Les Petits Miracles de Noël

Well, while this 2020 Hallmark Christmas movie titled "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" certainly was watchable, writers Zac Hug and Shari Sharpe just didn't quite manage to recreate the magic of the 2017 "Christmas in Evergreen" movie.

The storyline and the script for "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" was fair enough, however, it just never managed to rise about the mediocrity of the million other Christmas movies that Hallmark spew out year after year. So ultimately, "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" just turned out to be another generic run-of-the-mill Christmas movie.

But hey, if you don't mind the usual Christmas cheese and sappy romance, then "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" should be right up your alley. So "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" is definitely a movie for the average Christmas movie fan.

They had a good cast ensemble for the movie, and it was nice to see returning cast reprise their roles from the previous movies in the "Evergreen" series.

My rating of director Linda-Lisa Hayter's 2020 movie "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" lands on a mediocre and generic five out of ten stars.

Some people like the 'Christmas in Evergreen' film series. Others don't. With me, the four films are a bit mixed, was conflicted on the original, didn't care for 'Letters to Santa' and sort of liked but not loved 'Tidings of Joy'. Despite mixed to negative reviews, 'Bells are Ringing' was still seen anyway for curiosity as Hallmark have made some well above average sequels and because of having liked Rukiya Bernard, Hollie Robinson Peete and Barbara Niven in other things.

'Christmas in Evergreen: Bells are Ringing' was for me rather underwhelming and my easy vote for the weakest of the series. It is not a complete loss and has its good things, it takes a lot for me to call a film etc irredeemable (which is usually reserved for SyFy and Asylum mockbusters). But 'Christmas in Evergreen: Bells are Ringing' just didn't come together for me and didn't work. 2020 was a very variable year for Hallmark, and this is among the weakest of the batch.

Am going to begin with the good things. The best thing about it is Bernard, who has a charming warmth and sass. Actually thought that most of the acting was quite good, if more from the female cast than the male. Robinson Peete and Marci House coming off best. Niven was quite convincing too, but she has had better written and less derivative characters elsewhere.

The producion values are lovely, all the Hallmark Christmas films from 2020 delivered on the scenery and the scenery is picture perfect beauty photographed with love. Low budget or rushed production is not obvious. Some pleasant moments in the soundtrack and the marriage delay subplot was quite nice and relatable, the only one that works properly.

However, Antonio Cayonne and Colin Lawrence have nowhere near the same amount of sparkle, Lawrence especially is a bland blank in a nothing role. Cayonne's character is underwritten and his chemistry with Bernard is barely low key and is practically lost by everything else going on in the story. Which really hampers 'Christmas in Evergreen: Bells are Ringing' severely, it tries to include too many plotlines and characters and does too little with most, both Hannah's subplots are badly under-explored. The bells subplot felt like needless padding. There could have been less time on the Scrooge character and that character is very one dimensional and not fleshed out enough.

Like a lot of Hallmark films, the film includes a major change of heart and again like too many of those films the film doesn't do a good job with it. It is much too rushed and too suddenly introduced with too little build up, which was the same with the also too pat ending. Absolutely agree that the first half an hour was forced and unintentionally surreal. The dialogue is very awkward and over the top in this part particularly and is nothing to write about throughout the film.

Overall, didn't come together. 4/10.

This was enjoyable due entirely to Rukiya Bernard. I'm pretty sure that this is the first Hallmark that she has been the principle character, although even in this one, there was an abundance of supporting players. There were also a lot of stories. But like I said. Rukiya Bernard. I have been a fan of hers ever since I first saw her in One Winter Weekend. I love her energy: she just lights up the screen.

The multiple plots were not that interesting. Holly Robinson Peete's fiancé gets snowed in and can't make it back to Evergreen in time for his wedding Or worse, Christmas. The actor might have been busy and couldn't make it to the set, but we did see him on Zoom. Peete's sister arrives for the wedding that is not to be along with her father. Sister is mad at Dad and cold to his nice new girlfriend. Rukiya's story is that Elliot, her boyfriend, is opening a branch of their store in Boston and they will be separated. The other story is that she is now the head of the Evergreen museum but the Cooper Twins' brother never signed off on using the building which puts the kibosh on the museum. He was horrible and mean. Rukiya did absolutely everything to get his cooperation but to no avail. How anyone could resist her charm let alone be so mean to her, I just did not understand. His inevitable epiphany was very weak. He saw a video of his twin sisters saying the same thing Rukiya (and they) had been telling him in person throughout the movie. His change of mind made no sense.

So the whole thing was weak, but I enjoyed you know who.

Well, it's about time we got to see Hannah's story, but I still think that if you haven't seen the first three films that there is a lot you might be miffed about, as they reflect back on it a lot.

And miracle of miracles, Zoe is back in this one, unfortunately, Brat that she is, but at least she's not in it much. Ryan is still noticeable for his absence however.

I like the story of Hannah, who is a lovely character, striving to find her purpose in Evergreen, but I still think it would be more interesting if the lead decided that they would leave the town or if they decided that they didn't need someone else to make them happy, just for a change.

It's not the best of the series so far, but I did feel for Hannah and her situation. I will be curious to see if 2021 brings another episode of an Evergreen Christmas, as although the stories are only so-so, you do find yourself getting involved in the little town and it's residents.

Hallmark took a swing at creating a more diverse movie and ended up with kind of a hot mess. They had great leads with Rukiya Bernard, Antonio Cayonne, Holly Robinson Peete and Colin Lawrence. Instead of fully concentrating on their storylines Hallmark threw everything but the kitchen sink into the mix. It felt as if Hallmark didn't trust that these four actors could carry the weight of an entire movie. That's a shame for two reasons. If Hallmark really felt that way they should have had the guts to use actors they felt could cut it. Secondly, those four actors have proven time and again over the last several years that they can indeed carry a movie all by themselves and they will appeal to a wide range of people because they are engaging and believable. Instead of making a movie that showcases their talents they ended up, once again, as supporting players to everybody else's drama. I still enjoyed the movie and I especially love it when they use cast members from previous Evergreen movies. I just wish they had done this one justice.