Noël à Pemberley

I love a good Pride and Predjudice take any time, and I wanted to love this movie. Fact is, the lead was just miscast. Jessica comes off fake, over acted, and without even a shred of what the Elizabeth Bennet character is known for. Rady on the other hand, is phenomenal as the Darcy image. He is the only reason I finished the film. The storyline is your run-of-the-mill Hallmark -- heartwarming, happy ending and cheerful. But sadly, the female lead takes what could have been a winning Hallmark film down to the bottom of the list.

This movie has everything: loud music (my biggest problem of them all), fake snow, an empty luggage, an empty coffee mug, a lead assuming something he shouldn't and a "magical" Santa fixing the lead's problem. There, you have a Hallmark movie.

While I didn't hate it, I didn't love it either.

I liked William's character, there was character development in there, which is almost enough for me. I'm not sure about Elizabeth's character: I understand her motivation thoughout the movie but I couldn't connect with her. I felt she was off. The chemistry was there, maybe not as strong as I would have liked it to be. I also found Jane and Travis adorable (predictable from the first moment) so points for that. Other than this pair, William was the best part of the movie, in my opinion.

As a whole it was enjoyable, not strong enough to start the season, but I didn't hate it and I actually enjoyed it.

Christmas at Pemberley Manor is a shameless attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Jane-Austen based contemporary romances. Unlike Unleashing Mr. Darcy, however, the story and the characters have nothing to with Pride and Prejudice. Zip. All the writer did was tack on various names from P & P on to the main characters. Sometimes quite randomly. For example, Elizabeth's old boyfriend was named "George" and was a nice guy, the mayor of the town, and trying to win Elizabeth back. The doofus assistant to William Darcy, who wins the heart of "Jane" Elizabeth's last minute assistant, was named Travis. Why not "Charles?" It was insulting to the intelligence. If you can set that aside, however, this was not a bad Hallmark Christmas movie. At least I stayed awake. I am not usually a fan of Jessica Lowndes. Her looks are usually too jaw-droppingly glamorous for the rolls she has played. In this one, however, they were toned down somewhat, so she looked like a relatable woman. Her acting, as usual, was not the best, but at least she didn't stick out like a sore thumb. Also, I loved the actor who played the hero. He had a lot of charisma in this role. The young actress who played Jane had appeal and had a secondary romance of her own. The villain in the piece was "Elizabeth's" boss who was played by the same actress who did such a great job as the prospective evil stepmother in Linday Lohan's Parent Trap. Although the script and the director in this one did not make use of her comedy chops, it was nice to see her again.

Burning questions: Why would the board of directors of a world wide corporation want to demolish the CEO's beloved home? Surely it's but the teeniest fraction of an expense against the mega corporation's humongous assets? Why would a festival that has attracted press from all over the country and is a mainstay of the town's budget and beloved tradition, have only 20 people attend the climactic event? These questions will remain unanswered. The former is the fault of the writer the latter the fault of the director. Maybe my 6 stars is a bit too generous. Yep, down to 5. I just remembered the magic Santa Claus, the most tired Christmas cliche ever.

Which makes sense as their was not a line of believable dialogue. I mean, it's a Hallmark Christmas movie - it's got it's own genre almost. This was more boring & formulaic than most. Can there ever be one of these WITHOUT a holiday festival/fair/ball? It's been done to death. Hallmark writers, gotta change things up!

Oh dear, Jessica Lowndes, never heard of her or seen her before, but her acting skills are clearly overshadowed by obvious 'work' she's had done to her face, which is hard to look away from. Does anyone really have such feline eyes naturally ? and why do Hallmark make their lead actresses wear such awful long curl extensions ? they're a bit last season here in the UK.

Cant complain about Michael Rady, an understated actor if ever there was one. The storyline was ok, but I think its the second one with the D'Arcy /Bennet theme - the last one involved dog shows I believe.