Uma Valsa de Natal em Paris

I have always been hot and cold on Jen Lilley, but I was very impressed with her performance in this one. Matthew Morrison puts on a sparkling show dancing, but Lilley surprised me since I have only ever seen her as an actor. In one number they both sing nicely.

As to character, Lilley fits the personality of Emma. Early in the movie she oozed wonder and awe first when she saw and experienced Leo's dancing. When she needed to show a hint of lovestruck, more wonder and awe. Then they get to Paris and you almost expect her to swoon. When the big rival, Giselle, shows up, Lilley is perfect as the nervous woman slightly lacking in confidence. Morrison plays off all that to have a little awe of his own at Emma's spontaneity and joie de vivre. Yes there is plenty of chemistry between these two.

I was disappointed in Emma that she let Giselle play her mind games even though she had been duly warned. I really expected Emma to be smarter than that. Giselle gives us something GAF sometimes (usually) lacks and that's some real tension with a good villain but not quite evil.

Outside the story there is plenty of scenery as they tour Paris. Paris is even better at Christmas. There is even more dancing, although the qualifying round of the dance competition was somewhat boring, but necessary for the story.

The movie was a feast worthy of the Christmas season.

Dancing actually being done by the actors, a rarity now days. Black Swan you say??? Did you actually SEEE Portman doing a single dance step, the answer is no. Every 'dance' scene with her shows her upper body, or someones legs, but NEVER a full on complex ballet manoeuvre.

This movie has good acting, it has a variety of 'sets', the actors are actually dancing (more than once) in various settings. The manner and reason in which they hook up is realistic. When she 'auditions' it is a no pressure situating in which she believes she is just enjoying dancing, which is what the 'scout' is on the look out for.

I would have liked more actual dance training scenes with less drama in them. At the end of the day there was too much drama

The ending dance was nice

My favorite dance movie is the original 'shall we dance' (1996) with subtitles.

That being said, this is worth a watch.

Matthew Morrison has a long history on the stage in musicals, and it shows here, particularly in his "Singin' in the Snow" number. He really does a nice job of both dancing and singing. So does Jen Lilley, but she's on a bit of a lower level than Matthew.

Interestingly, Morrison is often asked if he's John Wayne's grandson. He's not, but the question doesn't disturb him. LOL

The movie has the normal number of Hallmark romance ups and downs between the couple, who both start out dedicated to "just be friends". Cracks start to appear in the promise early on, but they're forestalled, of course, by the previous girlfriend/dancing partner.

Overall, this is an enjoyable and quite different Hallmark Christmas romance, and one we're very likely to watch again.

So many Christmas movies to watch. Many so so, others not to bad. This one was fun and I enjoyed the dancing. I like Jen Lilly ! She usually very upbeat and sweet. The scenes were so beautiful. I recommend this one. It is kinda like 2022 Paris Waltz with Lacy Chabert. But still different. Matthew Morrison has always been a good actor in musical productions. He played a really good part. Their chemistry was good too! I'm planning on watching it again. There have been some good Christmas movies this year. Maybe better writers. So I gave this one a 8...I need more words to post this...lol! Dancing 💃 ball room! Christmas 🎄 more dancing🕺 lol 😂

Love me some dancing shows like SYTYCD which Morrison was a judge plus the Paris and the Eiffel Tower dancing scenes were so fun to watch. Storyline was a little weak, but hey, dancing and Paris, what can go wrong? One thing that annoyed me was the final dance at the big competition was sung to "O Night Divine" and GAC chose to have the singer sing, "oh night, when he was born." Really?? I even went back and listened again, and I think they actually didn't sing the song as it was written "...when Christ was born." So strange. Why? Would Jesus' name really offend GAC viewers? It's a classic, beautiful song that is about Christ's birth! Anyway, aside from that, I enjoyed the movie.