went in production as A Rockport Christmas, and by April 1988, Hal Holbrook, Eva Marie Saint, Courteney Cox and Peter Gallagher were among the official cast members. Saint was appealed to her role by recognizing "the bit of selfless America I hope people don't lose sight of" in the Bundys, along with the film's emphasis on family. With Rockport rebuilt to a 1940s-looking village, Saint claimed that the townspeople were amazed with the sets. The film's premiere took place in Rockport, Massachusetts, and was attended by Saint, in the weekend before its first television airing. Describing the premiere, Saint expressed her content in an interview: "It was beautiful, like the Winslow Homer woodcuts of Gloucester. They had a dinner at the high school and the showing in the gym. Girls in the sophomore class served dinner and the president of the class presented me with flowers. You had the feeling the school was a hub of life, as it was when I was growing up." Reception I'll Be Home for Christmas received mixed to negative reviews. A reviewer for The Washington Post praised the early 1940s touches, though calling the story "sentimental and a bit predictable". More negative was reviewer Faye Zuckerman, who wrote: "The much-anticipated NBC movie is a holiday special to delete from your must-see list. Early on the movie becomes sentimental and heavy-handed, rivaling the most overdone moments on primetime's slushy-sudsers Dynasty and Knots Landing. She furthermore criticized Courteney Cox's "overdone emoting", which is "contrasted by Holbrook and Saint's lackluster performances here. Both usually give credibility and strength to movies with such weak scripts. In this case they barely manage to muster enough energy to appear interested in their roles." See also List of Christmas films References External links 1988 television films 1988 films 1980s war drama films 1980s Christmas drama films American war drama films American Christmas drama films Christmas television films NBC network original films Films set in 1944 Films set in Massachusetts War romance films Films set on the home front during World War II NBC Productions films Films directed by Marvin J. Chomsky Christmas war films American drama television films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films