Je ne suis pas prête pour Noël

For some reason, the people producing many of the Hallmark movies think there needs to background music going ALL the time. Not only can it get tiresome, but often is so loud it is hard to hear the dialog by the actors. The music itself is ok, but it just never stops. Totally unnecessary.

This movie follows your typical Hallmark plot line, but has a nice twist. The main character, Holly, is a single, workaholic whose sister and niece often beg to spend time with her. Holly's main problem is that she has a knack for telling little white lies. This is accentuated when she promises her niece, who is in elementary school, that she will attend her Christmas program but doesn't. Later, when Holly arrives at the school after the program, she comes across the music teacher who she met earlier, who confronts Holly about a lie she told. Holly's niece asks Santa to prohibit Holly from telling lies, and as Holly walks out the school to the car, that wish comes true. Holly cannot lie. This throws a wrench in her otherwise normal life and she finds the true spirit of Christmas.

While the concept was cute,(main character not being able to lie) the writers went overboard with "Holly" explaining everything in detail. If the character is going to tell the truth, then tell the truth and move on. Alicia Witt constantly going into longs explanations made the movie, in my opinion, tiresome to watch. Also, the character of Drew (George Stults) was one dimensional with not much meat. It seemed all he did was react with a blank face at Holly's "truthful" comments. This also became boring and tiresome to watch. It seems the writers follow a particular writing pattern but maybe they should change it up a bit.I'm a huge fan of Hallmark and their Christmas movies but "I'm Not Ready for Christmas" was definitely at the bottom of the list. Not one of Hallmark's best Christmas movies.

Alicia Witt...one of my least favorite Hallmark ladies that I always seem to watch anyway. She's supposed to "sell the truth" in her advertising job but honestly Alicia doesn't sell that she's human. I think she's secretly an evil robot sent to gain our trust through wholesome Hallamrk. What a perfect cover!

Her trying to imitate Jim Carrey's wonderful comedic outbursts from Liar, Liar is SO HARD TO WATCH! It actually made me cringe, but somehow I kept watching. Her "truth spills" feel super robotic and where is her eyeline? Someone needs to update her programming.

As for the movie, I appreciate that the main character has flaws. Sometimes Hallmark characters can be too polished. The story is cute and moves along well. It has a decent sense of humor, so I suppose I'll be back again next year to watch, dammit.

PS The title/reoccurring song "I'm not ready for Christmas" is sung by the one and only Alicia Witt! So rare to get an Actor/Singer/Robot trifecta. But I'm not going to lie, the song goes from annoying to infectious.

Alicia Witt does really good faces. That makes her perfect for the strange predicaments she gets into as a result of having to tell the truth, and sometimes the truth is embarrassing.

It was kind of ironic to see Alicia Witt singing absolutely horribly when doing Christmas carols, since she is a professional recording artist and concert singer. And I'm pretty sure she sings the title track also - it sounds like her and she has a recording of this song.

The overall plot is cute and leads to some fun situations, even if the idea is not at all original.

Kids in a Christmas movie are always good and this is no exception. Anna is a cutie. The sit down between Holly and her sister was very sweet. And it's Hallmark, so there has to be a romance and hugely unrealistic developments before the ending.