''Christmas Child'' is a 2004 American Christian film directed by
William Ewing starring
Steven Curtis Chapman
Steven Curtis Chapman (born November 21, 1962) is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, author, and social activist.
Chapman began his career in the late 1980s as a songwriter and performer of conte ...
. The film is based on "
The Christmas Cross", a short story by
Max Lucado
Max Lucado (born January 11, 1955) is an American author
"Lucado set a record by concurrently placing seven differe ...
repackaged in 2003 as ''The Christmas Child: A Story of Coming Home'',
and is a story about a
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_type = Country
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journalist who finds himself in Clearwater,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
around Christmas time to discover his past.
Plot
Nine months after the death of his adoptive father, Jack Davenport, a Chicago journalist, obtains some of his possessions which lead Jack to discover his past. Jack receives an assignment to do a story in Dallas, Texas. Jack leaves days before Christmas Eve and decides to stay in Clearwater, Texas, his birthplace. One of the possessions left by his adoptive father was a mysterious photograph of Clearwater's oldest churches, taken in 1963. The church has a life-sized, wood carven nativity scene, that was carved by Joe Ottolman during the 1950s. He meets several townspeople along his search, such as Michael Curtis (the reverend of the church who has adopted a little girl from China, much like Steven Curtis Chapman did in real life); Naomi Williams, a Clearwater newspaper writer; Vanessa, a County Courthouse employee; Jimmy James, Clearwater's sheriff; the judge; and a maintenance worker at the church. Jack is told by the judge that releasing the identity of an adoptee's parents can cause suffering, as he points out that one adopted girl died three years earlier. Jack goes on to research the story of Joe Ottolman, who was in a car accident in 1945 that killed his wife, but his daughter survived. Joe worked for ten years on the Nativity carving. In 1963, Joe made the same mistake and was in a car accident again. His daughter Carmen Ana Ottolman, gave birth to a boy on December 24, 1963, but Carmen died two days later. Joe set his grandson up for adoption, then he disappeared from the presses and no one knew whether or not he was alive. Naomi, who helped Jack gather information from previous newspapers, tried to get Jack's birth records with the help of her friend, Vanessa, who works there, but they are gone. When Jack finds this out, he discovers that the judge was trying to hide them from him. The judge then reveals that Carmen Ottolman was his mother. On his 40th birthday, Jack is still in shock of hearing this. He sleeps on the bench near the church, in front of the nativity scene. When the maintenance worker discovers him there, he brings him inside the church for some coffee. The maintenance worker then reveals himself to be Joe Ottolman, Jack's grandfather. That night, Jack's wife Megan arrives in Texas, and Jack tells her everything that happened. Megan reveals that they are going to be parents. On Christmas Night, the townspeople of Clearwater gather around the nativity scene while the reverend talks about it. After this, Jack tells his grandfather that he is going to be a great-grandfather.
Cast
*
William R. Moses
William Remington Moses (born November 17, 1959) is an American actor.
Early life
Moses was born in Los Angeles, the son of actress Marian McCargo (1932–2004) and advertising executive Richard Cantrell Moses Sr., who married in 1951 and divor ...
as Jack Davenport
*
Steven Curtis Chapman
Steven Curtis Chapman (born November 21, 1962) is an American contemporary Christian music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, author, and social activist.
Chapman began his career in the late 1980s as a songwriter and performer of conte ...
as Reverend Michael Curtis
* Tonya Bordeaux as Alicia
*
Juli Erickson
Juli Erickson is an American retired voice actress. Her earliest film appearance was a minor role in Michael Cimino's '' Heaven's Gate''. She went on to appear in live-action roles in '' Matlock'' and '' Walker: Texas Ranger'', and starred as t ...
as Mrs. Schneider
*
Megan Follows
Megan Elizabeth Laura Diana Follows (born March 14, 1968) is a Canadian-American actress and director. She is known for her role as Anne Shirley in the 1985 Canadian television miniseries ''Anne of Green Gables'' and its two sequels. From 2013 t ...
as Megan Davenport
* Grant James as Joe Ottolman
* Rebecca McCauley as Vanessa
* Vicki Taylor Ross as Naomi Williams
*
Muse Watson
Muse Watson (born July 20, 1948) is an American stage and screen actor. He became known for his roles as Ben Willis, the primary antagonist in the ''I Know What You Did Last Summer'' franchise, Charles Westmoreland on the Fox television series ...
as Sheriff Jimmy James
* Mary Donnelly-Haskell as Cindy
* Dennis Letts as the town's judge
*
Deniece Williams
Deniece Williams (born June Deniece Chandler; June 3, 1951) is an American singer. She has been described as "one of the great soul voices" by the BBC. She is best known for the songs " Free", " Silly", "It's Gonna Take a Miracle" and two ''Bill ...
as the singer
*
Kitty Wells
Ellen Muriel Deason (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012), known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American pioneering female country music singer. She broke down a barrier to women in country music with her 1952 hit recording "It Wasn't God W ...
, known as "The
Queen of Country Music, sings a few of the songs throughout the movie.
*
Tom Lester
Thomas William Lester (September 23, 1938 – April 20, 2020) was an American actor and evangelist. He was best known for his role as farmhand Eb Dawson on the television show '' Green Acres''. He appeared in two feature animal films, ''Gordy' ...
, of Green Acres fame, as the voice of the KCOW radio DJ
References
External links
*{{IMDb title, id=0346750, title=Christmas Child
Movie info - From
Yahoo!
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...
Movies
American Christmas films
2004 films
Films based on short fiction
Films about evangelicalism
2000s English-language films