O Diário de Noel

I expected a dreaded Hallmark movie with a very weak plot but decided I would give this a shot due to Justin Hartley. I ended up enjoying it. It is a very simplistic movie, but it is far better than anything you would find on the Hallmark channel. It's a sentimental holiday movie that feels very Nicolas Sparks-esqe. There is a believable chemistry between both the leads but because I need to fill up IMBD's 600 character requirement, my only critique would be that maybe the female lead needed to be slightly older because the male lead looked closer in age to the female lead's mother. However, that was not enough to keep me from enjoying it. She was a great actress. Still a very sweet movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.

There are some likable aspects to this film, but also some things I wasn't such a big fan of. What I liked most was Justin Hartley. He's a commanding presence on the small screen. You can count on good acting and charisma with him. He's a consistently believable character all throughout this story. Interestingly, The Noel Diary showed restraint in places where it could have really stirred up those feel-good, warm and fuzzy feelings in us. And then in other places, it didn't show restraint where it should have. For example, the primary romance isn't the sweetest as it feels a bit wrong at times given that one of the two protagonists is engaged to someone else throughout the whole movie. The deceit and cheating taking place definitely weakens the romantic aspect of the film, which is a major aspect. The other major aspect is the theme of abandonment and reconciliation with parents. This is handled better, though not utilized to its full potential. Still, with all the Christmas decorations and snowy scenery, it's very watchable if you're in the mood for a simple little Christmassy film to enjoy at the end of the day.

A famous author learns his mom has died and returns to his hometown to clean up her house. In the process he meets a woman looking for her birth mom and believes she had ties to his family.

I liked this movie a lot other than the pretty quick ending. Justin Hartley is really underrated as an actor. It was nice to see him out of Randall's shadow on This Is Us. The Vermont and Massachusetts winter scenery was beautiful and the cast dynamic was solid. The plot was simple but mostly believable.

As I said, my only complaint was the shotgun ending. Act 3 felt criminally short in comparison to the rest of the movie.

I'll admit, after Lindsay Lohan and Freddie Prinze Jr, Netflix was really dropping the ball on this year's cookie cutter Christmas films. But I am a glutton for punishment, so I, of course, had to watch this one immediately. The cast is great. I loved Bonnie Bedelia's character especially. I enjoyed the storyline. The acting was mostly good. The one major negative for me was the terrible editing. There were some really awkward camera zooms and just choppiness throughout and the cgi was unbearable at times. It was really distracting for me. I also really didn't buy the romantic chemistry between the main characters at all. Still, I was happy to see something a little different from the typical holiday film, as this movie delved into some heavier emotions; grief, abandonment, etc, which was a change of pace needed in this genre I think. All in all, worth a watch in my opinion.

I feel like I need a hard shower to get all the sap off after watching this. They used every cliche in the book to pull at the heart strings and create a Norman rockwell-like atmosphere with very fake-looking snow. And it's pretty much snowing the entire movie.

But the biggest fault is that the main characters didn't spend nearly enough time together to fall so deeply in love. I watched this without my wife because I figured she'd find it far too corny, and she would have. The big, emotional speech at the end sounded very familiar, and I'm sure I've heard variations in other rom-coms (though I don't think the com part applies here). Definitely don't see this becoming a Christmas classic.