Le Noël de mes rêves

Danica McKellar stars as the manager of a large department store trying to come up with the 25th annual Christmas display just twelve days before Christmas. She's also in the running to manage the new store in Paris, her dream city. She tasks a painter and local artist to help with the display and begins falling for him and his young son. Cute movie but with a theme that's been done one too many times.

Despite loving Christmas and having no bias against Hallmark Christmas films (far from it and this has been said before quite a number of times in other reviews of their work), the premise did not really excite me. Striking me as being too much of typical Hallmark and pretty old-hat. Saw 'My Christmas Dream' as part of my quest to see as many Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas films as possible, something that has been happening on and off for nearly a year.

'My Christmas Dream' is okay but for me despite good things not much more than that. Hallmark did do worse Christmas films that year and overall, they also did better. In ranking, 'My Christmas Dream' is around low middle on both counts and was actually quite close to being in the worst category (with the worst of the bad things being pretty awful). While not quite a nightmare, this was not near close to being a dream of a film in my humble opinion.

Am going to start with the good things about 'My Christmas Dream'. It looks nice, well shot with lovely scenery. Wasn't impressed by the music on the whole, not unusual for Hallmark, but there were some pleasant and nostalgically festive parts.

There were a couple of decent performances. David Haydn-Jones is a charming leading man and Deirdre Hall is classy support, brightening the film up when she appears.

Hallmark regular Danica McKellar however didn't do it for me, she has a cliched character that is not likeable or rootable at any point in the film. Really hate it when films and such exaggerate negative character traits, which Hallmark did a lot with their female lead characters, and that was the case with Christina and when you add McKellar's over-compensating she quickly became very annoying. More insufferable though was Christian Convery as the most irritating character in the film, due to his whining and such getting excessive. McKellar and Haydn-Jones don't have much chemistry together, they seem uncomfortable around each other and never felt their love, while the romance is very rushed and underdeveloped. Few of the characters are particularly interesting and more tried and tested Hallmark cliches done with more spark elsewhere.

Regarding the script, that was mostly very stilted and cheesy as well as dreary with too much blandness to have any sentimental value. The story never comes to life and because of doing absolutely nothing different with a premise already done to death is very predictable. It is also very thin, especially early on, there is a lot of credibility straining centering around the job and what effect it would have on the family (not very honest and somewhat mean-spirited) and there is a real lack of charm or anything to connect to.

In conclusion, has good things but just okay. 4/10

Yes, it's a little by the book in terms of the Hallmark formula, but I really liked this film, and it's always great to see Danica Mckellar.

With a nice storyline and some sweet moments, this was enjoyable and romantic enough to pass a cold night.

Lovely.

Danica McKellar, a go-getter store manager for a big store needs the help of a single father handyman (David Haydn-Jones) who is currently struggling to make ends meet in order to help her realise a dream - a Christmas Dream, you might say - of managing the store's first international location.

Much better than Christmas at Grand Valley for Danica McKellar, though that isn't saying a whole lot.

Danica is a good actress and she has good chemistry with Haydn-Jones, who I previously enjoyed in 'A Cookie Cutter Christmas' with Erin Krakow. Danica and David work together. The script was pretty good, and although the Hallmark formula is followed to the T here, My Christmas Dream is still a good one.

Let me start by saying I have low standards when it comes to holiday films, as they all follow the same template while the actors are interchangeable. Also, I have a huge girl crush on Danica McKellar and have since I was a kid. I didn't think she could ever do wrong. Now I know even bias can't save My Christmas Dream.

McKellar's Cooper was downright unlikable, and unlike every other holiday movie where the character slowly evolves, she never quite got there. Haydn-Jones did a fine job looking pretty, but his role didn't exactly call for much other than being a father and love interest. The kid started out fairly whiny and annoying but eventually saved this film for me. So very cute! Not much chemistry there, but I really blame the lacking script. Their entire journey from introduction to reunion felt scattered and incomplete. It was almost as if they were only attracted to each other because they had to be...because it's Christmas and that's what good-looking people do. I don't really recommend this movie unless you have watched every other Christmas movie Hallmark airs.