La Ballerine de Noël

Absolutely loved the premise. It is a very relatable scenario for anybody who wants to fulfill a dream, wants to learn a new skill and hobby that makes them happy or rekindle something that you made a career of but had to stop due to unforeseen circumstances. Or even all three, speaking from personal experience. It is also hard to resist seeing a film centered around anything to do with 'The Nutcracker', one of the greatest ballets ever written with a fantastic story and even better music.

Have said more than once about Hallmark's Christmas output being hit and miss. 'A Nutcracker Christmas' is one of the hits. It's not mind-blowing amazing and some of the storytelling is easy to criticise. It does compare very favourably when it comes to ranking Hallmark's output and was executed in a way that did connect with me. So 'A Nutcracker Christmas' came over as a quite good film that far from wastes its great premise while falling short of greatness.

Could it have been better? Sure. Will agree that some of the storytelling is contrived, such as the complete out of the blue and rushed 180 attitude towards nepotism (especially when a big thing was made of it beforehand).

While 'A Nutcracker Christmas' is always pleasant and never offensive, there is very little that's unique here and it does feel too safe. It is basically your standard reconnection story with a small twist. Occasionally the dialogue is awkward.

On the other hand, 'A Nutcracker Christmas' has a lot done right. The scenery has a lovely atmosphere and is attractive to look at. The photography is never drab or garish and always looks slick and never ugly, enhancing the beauty of the scenery and decor. As well as showing how truly graceful and magical dancing is. The music evoked a lot of emotion and fits beautifully in tone and placement, one of the few Hallmark Christmas films where the music wasn't a problem. The dancing is both athletic and graceful and the choreography left me transfixed.

Likewise with the final 20 minutes, which was charming and moving. As well as different for a Hallmark Christmas film. The dialogue on the whole avoids cheese and schmaltz and while the story isn't flawless it has a warm heart and doesn't get too heavy. It is also inspiring and realistically shows dedication, determination and how difficult it can be behind the scenes. The reconnection part of the story is handled nicely. The characters were to me worth caring for and Amy Acker and Sophia Lucia give particularly appealing performances.

Quite good on the whole as said if not great. 7/10.

This fairly straight drama, with an element of romance, sees Amy Acker's career as a ballet dancer cut short through a family tragedy, only for her niece's similar gifts to bring her unexpectedly back into the world of ballet and to an old acquaintance. It's clear who are the actors hired to dance and the dancers hired to act, but it just about holds up thanks to an impassioned turn from Acker, if you can get past the niece's cute/grating (delete as applicable) voice.

Headlined by Amy Acker as a ballerina who must face several emotional challenges, A Nutcracker Christmas unfolds as most popular Christmas movies with the rather superior inclusion of actual extended choreographed dance scenes. Unlike the more cult-following ice skating romance feature, The Cutting Edge (1992), a considerable amount of effort as well as physical performance undertaking was required and included in A Nutcracker Christmas with Amy Acker having plenty of opportunity to actually dance. One must assume that an actual Nutcracker cast was used for the last portion of the rousing classic ballet performances. This normally enjoyable romance Holiday movie has the added bonus of its wonderful artistic performances.

Because our granddaughter is a dancer we have learned quite a bit about the effort and dedication needed to be even a decent dancer and the dancers in this movie are much more than 'decent', they are really good. So on that alone this is worth watching. However, it also had good production values, good dialog, and good acting. This is one we watched on the DVR and did not delete after watching. I'm sure we'll watch it at least once more this season.

This was one of the most entertaining Hallmark Christmas movies. Lily and Mark dance magically together to The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Sadie dances superbly. Beautiful story, excellent ballet dancing and sets. I will watch this movie over and over.