The Christmas Note

not different by many Christmas films. same generous spirit. same troubles with happy end. same expecting solution. same warm flavor of holyday covering fight, expectations, dreams and giving the right answer to complicated problems. this is motif for who the movies of Christmas, the films from Hallmark frame, are...special. for the small nuances. for the performances who are like hot chocolate or apple pie, not convincing, far to be remarkable, but nice. preserving the spirit of a holiday so less religious but good for remind fundamental values and the importance of family. so, must see "The Christmas Note" !

Based on a novel by Donna VanLiere, The Christmas Note focuses on two women who are neighbors each going through difficult times around the holidays. Gretchen (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) moves back to her hometown with her son to be closer to family as her husband was injured overseas and they don't when he will be able to return home. Leah (Melissa McCreary) has no family ties to speak of, but suddenly learns of her mother's passing and is regretful they never reconnected and unaware they were living in the same town. The women form a bond and help each other in ways they had previously unimagined.

This one had me crying 18 minutes into the movie. Women's husband is in the military and he's in a hospital overseas. She moves back home to be near her mother. She has a young son, maybe middle school years. She gets a message to tell the woman next-door that her mother has died, and that the woman needs to clear out her mother's things by Friday.

Turns out the woman next-door had a sibling. She didn't even know about. There begins the search.

Dillon Kingwell, as Ethan does an absolutely incredible job. He's summon to watch.

The mystery they're trying to solve is who is the sibling that was put up for adoption 28 years ago.

Really great writing good acting, the movie kept my interest the entire time

I'm usually a very good predictor of endings, but this one took me totally surprise!!

The movie is based on the book written by Donna VanLiere. She was the lady that wrote "The Christmas Shoes" (2003). No wonder why the movie was a good one.

This is not the typical guy meets girl romance which was nice. We have some mystery and a bit of a surprise ending that I originally thought might occur, but then dismissed it. So I was surprised. The two female leads were very good and there really wasn't any dull spots in the movie. The boy was great.

Some of the reviews say the film takes place in Wilsonville, Vermont when there is no such town. There is a Wilsonville, Oregon with a population of the same as shown in the sign shown in the movie (which probably isn't an actual sign). The mom is played by the same actress who played the mother Mrs Thatcher on "When calls the Heart".

Melissa says "You can cry in front of me." And sometimes that's the only thing you need to hear from your friend while she just let's you cry.

I loved the movie because it was about true friends and good family. For me this was a real tear-jerker because these are things that I really value. First we see Gretchen and then Melissa are going through things that you just shouldn't go through alone. Some people would not have the heart to help someone she doesn't even know when they have problems like this of their own, but Gretchen reaches out to support her brand new neighbor and becomes that kind of friend. Her son is remarkable also because he was the one that broke the ice.

This movie has a mystery and the new friends become detectives to seek out the identity of Melissa's sibling. There were good clues and false clues. If you guessed the identity, it wasn't from any clues the characters had because there was no way they could have known until the end. And the movie didn't even reveal all they knew until after the final truth was known.

But in general terms you usually know what you will get in a Hallmark movie and this one was no different.

The acting was good. We often talk about chemistry in the romance movies. Well this wasn't really a romance, but it was the two women, Leah Gibson and Jamie-Lynn Sigler, who had chemistry, extraordinary chemistry. Dylan Kingwell, as Ethan, was also prominent.

P.S. after the third time I've watched this. That's a good measure of how much you like a movie. And more than that. It was the Hallmark special July showing of Christmas movies, but this year I really wasn't into them. There were just a small few movies I noticed that I really did want to see again, and this was the one I looked forward to the most. And I had tears stinging my eyes almost all the way through it. It is even more poignant when you know what is going to happen.