Northern Lights of Christmas

This movie is about hometown love, community spirit, and finding what feeds your soul... and about reindeer! I loved seeing how everyone came together to make the tradition of a Christmas festival a reality again. Also loved the northern lights!

I love Ashley Williams. She's always happy and smiling and it rubs off. Zoe even makes grumpy Alec smile. That's part of what makes this a good romance story.

The story isn't surprising, but that doesn't matter. There's some good lines and funny moments.

Zoey inherits a farm in Alaska, and she decides to sell it to in order to start buy an aircraft and later own a charter airline in Seattle. So, she decides to throw a Christmas festival, as the previous owner and her mentor used to do, with the help of Alec who was looking after the property and the reeindeer.

Ashley Williams always makes me smile, she radiates good energy, happiness and warmth and it's always a pleasure to watch her in these movies. I didn't mind the actor who played Alec, but I did enjoy his development. However, I ended up disappointed because I didn't feel much chemistry between them but Ashley made me forget about the romance with her energy.

I actually liked this more as a "coming-home" kind of movie than as a romance. My other favorite part was the fact that Ashley was a pilot (and Captain, thank you very much) and as a woman in and into aviation that fact was very important to me.

I won't probably watch again, but I will definitely watch Ashley again in the future, she keeps proving that she is an amazing lead for these movies.

'Northern Lights of Christmas' is a long way from being one of the worst Hallmark Christmas films, of the 2018 batch and overall. It is also a long way from being one of the best. 2018 was a very mixed year for Hallmark when it came to their Christmas output, most ranging between lacklustre and just above average with some very bad and surprisingly good ones as well. So very variable which was not surprising for such a big batch of festive films from that year.

As far as Hallmark's Christmas output goes for 2018, 'Northern Lights of Christmas' is somewhere around average middle. That is very much applicable for their Christmas output overall, the film is around average middle in this regard too. 'Northern Lights of Christmas' is a film with good things and moments, but for me it also had a lot of shortcomings (a few of them being the usual Hallmark gremlins). So feelings are somewhat mixed here.

Shall start with the good things. The production values are quite nice, the scenery being beautiful even. Regardless of questions about authenticity the film for me was easy on the eyes. Some of the soundtrack is nostalgic and appropriately festive. There is evidence of charm and heart and the joy of Christmas is captured well.

Corey Sevier does have a stereotypical role done to death in other Hallmark films, but actually is very charming in it and doesn't come over as too uptight and certainly far from dull. The supporting cast are better than average.

That cannot be said unfortunately for Ashley Williams, really did want to be another reviewer that liked her in 'Northern Lights of Christmas' but sadly that's not the case. Am another person that felt that she tried too hard to the point that she got annoying and rather shrill, she has a lovely smile but overuses it. Her chemistry with Sevier has sweet moments but on the most part it doesn't sparkle enough and when it comes to the development it's both rushed in how too quickly the relationship evolves and also under-baked. The characters are too much like recycled cliches.

Which is pretty much the case with most of the story too, especially in the final third capped off by the as ever too neat and hastily resolved ending. Everything is obvious and there are too many things that happen too conveniently or come over as contrived. The dialogue has too much awkwardness and over-sentimentality with a lot of cheese thrown in too. The music tends to be too loud and doesn't always gel tonally.

On the whole, rather mixed feelings here. 5/10

Zoey Hathaway (Ashley Williams) really wanted to be a full-time pilot, but when she inherits a reindeer farm in the town she grew up in, she has to decide what she wants to do with the property. Ranch hand Alec Wynn (Corey Sevier) is resentful of her initial plan to sell it, but will fond memories of her hometown, reconnecting with old friends in a town where everyone knows her name and a blossoming friendship with the slowly thawing demeanour of Alec change her plans?

'Northern Lights of Christmas' has tons going for it if you enjoy the Hallmark brand of Christmas movies. Leading lady Ashley Williams is always a class act in these flicks, delivering so much genuine excitement and warmth, and she gets bonus points for those stunning eyes of hers (and let's face it, a lot of the time these films are ALL about that eye acting!). Leading man Corey Sevier has a rugged handsome quality and restraint to his performance that never drifts into that more grating 'pretty-boy' over-cuteness that often appears in these movies...although many of the female viewers of these probably don't mind that anyway! The rest of the minor cast are all friendly and charming, really helping to bring home that sense of community that is so important to the best of these type of films.

Yes, it falls back on that wonderful 'distorted reality' that comes out in so many Hallmark Christmas movies where every single little niggling problem or issue is perfectly resolved by the finale (actually all in the space of about five minutes in this particular instance!), but the lead and minor cast are constantly likable, the close community aspect is inviting, everyone will love the adorable animals, and the Alaskan backdrops add all the snowy atmosphere you'd want to see in one of these Christmas films...and you'll definitely decide within minutes that moving to a breathtaking reindeer ranch is the only logical next step in your life!

8 out of 10 for this tasteful effort if you're an unashamed Hallmark Christmas junkie - raises hand on that one.

Now scouring my box of personal files to see if I was due to be left a reindeer ranch in any inheritance I might have missed...