Le festival des pères Noël

Is this a real event somewhere? Everyone wears a Santa suit and wanders around bars and nightspots all over a city, but in the middle of the day?

Anyway, after a meet cute where a guy finds a dropped pocketbook and returns it, he and the girl feel like they've made a connection. Then in a crowded dance floor they get separated.

The guy and his brother spend the rest of the movie on a Hero's Journey quest to find her, coming frustratingly close over and over again.

In the meantime, we get cute or meaningful slice of life scenes to build the characters.

It's not one of the cookie cutter plots, which is a must, and it's quite watchable.

If you like to watch a movie without over-analyzing the story, or the acting, this movie is worth a watch. With the multitude of movies released over the holidays it is quite apparent that Hallmark is trying to pull in a younger audience, without their traditional formula. The main characters, Jordin, Ava, and Stella are portrayed as 30ish and the storyline is college-aged festivities. This is mostly a fresh approach, 'tho "Never Been Chris'd attempted this venue (less favorably), and even 'tho the three women can't be taken too seriously (some over-acting and over-scripting) their diversity and comraderie works here. Romance is limited to the excitement of the catch, and there's little time given to the depth of any of the characters. In fact, the supporting character of the reindeer (pedalcar driver) and of the love-interest for Stella, were the deepest characters in their short-time onscreen. Shout-out: there's not really a "spirit" of Christmas in this one, more the excitement of friendship and winter-fun...

This movie reminds me a little of a movie from last year on a rival network called Destined at Christmas. The premise revolves around a man and woman who meet and become attracted to each other but then get separated. The rest of the movie is trying to bring them back together. Meanwhile, Jordin's two friends do a little better connecting with guys.

One of the nice features of this movie is that the activities are not exactly all the usual Christmas activities. They are set around the Santa Summit which basically flows through taverns and restaurants. You know where the story is going but not the exact details. There are no great highs or lows or big surprises.

The acting is decent. The dialogue is good. The central couple spend little time actually together which for me is a drawback. Please don't do a sequel.

Side note regarding Parental Guidance on this site: I don't know what possessed me to look, but someone has voted Severe to every category there. This is Hallmark. I can't imagine there is ever anything Severe in their Christmas movies, although someone trying to be political might do so in one category if there were alphabet themes.

Jordin and her group of friends are attending "The Santa Summit", an annual celebration in which people go through different venues, celebrating Christmas dressed up as Santa Clause. There she meets a guy (Liam) and they connect immediately, but they end up losing each other in the crowd. So they spend the whole event looking up for the other.

I don't know about you all but I would definitely attend this event with friends and make the most of it. Maybe a bit silly, but such and ingenious idea.

The actors had great chemistry, the whole cast, the secondary storylines were okay too. I wished the main characters had more scenes together but the movie wouldn't have made any sense.

There is a fun cameo halfway through, you blink and you miss it. I would definitely watch a sequel.

When I heard Hunter King and Stephanie Sy were making a movie together, I was looking forward to it.

I knew there would be an element of zaniness. There was that and more.

The main story of a guy and girl who meet and hit it off, only to lose each other without getting names has been done...recently, but in this case there were so many adventures along the way they almost have to remind you. Everybody is wearing a Santa suit, so identities get mixed up throughout. The girls get together with their pal played by sweet Amy Groening for an evening of dancing and drinking and merriment, and each finds her own misadventure.

It's a little slow to start, but it gets going eventually. It's fullof surprises and builds to a satisfying conclusion.

Grumps probably won't like it, but it's worth a watch.