Christmas movie review: Anne Tyler's Saint Maybe

Rating: B

This one was difficult to rate. Saint Maybe is originally from 1998 and always airs this time of year but I'm not sure I'd really call it a Christmas movie. We just happen to check up on the characters around Christmas a few times. Jeffrey Nordling and Mary Louise Parker star as a couple who meet and marry quickly and then seem to immediately have some problems. At least Jeffrey's brother, Ian, thinks so and babysits a lot. After one particular time of babysitting that Ian was not happy about, he says some things to his brother that cause him to drive into a tree. And die. Yes, depressing. Not too long after that, Mary Louise Parker's widow character overdoses and dies, too. Yes, I swear, the first part of the movie had people dying left and right. Well, Mary Louise had two kids from a previous relationship plus a baby that may or may not have been Jeffrey's and now suddenly, the three kids are orphans. Ian feels increasingly guilty and after consulting with a pastor, decides to drop out of school and help raise the children. Which seems to go swimmingly as we then check in with the family like 20 years later and Ian has turned into this near-saint of a person who has basically put his life on hold for these children. Out of nowhere, the kids decide they need to marry him off and just as out of nowhere, they hire a person to come in and organize their house and Ian falls in love with her and they plan to marry. So it wraps up happily ever after. It's semi-interesting in that it shows how one or two events can totally alter the course of one's life but the story just skipped too much in between for my liking. I don't even really understand the title, except that the one daughter says this in passing about Ian right near the end of the film. I'm guessing the book on which it was based tells a much more complete story and I might be interested in reading that someday but, as far as the movie is concerned, it's not really something I have any desire to see again.

Hmm, an interesting sidenote... I looked up the actor who played Ian because he really is the main character and his name is Tom McCarthy. While he's done some acting, he also seems to be a writer and director. He wrote the story of Up, as well as wrote and directed The Visitor and The Station Agent, all three of which are really good and unique stories. So color me impressed.