Christmas movie review: James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffanys

James Patterson's Sundays at Tiffanys, starring Alyssa Milano, was new this year and was based on the book by James Patterson (obviously). I recorded this movie and then was looking through my books for something to read and saw that I actually owned the book so I both read it and watched it in the last couple of weeks.

The plot of both is that a young girl is basically ignored by her workaholic mother so she has an imaginary friend, or at least she does until she's 10 when the imaginary friend must leave. Apparently, that's just one of many rules of the imaginary friend. Twenty years later, they happen to meet up again in New York, where she is shocked to find that he's not so imaginary. Yes, there's a level of fantasy involved in the plot but I love the idea. Neither can figure out why he has shown up in her life again. She's engaged to someone else but remembers the times she shared with the imaginary friend so they slowly reconnect and then it turns into a love triangle. It's only incidentally a Christmas movie as it's one of those that just happens to take place during the holiday season. Ironically, the book doesn't take place at the same time of year - so it was an interesting choice by the filmmakers. However, considering the magic involved in the story, it was a wise choice.

Overall, I liked this movie. It was sweet and magical and well-acted. I didn't agree with some of the changes from the book, though, mostly involving the imaginary friend character. In the book, the friend is like a 35-year-old man and when he shows up 20 years later, he is still a 35-year-old man. In the movie, he's her age as an imaginary friend and then grows up at a regular pace and is her age when he shows up again. I get that it's kind of odd to have a young girl hanging out with a 35-year-old, but the change meant that she didn't recognize him and that he basically turned into a stalker. Plus, in the book, it's like the character gets these various imaginary friend assignments and does them but lives a life between assignments. In the movie, it was like the imaginary friend had no idea what life was, like he was a naive young baby. I thought the dynamic in the book was much better. But, overall, the movie worked and I enjoyed it.

Rating: A-