L'Étrange Noël de Lauren

Candace Cameron Bure is perfectly cast as an up and coming surgeon to be as she works so hard to earn a fellowship to one of the most prestigious hospitals in Boston where her father's own career flourished. As with all of us, life gets in the way with some of our best laid plans and the young and attractive Lauren Brunell (Candace Cameron Bure) finds her plans falling totally apart both in her career and relationship plans.

Begrudgingly (at first) Lauren accepts a an offer to work in a small remote town in of all places Alaska where the first person she meets is her cab driver Andy Holliday (David O'Donnell) who is going to take her into town not by car but by a single engine plane as the town is that remote.

As each day passes Lauren becomes more attached to the town, it's people and of course that first connection she had with her pilot/chauffer Andy. This is a simple Hallmark romantic Christmas themed made for TV movie that will warm your heart if you are a romantic, and get you to roll your eyes more than once if you are a realist. So which are you?

I give it a 6 out of 10 IMDB rating. It's good for the heart and is the soul of Christmas.

I enjoyed this movie for the interspersed humor, beautiful scenery, interaction of the main actors and mostly because it was relaxing to watch. I watch movies like this to relax and NOT be jarred out of a calm mood and this one succeeded. The overall concept wasn't original, and for the most part the end was predictable, so if you want surprises, this probably isn't for you. But for me, overall, the movie worked.

Really nice and unpretentious Christmas romance. No convoluted "problems" with the love interests, for a change.

I like the fact that they made a movie that's just cheerful fun. It's a made-for-TV movie, and as such the little niggles like sunny dawns in wintery Alaska, snow that's not entirely convincing here&there (but thankfully none of that horrible "foam snow" they often use) didn't bother me to much.

The actors are adequate, but sometimes too sitcom-ish. Though, it has to be said that theater veteran Kendra Mylnechuk as the busy, joyous nurse Billie really jumps out.

The Utah locations are nice, but to me don't look a whole lot like Alaska. Still, as a background it was good enough for me.

It's just, basically, a movie with a wholesome, upbeat and positive vibe. Fitting for Christmas.

Candace Cameron Bure is a doctor who wants the same fellowship in Boston that her father had. When she doesn't get it, she needs a job and winds up in Alaska running through the standard Hallmark Christmas Romantic comedy tropes.

If what you're looking for is those standard tropes played engagingly, you'll find them here. Miss Bure is pretty and speaks her lines well; David O'Donnell is a competent juvenile; Brian Doyle-Murray is a fine Santa-like supporting player; Kendra Mylnechuk has the best performance as a hyper-competent nurse.

However, there's nothing in the script that isn't interchangeable with most of Hallmark's rote romcoms. It's so unengaging -- because you know exactly what is going to happen next -- that you have time to contemplate the production errors that make it clear that this wasn't shot in Alaska, once you get past the beautiful setting shots. Every morning Miss Bure awakens at 6:30 to a sun high in the sky in an Alaska December. The grass is bright green and you can see some weedy young maples wearing their summer leaves in town. Finally, in a town so remote that Amazon.com won't ship there, there is no trouble for the local florist (?!) to come up with a dozen perfect roses for the leading man to give to the leading lady on the spur of the moment.

I begin watching these Hallmark seasonal romantic comedies intending to give them easy marks. They seem pitched at a very undemanding audience and the actors invariably try their best. However, if the people in charge can't be bothered, then why should the audience?

This movie is very frustrating. It teases you about all kinds of plot points, but never really sees them to fruition or explains them. The ending is dramatically insufficient for the amount of time dedicated to the subject matter. This movie is a always looking for a plot and refuses to engage the most interesting thing about the town where everything happens. When the ending finally does come, it leaves you with many more questions than answers. Garland, the main town, is supposed to be 300 miles north of Anchorage Alaska, and only reachable by bush plane. Yet the town is quite diverse and large, with a coffee shop, general store, fancy cabins for people to live in and a major shipping company based there, anything but what would be found in a small town in central Alaska. They also complain about the cold, yet spend most of the movie walking around without hats or mittens, implying it is not as cold as they said it is. The random extras walking around downtown Garland would look right at home in a British Columbia tourist ski resort town and completely out of their element in a real Alaskan bush town. This movie promised so much frustrating doesn't deliver.