Les Mystérieuses Cartes de Noël

Did I miss something?? The hero (and sometimes, the heroine) carries small dog, Murray I think, with him everywhere for maybe 45 minutes of the film. Then the 2 humans leave the bed and breakfast to pursue leads. The night before, the guy slept in car, dog stayed with her due to suspicious landlord and apparent break-in. But when they leave, no mention of dog he always keeps with him. They left little Murray with a dwindling bag of dry dog food in the place that had been broken into? Did Murray demand a bigger salary? Did actors, producer, director, even dog's real owner, forget the little guy? But whew. At the 'tail' end, they're all together celebrating Christmas. Murray is quietly sitting on the sofa. Did he hitchhike back?? We just don't know. Signed, Friend of Murray

On the positive side, I'll say this is a different kind of story for a "Christmas" romance movie. It's actually a mix of romance and mystery with criminal implications.

The acting is poor. Esmé Bianco is totally flat. Ryan Bittle tries to hard. Their chemistry is forced, so not really any. Much of the dialogue is bland.

The story does some cliché things and some stupid things. Mystery phone calls by the partner. All the scenes of someone hiding in shadows and following the heroes. Tough guy in prison who overacts badly. A romance that develops out of nothing, except maybe bonding over the shared danger. Oh, and the cute anagram.

The whole chase seems a little unnecessary. The bad guy would have been better off leaving everything as is.

Where did the dog go? Simple. The writers didn't need him after he caused the clerk to sneeze at unfortunate times.

Did anyone not guess who Jack is?

The only tie to Christmas is some Christmas cards.

Agree with the reviews who say Esme did a very poor job of acting. If you turn off the sound and just look at her expressions she has awful body language, her speech is forced and her facial expressions look like she is perpetually annoyed. I think being British she just could not pull off the North American accent so it ruined her acting even more. The actor who played the PI was much more believable and acted like a normal guy. Unfortunately these Hallmark-esque movies always look Hallmark-esque and amateurish. Maybe it's the music and the script. I always hope for the best but am sorely disappointed.

So although yes it's a tv movie and maybe s little cheesy dialogue at times, I think it's wayy better then the reviews are giving it. The characters are likeable, plot believable, and casting)scenery not bad. There's good chemistry between the two main characters and acting could be a lot worse. Overall would say it's worth watching..

I am most of the time able to find some positive things to say about a film but regarding this "mystery" the only thing i can think of, and then i were forced to think both hard and long, were and is the great Christmas decorations in houses, shops, boats and on people ( the great knitted Christmas sweaters......in L.A ). The story is blend, colorless and flat. When it comes to the acting it is totally one dimensional, absolutely zero depth in the characters. And that actually makes me sad when the actors personality actually shines thru so much and the seem like very nice people, so i can imagine the set must have been just a delight and a wonderful time for all. To bad that the director did not have the skill to use that dynamic. It was like looking at the nicest of people, trying the best they possibly could with a script made for a middle school nativity play and directions given a prison chain gang.