One of my all time favorites.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Perhaps I knew the story before, but I don't remember watching or reading it. But I knew the ending almost at the beginning as gifts were being discussed the first time.That would be fine if watching the whole movie would have added something to the expected outcome. The characters were all nice and likable, but beyond that, there just wasn't that much to pull you in. Even the "cute kid" plot device only helped a little. It seemed like too much screen time was spent watching laundry or car fixing. Actually it probably wasn't that much screen time, but that stands out in my mind along with everyone's very long sad faces and general moping after the "problem" hits. Maybe part of the reason for what I describe is that the movie was adapted from a short story and that's really what it is - a short story.Too make matters worse, Della and Jim's encounter after they are both induced into going back to their apartment just didn't feel right. There was no trace of anger.If you don't know the story, watch this film. It's a sweet story.

BEWARE OF FALSE REVIEWS & REVIEWERS. SOME REVIEWERS HAVE ONLY ONE REVIEW TO THEIR NAME. NOW WHEN ITS A POSITIVE REVIEW THAT TELLS ME THEY WERE INVOLVED WITH THE FILM. IF ITS A NEGATIVE REVIEW THEN THEY MIGHT HAVE A GRUDGE AGAINST THE FILM . NOW I HAVE REVIEWED OVER 200 HOLIDAY FILMS. I HAVE NO AGENDA. I AM HONEST!After "A Christmas Carol" and countless rip-offs of "It's a Wonderful Life" the O Henry book "The Gift of The Magi" is probably one of the most adapted works done at Christmas time. I can understand why. It's hard to go wrong adapting the beloved story. This film could have beenbad but, the film is truly faithful in the spirit of the original story. That is what makes this film work. The Original tale of the "Gift of the Magi" took place in the 19th century. In this film the story is updated to the 21st Century. In this film a newly wed couple is having their first Christmas together. He loves working on classic car and she is a amateur photographer.The leads in this are enjoyable and so is the supporting cast. What is nice about the O Henry Story is that "The Best Gifts are one the ones you give of yourself and making personal sacrifices for the person you love"This film is well worth watching.

The Gift of the Magi is a short story about a young married couple with not much money and how they deal with buying secret Christmas gifts for each other.The television film has been updated and expanded. Della (Marla Sokoloff) and Jim (Mark Webber) are newlyweds and desperately in love with a close circle of friends and do their best to help each other out in their working class community.The couple are financially stretched after a theft and although promising each other not to buy Christmas presents, Della wants to buy a steering wheel for his classic car that he is restoring and takes a part time job to earn enough money for the gift but does not tell her husband.Jim is saving money to buy Della a lens for her Nikon camera but he is suspicious of her spending time away from him on that secret part time job and then sees her with another man (her boss at the second job) and he leaves her.As Christmas approaches, their friends hatch a plan to get them back together when they realise what has actually happened.This is a rather saccharine family film with many sweet natured characters. The working class setting is non existent but the film has enough substance to make it watchable.

O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" is one of the two best-known secular Christmas stories -- the other is, of course, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". It is also much harder to translate to a screen feature, since O. Henry specialized in short stories with 'snapper' endings -- usually sardonic jokes on their protagonists.This TV movie makes a fair try at filling up the spaces by updating the story -- modern urban women no longer sell their hair to wig makers, and certainly not to buy fobs for their husbands' pocket watches, since men mostly don't use pocket watches these days.But the poor we always have with us, so this story is about a husband who wants to buy a good lens for his wife's beloved heirloom camera while she wants to buy an original steering wheel for the vintage car he is restoring -- these stand in for the original gifts. And the leads, Marla Sokoloff and Mark Webber, are handsome and loving.But the story telling soon gets lost in a maze of secondary characters who are used to fill up the time, and while Ms. Sokoloff continues as earnest throughout, Webber turns into an inconsiderate boor by the time the story is heading towards the lap.Over all, it's a good effort, and the casting and direction are good, but the script needs a bit of work and focus, making this simply watchable. A pity.