L'ange de Noël

Thank goodness there is no business to save in this Hallmark Christmas movie. An aspiring writer researches a story about her Great Grandfather and an actress. The historical element is quite interesting. In present day she has an artist chasing her. He wants to give up a huge career opportunity for her. But she has to make a choice. Things link up nicely.

Jennifer Finnigan is pretty and a good star for this kind of movie.

I'm not a big fan of Hallmark pseudo-Christmas movies as they tend to be little more than sophomoric romances that just happen to be around Christmas time. This one is different. It is more adult in it's treatment of relationships, well acted for the most part and there is both mystery and Christmas magic in this film. The him turning the lead around. Character of the artist is well played and you really do root for.

Really liked the premise for 'Angel of Christmas'. It sounded like it could be intriguing in its mystery element and be as heart-warming as one expects from a Christmas film (well certainly me anywhow). Also the concept for the film was quite different, well in the main plot line at least, from the usual premises for a Hallmark festive film, which tend to follow a certain formula with the odd variation every now and again. Despite how the rest of the review is going to sound, not all Hallmark festive films are bad, enough of them far from it.

'Angel of Christmas' is not a my definition of a terrible film either. It is though towards the bottom end of the spectrum when it comes to ratings and one of the mediocre ones. The concept is a great one, 'Angel of Christmas' is sadly a case of not doing enough with it. Outside of everything to do with the angel, which actually could have been done much better, it's pretty much standard Hallmark fare so not as original as it sounded on paper sadly.

There are good things here. Some of the photography is attractive and the scenery likewise. Really liked the character of Grandpa James, the most likeable and most interesting character by far due to being the source of the bouts of warmth and charm the film has. Some of the soundtrack is pleasant. There are moments of charm and heart.

Did find some of the acting quite good. Jonathan Scarfe is amiable as Brady and makes a real effort to make an initially not so likeable character easier to warm to. The best performance comes from a twinkling Francis X. McCarthy.

Jennifer Finnegan is less successful though. Did find Susan an obnoxious, over the top and unrealistic character, despite promise on paper, and Finnegan tries too hard, some of her performance is borderline mugging. There is not enough discernible chemistry between her and Scarfe, the relationship between them building too slowly and then developed hastily in a slightly choppy manner. Too much of the rest of the music is like other Hallmark films too loud and too constant.

A good deal of the dialogue is very corny and awkward, with a fair share of over-sentimentality. The story as said had a good and quite different premise but executed it too ordinarily. Found everything with the angel too unintentionally creepy in alternative to heart-warming, the mystery element is too slow paced and under-explored to intrigue and the rest is very formulaic with nothing new. Also found everything to do with Susan's job pretty unrealistic and the ending doesn't ring true either. Some of the photography was nice but there were other parts where it was fairly choppy.

So in a nutshell, mediocre and could have been so much more. 4/10

During the holiday season tons of Christmas movies come out. They are purposely made to be feel good movies They are great to have on while you are putting decorations up - making cookies or anything to assist with that magical time of year. Which is a great thing especially that time of year. However you can only watch X amount of very expected guidelines with predictable repetitive story endings. Sometimes regardless of it being the holidays you want some substance. This offers just that. It is a great storyline that you really have to follow. Don't get me wrong it is still a feel good movie but part of that feel good you get is from when you walk away thinking wow!!! - That really was a great well thought nurtured storyline with an interesting story told!!! That is just my opinion - I say well worth watching & deciding yourself!!!

Highly recommend watching this movie. The mystery behind the carved angel in the story exceeded my expectations. The summary indicated that the angel was a rather dull thing. The wooden angel linked events that occurred in 1926 with the current characters and that story was slowly revealed during the movie. Well done! The cast was great. I saw Jonathan Scarfe in "Love on the Air (2015)" and that is what got me to watch this one. Glad I did. He played a similar role here. First time I've seen Jennifer Finnigan and I enjoyed it. Wanda Cannon (Val Stanton on Heartland) played the mom and this was about the best role I've seen her in. She was very effective. This movie was a delight to watch. Not sure if I'll watch it again because I now know the 1926 story. Not quite a perfect 10 because of a few issues in revealing the 1926 story. Loved it though.