Noël en duo

'Country Christmas Album' sounded like a film that would get marginal enjoyment value by me, even if it was formulaic. Christmas is my favourite time of year. Music is a big part of my life and very important to me. And while country is not my favourite type of music, that has not stopped me from having always appreciated it, the singers that revolutionised it and its importance. The concept sounded interesting.

While 'Country Christmas Album' is a long way from being among the worst Christmas films ever and it is not even among my very worst recent festive film viewings, it is in the lesser end and could have been much better considering the potential it had. My review summary does sound harsh, it is not a must skip though it is a long way from an essential and doesn't have enough to it to be worth playing more than once. Even getting through the whole thing is not entirely easy.

It does have good things. The soundtrack is a charmer and affectionately handled without being random in placement. Hannah Barefoot is a very likeable lead with a lot of personality that is easy to engage and identify with. Found her character a breath of fresh air amidst a film that was sore need of more of that.

The photography is also quite nice if exceptional, it doesn't look cheap at least.

However, the rest of the cast are poor. A mix of bland and annoying and the male lead is devoid of charisma and charm. He has no discernible chemistry with Barefoot, any attempts are stilted and like they actually did not get on, and does not have a voice strong enough to make the premise of his character being a former pop star halfway believable. Only Tess is worth liking or engaging with of the characters, one can care less for the others. The story is really dull in pace and has no personality of any kind let alone charm, which makes that one is at least two steps ahead of the film in knowing what is going to happen next the entire film impossible to forgive.

Likewise with the constantly forced and cheesy dialogue that has no flow or direction throughout. The direction is routine at best.

Concluding, very lacklustre apart from one good lead performance. 4/10

I'd give it 6,5 stars but since you can't give it halfs and the other reviews were more negative than it deserved I rounded it up. I think it's pretty solid. It's not the best, it's predictable and fits perfectly in the guilty pleasure of bingwatching Christmas romances. I liked the cast the actress that played Tess was very likeable and real, not to overexaggerated like most leading ladies in Christmas romance movies. I do agree that in the beginning the romance felt a bit forced. Her tripping and him catching her and staring at eachother awkwardly for a few seconds, and the close friend side character telling them that they are in love(while you have hardly seen them interact yet) but the leads disregarding the notion. I do think they get there though starting at the thanksgiving dinner.

The best thing though by far in this movie has no to hardly any auto tuning and pitch correcting. Omg do I hate that in all the music (christmas) movies I've seen so far. They hire people that can't sing and then tune everything into oblivion till they all just sound like robots. So it's great that this movie leaves it real so that the songs and the emotion the actor puts in to it, fits in the moment it's filmed. Does that mean you can hear that Derek isn't as good as Tess, yes. But he isn't terrible by all means, we just aren't used to imperfections in recordings.

Nothing about this movie I could ever recommend. Writers should be embarassed for really weak lines. The male lead could have been replaced by almost any karaoke singer I've heard. By far, the very worst performance came from Mickey Gooch Jr. I now rate him the worst actor ever (and yes, I'm including Shelly Duvall in The Shining.) He was trying so hard to become the leading character with his horrible antics. I don't care whatever the Director may have told you, I would be ashamed to have my name listed in the credits. The plot is weak and not believable. Characters are not very well developed and the roles are very weak.

Terrible acting and even worse singing, can't sing their way out of a paper bag. Her voice somewhat better than his. Not worth the time. No chemistry and no talent.

Blech...

Horrible acting by all except Hanna Barefoot, the female lead. She's great, as always. Male lead is an awful singer. Surely they could have cast a more talented singer/actor.