Le Costume du père Noël

Available on Hallmark (Demand) and this is NOT a typical Hallmark movie, but I love it - one of my favorite Christmas movies...a little bit of fun in many ways, a tiny bit of romance, and it tugs my heart in so many ways, every time. Enjoy it.

(BTW, I'm not a Kevin Sorbo fan, but this one is still good!).

This is a fine little Santa movie as Drake Hunter, the scrooge-like owner of a toy company, finds himself mysteriously transformed into a Santa lookalike for the Christmas season -- he looks and feels like himself in his own mind, but everyone sees him as the jolly old elf in the red suit, even himself in mirrors -- and comes to recognize how empty his life is. Although this sort of body-switching device has been used many times before, this variation on it is well handled in the script department and well worth your time.

I do have one issue: Kevin Sorbo plays the role for as understandably depressed and low affect for the first hour. As I have commented in many another review, this is appropriate but uninteresting but there are enough interesting performances around him to sustain the movie until he begins to slowly work his way out of that state and into a decent person in the second half. That pay off makes the movie.

While this is nothing new about using a sort of a "George Bailey / Scrooge" outline for the story, its nice to see it in a new concept. Rich greedy CEO gets a new outlook on life. Of course it doesn't hurt that Kevin Sorbo is the hunk of a CEO. Although he is a little bland in the beginning he comes out of his uneasiness to embrace his role as Santa. I thought this would be a "boo-hoo save the little poor kid movie" and I wasn't about to watch it. But I was dying to see a new Christmas movie and this one turned out surprisingly good. No matter how mean they try to make Kevin Sorbo he always comes across as super nice though. The supporting cast was okay. Of course there are a few teary scenes but all in all it was a fun movie.

The best Christmas movie I have seen in decades. Kevin Sorbo does and exceptional job in the role of Drake. Sorbo's character is realistic and believable and not over the top. I laughed and cried and can't wait to watch it again and again. If it has been ages since a movie has touched your heart then this is a must see. If you want to watch a Christmas movie that makes you feel you have not wasted 2 hours of your time, then this is the one to see. If you want to watch a movie that you can't walk away from even on the commercials then sit back and enjoy this ever so worthwhile movie. This is a movie that should be watched year long and not just at Christmas. Honestly, I can't say enough about this movie, except "Watch it!"

I was expecting a silly Christmas comedy, ha ha, a Scrooge executive is changed into Santa, learns the error of his ways (while making us laugh at his predicaments) and of course is magically transformed into the reformed Scrooge by the end. I expected nothing really special, but since it's rated 6.7 I expected to enjoy it.

Wrong. I laughed and smiled a few times early on, but basically I found this to be a very touching movie as Kevin Sorbo more and more saw himself as others saw him, and he didn't like it. That his singular focus on the bottom line hurt others, and worst of all, that he didn't even care. I was especially moved by his retelling of his Christmas bike story. I liked that his transformation was gradual, and not a light switch. I would only say that I wish Hallmark had sold 2 or 3 minutes less of commercials, so that the exposition of the new person he had become could have been more gradual.

I liked it a lot, I highly recommend it, and can't wait to share it with my wife.