L'Héritage de Noël

Willa (Autumn Reeser) has had a truly awful last two years. First, she split from her husband, leaving her a single parent. Then, her darling son Scout (Liam Hughes), around 8 years old, suffered a serious illness which went on and on. Now, Scout is better but there are huge medical bills. Not quite finished with a nursing degree, Willa works the lesser paying home care positions. Lo and behold, her last patient, a gentleman estranged from his family long ago, leaves Willa $100,000 AND a vacation in Oregon's lovely Bramble House B & B. Thankful beyond words, Willa and Scout start their journey from Minnesota. Meanwhile, Finn (David Haydn-Jones), the true son of Willa's last patient, gets word of his father's will. Aghast that his parent "cheated" his family in life and death, Finn goes to Oregon, also, to see if he can judge if Willa took deep advantage of his dad's last days. Yet, once there, Finn finds lovely Willa a beautiful human being, inside and out, from the first moment. Scout is likewise a darling. With his sister breathing over his neck about the injunction they are about to file over the will, can Finn really be hateful to Willa? Not when she steals his heart away piece by piece! This beautiful movie, a new one in the long, long, long list of Hallmark romance films, is sweet and meaningful. Its basic theme is forgiveness with a dash of courage. Reeser and Haydn-Jones are perfect and Hughes is a doll. In addition, the Oregon setting, complete with a handsome house and a darling village, is most welcoming. What can one say but add this to your list of gotta-watch-this-season flicks.

An American-Canadian romantic drama; A story about a man who becomes suspicious why his late father left his nurse a large sum of money after knowing her for less than two months. A formulaic Hallmark-style TV movie, but it will appeal to most people's festive feeling, knocking many of the bigger and more sickly-sweet Christmas films out of the park. The story dries up like a leftover box of Eat Me dates by the end, but the big reveal and the predictable ending were satisfying - damn it - I didn't think it would get me, but it did! Autumn Reeser and David Haydn-Jones deliver good performances.

Book illustrator Finn Conrad (David Haydn-Jones) has mixed emotions about the father who abandoned him when he was 10 years old as well as mixed emotions about the caregiver Willa Fairchild (Autumn Reeser) who inherited a $100 thousand dollar nest egg from his father's estate.

Finn and his sister Molly (Julia Benson) have a strong but unproven belief that the young and pretty caregiver Willa is a gold digger and that she somehow stole their own deserved inheritance from their estranged father's estate.

Finn is under a rigid 30 day timeline before the will can no longer legally be contested so he travels to the bed and breakfast that Willa and her young son Scout (Liam Hughes) are staying at over the Christmas and New Year period. The Bed and Breakfast lodge of Bramble House was a gracious gift to Willa and her cute as a buton son Scout donated by the deceased benefactor Mr. Conrad.

It is hard to hold back the tears as the story unfolds with a lot of emotional stories that all the main characters have to share as the Christmas day draws nearer. The owner of Bramble House, Mable Bramble, (Teryl Rothery) is getting on in years but is stubborn to the point that she makes it clear to all that love her, that she needs no ones help in running her bed and breakfast including that of an old and dear friend who wears his affections for Mable on his Santa sleeve.

This is a heartwarming story and my only negative comment is like in many of todays films, they portray the heroine Willa Fairchild as a divorcee taking care of her son on her own. Maybe this is the reality of todays society of many of a single parent raising their children on their own after a broken marriage, but it then becomes the accepted norm rather than the exceptance in the family relationship.

I give the film a decent 7 out of 10 rating.

Just as I thought watching Christmas films are over, only the real Christmas is what left to enjoy, I came across with this film. This is a last moment review written in the week of Christmas eve. The reason I liked was, it is another Christmas film based on the book of the same name. I think Hallmark should adapt books more often. The original screenplays are almost nothing. No innovation, not interesting enough. But literature based films like this makes a lot sense to watch. With an artistic presentation, the depth in characters and events, the story is well convincing.

Well, the story is not new. We all know it, especially how it's going to turn out at the end. But that's not the issue. How much you are satisfied with the way it all were told matters. So apart from a good story, the actors and director too makes an impact. I think it all worked out well for this. Yet there was a small drawback that towards the end of the second act, the story dried up. I mean literally when all the important matter was sorted out, the rest of the narration till the final twist was simply a drag. A time killer with casual scenes.

-xX] Look around you, and then close your eyes. Put everything you just saw into your brain like a picture. That way, you can keep it, even after we've gone. [Xx-

Willa, a single mother and her young boy is all set to enjoy their Christmas in the Bramble house BnB. On the other side of the tale, Finn disappointed with his father who had died weeks ago, left nothing to him, but for a stranger, Willa. So he decides to find out the reason and confront her with a legal option. Now, on the eve of the Christmas week, they meet at the Bramble house and develop an unexpected relationship with mother and son. Once the truth ready to get out, what happens and how the story would end was told quite nicely.

The character Finn looked good, but with a bad intention in his mind makes a villain, at least in the beginning. The actor who played it kind looked expressionless, even when he smiled. As the story went on, he looked better. Maybe I got used to it. Because slowly his behaviour has changed, leaving us to expect, how he would react at the end. You know without making something into a complicate, there's no end twist. In this, it was his identity and purpose of meeting Willa. That character makes this tale possible. But Willa is the one mysterious until she reveal about her life, particularly the secret about her son.

One of the good Christmas films of this season I've seen. More importantly, it emotionally get us. That's crucial if the film is aimed for families. Of course not without romance theme, otherwise these things won't work, but it was not focused on that thing alone. Mixing the festival occasion, romance, and personal life was neatly done. So if you want to watch a Christmas film, this won't be a bad pick. But as I always say, this is a television film, so be compromised on the overall perspective of the product and enjoy.

7/10

This is based upon a book titled the same, which I haven't read yet but might do so next Christmas. They say that books are always better, so perhaps I need to check it out and put it on my list of goals since reading is one of my new year's goals and it would be perfect to read it before we watch it again next year. We all know that Hallmark repeats their previous year's movies unless it is Friday, Saturday or Sunday evening (premiere time) when they play their new movies (during the holiday season). But about the movie, it's worth a viewing and I might watch again next year as well.