Tout ce que je veux pour Noël... C'est toi !

I didn't watch this when it came out in '22 because of all the reviews, so this year I decided to give it a chance.

I guess it just goes to show how different peoples' tastes are, because I thought it was great.

Marisol Nichols has never been one of my favorites, but she and Kris Polaha were both great. This took a lot of range to pull this off, but they did: funny, sweet, sad, bitter, all the emotions you go through in life except grief.

Maybe it's just because I'm a grumpy, snarky divorced guy, but I laughed a lot, recognizing my own life and having the same reactions as they did.

There is a homosexual couple in the movie, mostly for comic relief, but they did have a big smooch. That turns a lot of people off. Amy Groening, one of my favorites, as a quirky animal painter was good .

All in all, I'm sure I'll watch it again. To each his own.

'We Wish You a Married Christmas' (2022)

Opening thoughts: My frequent Christmas film viewings (or at least those from Hallmark and Lifetime) have been something of a mixed bag over the past four or five years, with plenty of good films, many average ones and many bad ones. The premise was one of those could have gone either way ones, but still watched 'We Wish You a Married Christmas' anyway because of liking Kristoffer Polaha.

While he doesn't come over shabbily at all, 'We Wish You a Married Christmas' didn't work for me. The 2022 Countdown to Christmas batcb actually did start off promisingly, but with this film comes the first misfire of the batch. It is not terrible or one of the worst Countdown to Christmas films from 2022, but pretty lacklustre.

Good things: Of course there are a few good things. Marisol Nicholls and especially Polaha give very game and committed performances.

Also found the dog absolutely adorable and the decor and scenery are colourful and nostalgic.

Bad things: Sadly there are a number of drawbacks. Would not have minded the excessive predictability, as a result of exexuting the premise too conventionally, if the film was still at least interesting and had some charm. The story however was very thin with a very dull and over-stretched middle act. Too much of the conflict felt forced. The script is too often stilted and has toi much emphasis on the hostility and everybody being annoyed with each other and it came over as mean spirited and took away any possible charm. Meaning that the film felt pedestrian, too heavy and with very little emotion.

Didn't care for any of the characters. None of the supporting cast stand out and inject very little passion or enthusiasm, a big part of why the humour fell flat. The characters are too much like typical Hallmark cliches with nothing new and there is nothing really likeable or rootable. The two leads did lack chemistry and the constant getting annoyed and hostily meant that the love never convinced. The music is forgettable at best and there is an over reliance on unfocused close ups that cheapens the film's look.

Closing thoughts: Overall, didn't do much for me.

4/10.

This was really good. Combining a troubled married couple with existing Christmas movie tropes is exactly how you change up your movies while leaving the audience satisfied at the end. This was totally predictable but the journey was a lot of fun. Kris and Marisol had great chemistry and the supporting cast was awesome. It starts off a bit slow but if you stick with it past the first 15 min, it's a great movie.

There were some weird directing choices though. We don't need to see constant close-ups of one person when two people are having a conversation. It got to the point where it was a bit distracting but I still enjoyed the movie.

I can't think of a movie with Kristoffer Polaha that was a dud until now. I loved Holly and Ivy which was the first time I saw Marisol Nichols so I wanted her to do well.

The story is extremely simple and basically a vehicle for a lot of humorous gags. I didn't find enough of them funny so I think this will be a movie that appeals to people who like that style of humor and leave other people like me wanting more. The story is totally predictable. Once you know the setup, it's easy to lay out what the outline for the rest of the movie is going to be. One slight exception is a side romance that totally lacked development and then bingo at the end, it's there. There are a lot of the usual Christmas activities that are so often crammed into these movies.

As for romance there's no chemistry. It was like two actors doing their parts alone or to a blank wall. The plot points were there for restoring the romance, but they made no sense because of the missing connection. It didn't help that Robby had a 180 degree personality change which wasn't really developed. It just happened. And Marisol Nichols, as Becca, lacked any emotional response to those efforts.

There are a couple of scenes which involve alcohol in ways that I think detracts from this being a family movie, but then I also think the subject and humor were probably above the level of children.

I really liked the premise for this movie and the teaser for it. For me, the movie didn't live up to the promise.

The premise I liked is that our antithetical romance couple is already married. They have issues for which they are at times either unaware or in denial of.

The comedy often relates to the continuing series of incidents which annoy them on a 'get to know each other again' getaway. The problem is the things that annoyed them also annoyed me.

And let's face it, after a huge Christman ornament tied to a tree falls on their windshield, it would NOT be put up again to fall on a second windshield. The writers thought it funny, but it's just dumb.

It's a shame. I like Polaha and he's done a few good Christmas movies. Nichols is obviously a talented actress, but her two Hallmark Christmas movies have failed to impress us. It's not her, it's just the writing. And both were good story ideas that the writers failed to close.