so it's good to slow down but I'm not sure I love the 'moral' of this story, with a busy woman with a career, learning to slow down and appreciate her role as wife and mother. Just as Claudia is about to settle with her new life however, Gina returns to take her back. Claudia is reluctant to return to her corporate life, and thus must consider what she is most thankful for.
The actors sell the story, especially Payne, who has you wondering how Claudia could ever overlook his appeal. The Canadian born Payne has been a fixture on television the last twenty years. Payne began as a professional volleyball player, moving to Australia to play with his younger brother Josh. It was there, his love of working in film began, something he continued when moved to the UK, and then eventually moving back to Canada in the early 2000's.
Although Payne has appeared in many Hallmark films and television shows, it was his role as Nathan Davidson in the film Mulligans that first introduced me to the actor. I watched the film initially due to my love of actor Charlie David, but Payne stood out as a married, sexually-repressed father, who eventually acts on natural feelings and desires.
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