With her world in turmoil, Janet (Lee Remick) feels she is losing so much that’s important…her beloved mother (Angela Lansbury), the family business, maybe even her husband. Janet dreams of simpler times, of Christmas in the idyllic Vermont of her younger days, and of taking her children back to the family home where her parents and spinster aunt (Polly Holliday) would be waiting for them. And they are, in all the warmth of the holiday. But only when even more seems lost, as one her children is in jeopardy, does Janet search for that ‘secret place’ where we all may find what really matters, at Christmas and always.
Bearing a marked resemblance to It’s a Wonderful Life, The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story stars Lee Remick as a woman plagued by profound emotional and business problems. It’s getting close to Christmas, but Remick is hardly in the mood to celebrate, feeling that her life has lost its purpose. She is revitalized by a dream in which she is reunited with her recently deceased mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides Remick through an inspiring replay of her Depression-era childhood. Earl Hamner, of Waltons fame, penned the determinedly lachrymose screenplay. Filmed on location in Vermont, the made-for-TV The Gift of Love was originally aired five days before Christmas in 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
“Lovely performances by Lee Remick and Angela Lansbury… luminous presence of Polly Holliday… make this a special that merits repeating in seasons to come.” -Los Angeles Times
“Will catch at your heart and loosen your tear ducts. If you loved ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ or ‘The Homecoming’ you will spend a four-handkerchief night with ‘The Gift of Love.’ The entire project is a joy.” – Newark Star-Ledger
“It’s a tale of love, joy, memory and disappointment, put together in a way that will touch your heart.” -Albany News
Starring Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, Polly Holliday.
Note: The film is set partially in the 1980s and also in the Depression Era.