Jonathan Toomey: Le miracle de Noël

This story of the meeting of lonely and sad people is a gentle, moving and warming tale that I think both older (8+ ?) children and adults will appreciate. The cast generally give a good performance and gel well - you can really feel the changing relationships as the story plays out. Luke Ward-Wilkinson does rather well and is very likable - he does not annoy like many child actors. Berenger also portrays Mr Toomey in a very believable way.

The cinematography is nice in many places, especially the idealistic scenes of the country village. The outside of the Toomey house looks very much like a studio set, shot from the immediate front, but this somehow adds to the overall feeling of separation and is in no way a problem. Aside from the issue of death, there are no disturbing scenes, "colourful" language, or issues not suitable for youngsters and this makes for a very enjoyable, slow paced, experience.

The film starts and ends in a Christmas setting, the remainder being time between, and so would suit a festive, wintery viewing with the whole family. The film does make you appreciate the ones you love and want to give them a hug.

It would be nice to know "what happens next" but maybe that is part of the appeal of the story - following the journey up to a point, then leaving the characters with their new start.

My main complaint is that it's painfully slow. It took me three or four times to finally get through it on streaming. It's a very cute, quaint story with great young actors. The actress who plays the mother, Joely Richardson is adorable. Probably the youngest I've seen Saoirse Ronan and she's great in everything. As much as I love Tom Berenger in other things, he was a little stiff in this one. But that's what the story calls for, so no one is to blame.

It's just a simple slow moving story that probably could have been better if it was just an hour long special instead of an hour and a half theatrical length. It's also a little heavy handed with the country music and number of times they mention baby Jesus. I like baby Jesus. But I don't like movies that thump the bible over your head like you're in Sunday school.

I didn't really get why the movie was named after Mr Toomey. But now that I know there's a book, maybe some day I'll read it since other reviews said the book is better. But that's usually the case with adaptations.

So beautiful, it enchanted me, it could be even darker, more intense, the childish tone made it somewhat superficial and predictable, as children's stories should be, it had the potential to be better, but the narrative, the characters and the photograph enchant. Cute and charming...

I love the book by this name. It is a beautiful story with beautiful illustrations. However, this movie is such a poor retelling of it. Many movies feel like they didn't really need to be made. They feel forced and contrived, and that's what I see here. I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I hoped I would. It felt like everyone was just going through the motions. I wouldn't watch this again if I had to. There are so many high-achieving Christmas movies. This one falls so far short of my expectations. I didn't even feel like the adapted screenplay was appropriate. The setting felt off, even. They could have done so much better.

All shot in England...likely in studio sound stages. The surreal imagery added to the tale. The young kid was a bit too bratty at first after his dad died. I didn't know this was a British film until the kid messed up his American accent a few times. Would have been better if the reclusive wood carver had been a true hottie after he got all cleaned up and de-bearded(not depicted). A little bit of eye candy never hurts. The end was a let down as nothing really happened. I suppose the rapid transformation of the reclusive wood carver into a warm, sociable human being was the miracle. We needed to care more about the carver for the miracle to have more impact. His character wasn't developed enough to give us this......Worth watching once.