Five Star Movie: Miracle on 34th Street

You may see this as a five star movie and think well sure its got Maureen O'Hara and Natalie Wood playing a mother and daughter, how can you go wrong.  True the cast is brilliant.  Everyone in this movie seems to be a perfect fit.  Or maybe you think, well any movie with spinning newspaper headlines is a sure fire winner, and true the movie is smartly directed and perfectly paced.  But honestly this movie's genius comes from the script. 

For a simple, pop Christmas movie it may provide one of the best insights into politics, business, family relations, etc. that you'll see even in movies which take on those ideas in much more serious ways. 

At the same time this movie never loses sight of what it is about.  The brilliant scenes between Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn never allow us to lose sight of the fact that this is a Christmas movie and that Christmas is a time that exists especially for children. 

Sad to say none of the remakes have ever come close to capturing the brilliance of the original.  It's hard to improve upon a perfectly written script, and a perfect cast.  So make sure if you're going to sit down and watch this movie for Christmas make sure it's the original.