The House Without a Christmas Tree Reviews

Based on one of four autobiographical, young-adult books by Gail Rock about growing up in rural Nebraska in 1946, this made-for-television movie features excellent performances and a refreshing absence of easy, everybody-gets-a-hug answers to hard emotional questions. Ten-year-old Addie (Lisa Lucas) lives with her widowed father, James Mills (Jason Robards), and his mother (Mildred Natwick) in Clear River, Neb. Still mourning his wife's death, Jamie has bottled up his feelings to the point of coldness towards his daughter, and can't bear to celebrate Christmas — he won't even have a Christmas tree in the house. Grandma tries to smooth over the growing rift between her grief-stricken son and headstrong granddaughter, both of whom she adores. Addie's determination that this will be the year the Mills house has a Christmas tree hinges on a school contest and stirs up a hornets' nest of painful emotions. Directed by prolific TV-movie maker Paul Bogart, this sentimental favorite retains one of the most bracing aspects of Rock's memoirs: Though written from the poinf of view of a young girl, they're neither precocious nor preachy, and evoke the sometimes unexpected depth of children's inner lives.