Avec toi pour Noël

Let's see. Australian actors, a christmas movie shot in Australia, pretending they are Americans in Vermont, what could go wrong...

The story line is super naivë. Fostering dogs as an impulse, a veterinarian letting complete novice to handle their adoption. Scenery is all plastic trees, real trees next to road painted white (but all the further ones are not), fake snowfall and so clearly shot in front of green screens. Made by someone who has never seen snow? Acting is not that great. There's no chemistry anywhere.

They could just have added more dog scenes to make it cuter, it might have saved a lot.

It feels like Hallmark gets the best christmas movies and the others get the leftovers.

An easy, maybe too easy Christmas film about returning to birth town, a noble cause, a nice romance, prepaires for save a pets domain and colorful supporting cast. Nice and full of cliches. But Georgia Flood and the animals, the lovely naivety of story are precious pieces for not so bad entertainment. But, maybe, few tears of emotion.

Quite possibly in my top 5 for Christmas movies. I'm a fan of dogs and cats, but not turtles. I kept watching even though there was a turtle. I found it interesting that it was set in a climate where snow sticks to the bottom of trees, but not the top. Since this movie is Australian-heavy, I'm guessing it was filmed there, and everything there is upside down. I thought adding a reindeer would be a good touch. But Dylan, the veterinarian, said he had never treated a flamingo, so a reindeer was probably out of the question.

Annie does a great job riding her bike in the snow. That's a very tough thing to do.

I won't give spoilers, but the movie moves along pretty quick.

There are a lot of open jackets at night in the middle of winter. Or some people are not wearing jackets.

During the middle of the film, I left for 15 minutes, but I really didn't miss anything plot related. Probably someone saying Meow-y Christmas.

Overall, I appreciate movies that go against the grain by hiring people that have never acted before, and forgoing a director completely.

I will be watching it again in less than 24 hours.

Puppy Love For Christmas/Sit. Stay. Love (2021) -

I don't think that I enjoyed Georgia Flood's performance as Annie. Despite her "Good deeds", she was actually a bit of a selfish b!tch and I thought that her emotional issues about her Mum were a front for her just being horrible. Also, she dressed like Paddington Bear (Only he can rock that outfit).

And Ezekiel Simat's character Dylan really deserved much better than Annie, he was such a joyous, pleasant person. He should have got with Phil (Mansoor Noor) instead, another like minded person, with a kind heart. It would have made the story more interesting too, especially if he turned around at the end and told her that he wasn't interested, because he was dating Phil. I really would love to see more films with different plots and twists, a break from the normal formula.

I thought that the actor playing Rocket was superb though and really cute as well. Banjo was adorable too, whereas Gary was pretty terrible and in a weird way, perfectly suited to Aunt Claire, who was equally as nutty.

I felt sorry for Annie's Dad, who she was a cow to and I might have liked it if the story had been his and that he had found love himself, because he was easier to connect and sympathise with. I felt the sadness of his story and wanted to see him happy. She could have been there to help him find somebody, which would have been another way to make something a bit different.

As the film progressed there were a few too many events to attend, especially after they decided to create a new one. It didn't seem to know when to slow down for a beat, much like Annie.

It was a very busy film and the leading lady didn't appeal to me as a person at all, so I can't really rate it too highly. I wouldn't say never again, but it certainly wouldn't be a film that I would record to watch every Christmas.

4/10.

Well this ticked my household's movie wishlist - multigenerational, uplifting, not too flashy plus a doggy bone-us! Despite being a pandemic production, there's a big cast providing lots of plots and community success. There are a number of animals, not just dogs, but it is mainly about the humans improving their relationships and neighbourhood. The diction and Christmas-ish music are reasonably balanced, but captions would be good - something that is often lacking in these TV movies. BTW, the international title 'Puppy Love for Christmas' is really a reference to certain characters' youth, not a promise of tiny fur babies.