Le Gala de Noël

Despite its title, don't expect much of this Hallmark holiday rom-com to relate to the Jane Austen novel except for a few names.

The star of the film is Lacey Chabert, who practically lives in Hallmarkland, especially when a wedding veil is involved. As usual, her pleasant energy infuses her performance. She plays Darcy Fitzwilliam, a New York City investment counselor who returns home to Ohio for Christmas, where her mother has her helping with a charity auction.

There she runs into an old high school rival---Luke (Brendan Penny)---who used to be on the same debate team. Of course, there is a lurking ex-boyfriend, who is ready to reignite their relationship, if Darcy would only say the word. But Luke is now the owner of a local restaurant, where he seems quite competent. In fact, Darcy's mother hires him to cater the auction event.

Luke is a very smiley guy. Though Darcy has some negative feelings about their interactions in high school, she is easily swayed by his positive personality. In fact, she grows to admire him. Meanwhile, Darcy's sister is dating Luke's brother.

Darcy is a successful businesswoman who seems unfulfilled by her job, so the ending of film should not surprise anyone. But the chemistry between the two leads makes this film a pleasant watch.

This was a perfectly serviceable Hallmark Christmas movie starring their queen Lacey Chabert. However, honestly, the movie loses a star for sticking the Pride & Prejudice label on it, when it had no business doing so. Aside from the character names ("Darcy Fitzwilliam", lol), the movie had absolutely zero to do with Jane Austen's novel. They would have done better to give her a different last name, title the movie something else and call it a day. If they'd done so, it would've rated a solid 5 stars from me.

Honestly I really do not know where to begin, but this movie was completely boring, there was absolutely NO chemistry between lead actors - I'm talking Zero! I love LC but this movie was not for her. Through just about the entire movie, she always looked depressed, sad, confused and even bored. Her character fell completely flat. I must mention seeing Mark Weibe in a supporting role was really sad, he was so great in A Very Merry Mix Up with AW... he had all of possibly 5 lines in this movie, there wasn't even any chemistry AT ALL between him and his brother. I'm so sick of the all the fake snow, it's so ridiculous already, cmon Hallmark, why can't you film during a true winter season, why must you make us suffer through all the fake flakes? Even the way they dressed LC was wrong, all wrong... and her makeup - with all the red lip stick was awful. She's absolutely adorable and beautiful but .... NO, her makeup was all wrong. I had such high hopes for this movie because I really love watching LC. I was so bored and so disappointed Mark Weibe didn't have a stronger character and a larger role. It was like they just threw him in there for a few minutes to stand around and do and say nothing, he's so much better than that. I could go on and on... in my opinion, this movie was not good. Sorry Hallmark, you missed the mark on this one.

Having recently read the book Pride & Prejudice & Mistletoe, I was expecting this movie to be a film version of the book. But other than the names of the characters and Darcy's occupation, the book and movie really had nothing in common.I'm not sure why the plot was changed from the book but it didn't seem to improve the story. I started watching it and just turned it off rather quickly. It was just bad.

These two are adorable! Luke and Darcy are childhood debate partners that had a healthy rivalry in their youth and meet after a long absence. The Sparks still fly as this handsome couple help Darcy's mom put on a charity event which was dumped on her at the last minute. Luke is a great listener and helps Darcy work through her New York work issues. Meanwhile, Luke is a chef who has just purchased his first restaurant and donates his catering to the charity event. The build up is great...there is a fun on-going joke about mistletoe and how can a couple go wrong with "jingle bells" as there song. Cute, cute, cute!