Miss Noël

I don't really like the story of Miss Christmas, but I keep coming back to it every year because of the acting. Brooke D'Orsay and Marc Blucas manage to inject drama into the cheesy Hallmark plot and turn it into one of the great ones. If you blew this one off last year because the one-sentence synopsis sounded silly, take my advice and watch it this year when you see it on the Hallmark schedule.

Brooke D'Orsay plays a beautiful peppy career woman in charge of finding the perfect (and gigantic) Christmas tree every year for the annual Chicago lighting ceremony. Because of her festive television appearances, she's acquired the nickname "Miss Christmas". A little boy writes her a letter enclosing a photograph of a perfect (and gigantic) Christmas tree on his family farm, and she travels to the small town to talk his family into donating it. Most people are thrilled to donate their tree and see it on television, but the boy's father, Marc Blucas, adamantly refuses. He explains that the tree is a family heirloom, and while I'm completely on his side, Brooke stays in town a few days to continue the argument. I know the conflict in this story seems a little petty, but trust me and stick with it.

Brooke has an infectious charm that goes beyond the normal Hallmark "Christmas cavity". Even though it's her job to convince them to donate the tree, she's still very sympathetic to their feelings and treats them as real people, rather than sounding boards bouncing off her script. As the movie progresses, you can actually see her breaking down Marc's guard. He's very believable as a divorcée who doesn't want to get hurt again. Falling in love with a businesswoman in town for only a few days is risky, but he just can't help himself. When he describes his feelings, that his new fondness for the holidays is her natural glow rather than just Christmas cheer, he actually gets tears in his eyes. It's a cheesy Hallmark scene on paper, but they make it romantic and moving on the screen. If this type of Hallmark appeals to you, rent Miss Christmas. If this sounds like too much realism, stick with the silly ones like The Sweetest Christmas instead.

The title is on the corny side but was appetising and cute enough. There is absolutely nothing novel or innovative about the story, but there was the potential if done decently it could have some charm without being too sweet. Hallmark Christmas films are a very mixed bag and one should never expect too much from them, but they have shown more than once amidst all their average and less efforts that they are capable of above average and even surprisingly good festive films.

'Miss Christmas' left me a bit mixed in terms of what my opinion on it was overall. It is a long way from being a terrible film in my view and served its purpose as a just scraping borderline average, inoffensive film. Other Hallmark Christmas films are far worse written, acted and looking and ones that bored, annoyed and insulted the intelligence more. Sadly, 'Miss Christmas' didn't strike me as particularly good either, with a lot of the usual flaws apparent. It does have good things.

And those good things are going to be mentioned first. Visually, 'Miss Christmas' looks quite good with it being shot and lit well and while standard the settings were appealing at least. The music has some affectionate nostalgia that does give off a festive vibe.

Brooke D'Orsay is appealing in the female lead role and Marc Blucas is a charming leading man who looks comfortable and looked engaged with the material. They do have a nice natural, genuine chemistry together, it's standard but there is spark and charm with them. Some of the film is heart-warming and sweet, with good intentions evident and doesn't feel too heavy.

However, 'Miss Christmas' is easy to criticise regardless of how one approaches the film and tries to take it for what it is. None of the supporting actors stand out and provide very little variation on nearly every character cliche in the book. Or at least that's how it felt like. The story doesn't have enough to it. Actually don't mind awfully that it was very formulaic.

What bothered me was that there was very unimaginatively executed, was really not much of one at all, had some fairly contrived situations and the film gets so sweet (too much so) in places it was almost sickly. Everything with the tree started off well but got ridiculous later. The script is similarly thin and quite routine, tending to have an awkward flow and was excessively cheesy and schmaltzy. By the end, which while sweet can indeed be seen from miles off, of the film it was one big pile of sloppy mush. Pacing can be a problem, with the story being too little a lot of the film crawls along and feels over-stretched. The direction is only functional at best and can be on the leaden side of things.

Overall, watchable but merely average. 5/10

I enjoyed watching this and I recommend it for anyone looking for a typical feel-good Hallmark movie. The leads have chemistry together and the supporting characters were enjoyable to watch. Some thought went into writing the script and there wasn't a lot of "stuff" that didn't make sense or was a ridiculous stretch. Granted, the choosing of a Christmas tree for a large city tree lighting starts 6-9 months, in advance, but who cares ... it's Hallmark. Most of us know what to expect in a Hallmark Christmas movie and the viewers get that ending. The towns that Hallmark uses to film in are usually super cute. I was a little disappointed with this filming location: it could have used more decorations. The snow falling scenes appear to be digitally added and there didn't seem to be a blue sky anywhere, which is a good thing. I did find it interesting that people were running around wearing sweaters, only, in December Wisconsin weather, though.

Holly is "Miss Christmas", she is in charge of the Christmas decorations in Chicago, specially the "famous" tree ceremony. She is searching for the perfect tree when she receives a letter from a boy who has the tree she is looking for.

When you search "Hallmark Christmas Movies" this is what you found. This movie had all the cliches we are used to, the baking, the tree lighting ceremony, a meet cute between our leads, a misunderstanding, even the names (Holly, and the city is named Klaus!)

While Brooke's acting wasn't a favorite of mine, I enjoyed the movie, she had good chemistry with Marc, and the rest of the cast. I'm glad the child wasn't super annoying and we had just the right amount of him.

I was pleased with the ending, while I was expecting something like that to happen, I was expecting it to be the other way around (If you watched it, you should understand).

I liked it, however, it wasn't a favorite and may not even watch again. But it is so worth it. It just feels good.

I like Brooke as Holly and Marc as Sam, although they are not compatible in this movie. Not believable that they would fall for each other in one week.

One main thing that bothered me throughout is the idea that killing a 35 year old tree brings joy to city folks for 2 weeks each year. I'm not against tree farms and cut Christmas trees, but really, all Holly's arguments for how important the tree is to be cut down and transported, only to be covered with ornaments and lights, oohed and aahed, viewed for a week or so, cut into boards for homes for veterans, as if that makes killing it justifiable, then next year they have to find Another "Perfect" old 30 foot tall tree.

The acting was fine and the actors are pleasant enough to watch.

The Hallmark tropes are there, however, as in most of their movies: the interrupted kiss, and the overheard half of a conversation resulting in anger and pouting, until they finally realize they were wrong.

This was the second viewing of Miss Christmas to see if I might be mistaken on my rating. No, still a 6, which is an okay movie that I would not watch again.