Noël a cappella

When watching holiday movies on TV, you never can expect much from them. But while flipping through channels I just happened to see this one starting on Lifetime and was intrigued by the fact it had Mario Lopez both in it and as producer along with Melissa Joan Hart as director. The whole cast, was terrific. Mario played single dad to his daughter very well. AnnaLynne McCord was also terrific in her role, as always. Like all Christmas movies, it was pretty obvious what was going to happen in the end, but the characters made this one very entertaining and enjoyable throughout the whole movie. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys fun holiday movies.

My (educator) partner (musician, horn) and I watched this as part of our annual holiday rom com movie watching, and it was a pleasant surprise. However, she's a professional horn player and we never see a horn, once.

Every year I look forward to my Christmas movies and I must say Feliz has to be the worst I have ever watched . The background performers were terrible and even the 2 likable leads couldn't save this snooze fest . The story was soooo boring I fell asleep several times . Do yourself a favor and watch basically any other Xmas movie .

I was anxious to watch this movie because I like the 2 lead actors (especially Mario Lopez). I have seen him in other movies and usually found them to be cute but not necessarily great. This one however has to be one of the worst Xmas movies I have ever watched and I watch at least 50 Xmas movies every year! Many of them I have watched over and over again because they are so wonderful! I watched Feliz NaviDAD with my 2 daughters and they had to keep waking me up! They also thought it was the worst Xmas movie ever. We all agreed that except for the 2 main actors, the acting in general was terrible and the story was really boring!

Christmas films can go either way, which has been my experience watching overtime the festive output of Lifetime and Hallmark. They can either be well-meaning, charming, warm-hearted and don't feel too heavy. Or they can be too over-sentimental, cheesy, contrived and bland. There have been many films of theirs that have fallen in both camps and in the camp where there is a bit of both. And 'Feliz Navidad' did have the sort of premise where the execution could have gone either way.

Luckily, for me, on the most part, 'Feliz Navidad' is in the former category. As far as Lifetime's uneven but generally not bad 2020 Christmas output goes, 'Feliz Navidad' is one of the better ones and interesting for it being directed by Melissa Joan Hart (have always liked her as an actress and had no idea she could direct). It's not great or perfect, with a few story issues, but the performances, upbeatness and charm more than compensate and help make it very enjoyable.

'Feliz Navidad' doesn't succeed in every area. There are moments of overdone comedy and occasional over-talkiness in the more dramatic moments. The conflict could have done with more tension, was very rushed and really didn't buy too the too abrupt and too easy way the film ended the main conflict.

Also did find the music repetitive and really did pine for much more variety in the music choices. Hearing "Feliz Navidad" the number of times it featured felt like overkill, it is a fun song but is used heavy-handedly here.

However, 'Feliz Navidad' does benefit from the acting. Mario Lopez and AnnaLynne McCord are very engaging and easy to relate to leads, Lopez especially is funny, charming and affecting in equal measure. Paulina Chavez gives a heartfelt performance and a contender for the best child performance of Lifetime's 2020 Christmas output. The chemistry between Lopez and McCord was genuine and had wit too, while Lopez and Chavez have a bond that was quite moving to watch. Hart directs sympathetically while still giving the drama momentum.

It looks attractive, especially the scenery which at its best is picturesque. Most of the comedy is genuinely funny and the drama on the whole is poignant and not too sentimental. The dialogue flows well on the whole and doesn't come over as too cheesy or soapy. The story is very sincere and heart-warming, as well as upbeat in its energy. The characters are worth caring for all the way through and the acting is to primarily thank for that.

Overall, not great but nicely done. 7/10.