La Lettre au père Noël

Ever since I watched "The Crow - Salvation" I've been a fan of Eric Mabius' acting as his portrayal of a "Crow" was one of my favourite, second to Brandon Lee.

I've not seen him in anything for quite a while, then I saw he was in this movie called Lost Letter Mysteries for Xmas (English Title). And what a joy it was.

In his role as Oliver O'Toole, he plays a stoic, straight-laced, upright, and honourable postal worker, who thinks nothing of going the extra mile to do the job right.

I loved the idea of a team of postal workers sorting through undelivered or undeliverable letters with the purpose of giving help. Even though, I now know, this is part of a series this Christmas episode works well by itself. It's well written and the direction is carried out well and progresses the story and cast at a steady pace.

After seeing this I will be looking at getting the series on DVD.

8.2 stars.

I cried too many times on this one and I'm running out of tears. I may have to put the next movie on hold in order to give my ducts a chance to replenish.

The most notable advice I have is to watch these from start to finish in chronological order. Don't begin watching any of the movies without seeing season 1 first, otherwise you will utterly ruin the experience of the series. This is most certainly NOT a watch-in-any-haphazard-sequence type of show. I watched the Paris episode/movie first, a couple of years ago, and what a monumental mistake. I had no idea what was going on, the characters were weird and unfamiliar-not a good experience. It spoiled the whole franchise for two years. But then I decided I would try to start from the beginning, and I was hooked by the third episode. I finished season one in two days, here I am on the first movie and what an awesome experience. Do yourself a favor (if you like Christian oriented romances) and watch this, because it may be one of the best ever made. Case in point they're still making 'Signed, Sealed, Delivered' 12 years later!

It is rare to see a special-episode that is so carefully well crafted. The script had a lot to accomplish and it did so with excellence. Having followed the series, my household watched in amazement as newcomers in our audience picked up on and enjoyed as if they'd been following the show all along. The series core strength is its abundance sentiment, with nuances of miracles / belief in God. For the Christmas 2-hour episode they "took it up a notch" in both areas, yet were never heavy handed or preachy. Amazing. This series, perhaps better than any other on television, weaves fun and funny suspense that manages to draw the viewer in tugging on heart-strings along the way.

First off, this series is so strong in connection and love. This one hits just a little more.straight to the heart! I love that it talks straight about Jesus! It's so sweet and caring. I actually cried watching this one. Perfect casting!

This is a bit of an unusual story with quirky characters. Even some of the props are strange. The story has a number of Christmas related messages but doesn't get overly preachy and in fact some of them are subtle. There are elements of the story that are quite predictable, some that become predictable with clues, and even a few false clues.

The characters would be called losers by many people, but certainly not by anyone who loves Christmas movies. As we get to know them (if you haven't seen the series) they become quite lovable. They have backstories of their own, which are kind of sad. Because the characters are so quirky, I hesitate to evaluate the acting, but I found that it was fine for the story.