Un Noël d'amour et d'amitié

Very rarely do I rate one of these Christmacy/Hallmarkish made for TV rom coms below a 5, but this one was bad.

Now I can actually enjoy a movie where the heroine has more chemistry with the guy she does not end up with. Angrily Ever After is an example. But with this heroine, I didn't like her with either guy. She had more romantic moments with the ex she was trying to get back, but they fell flat to me because of the way she was treating his girlfriend. Grant, I think his name was, was in a committed relationship with Bella. Ashely, our heroine, smiled up in Bella's face, pretended to be her friend while undermining her to get close to Grant the whole time. This was not cute in the least.

So we get ice skating, long intimate walks etc with Ashley and Grant as Ashely tries her best to reconnect with him. Yet no romance at all with Ashley and Liam. Liam really was the best friend, and their interactions were platonic while Ashley chased Grant.

I only watched to the end to see Ashley apologize to everyone. I could not root for a HEA btw Ashley and Liam, as he deserved so MUCH better.

I had to watch this film to the end, because I couldn't believe that Liam (Colton Little) would ever want to spend the rest of his life with the lead female, I was hoping he would tell her where to go instead. He was way out of her league and far too nice for her. I'm not sure I would have been happy with him ending up with any of the rest of the cast to be honest, even the "Other guy" Grant, who was a bit wet, although I think that might have been at least a slightly better ending. They were a bit gay, so it could have been believable if it had turned out that they'd been messaging each other for ages and that's why the other relationships weren't working. Something to think about for next year Hallmark/Lifetime?

Both of the lead females were just so awful and airhead like. The blonde had a terrible voice and the other, Bella I think she was called, was just wrapped up in Selfie/Follower culture which I absolutely hate and it somehow always seems to come across as even more loathsome in films like these.

The sound was so bad that any time there was music, the vocal track was lost and the girls voices were so screechy at times that you couldn't work out what the were saying anyway. Thank the Lord for subtitles.

Even the great Trevor Eve was Cheesey and the films plot in general was silly. I know I've probably marked other films with a similar plot a lot higher, but the production values were just so low on this one that the terrible story idea was really obvious.

If I come across this film again next year, I will know to turn it off as soon as I can. Colton Little will have to be searched out and watched in other productions, because I'm afraid even he couldn't bring me to watch this twice.

The only reason this gets 4 stars is because of Colton Little. To him I would say this. It's ok to be relegated to the romance genre but please try to be a little more picky. For godsakes, and your own, fire your manager. If this is the best he can come up with for you then you are doomed.

Yes, to go on about this man because well, he just exudes sex. He's handsome with smoldering eyes, a square jaw, and a strong chin and he makes the struggle to get through this a little easier.

As for schmaltzy holiday romcoms, this is among the worst. The female MC is so hard to like, being a combination of writing and the acting itself. She is such the silly little schoolgirl to which she actually admits in the movie. And that squeaky voice. WTHF is that? When I watched this I was thinking this is the most egregious behavior towards friends I've ever witnessed in one of these movies and had I been any of them I would have told her to go %!?@ herself. It was shocking to watch them all so easily forgive her.

Is this a subtle or not so, form of misogyny on the part of the writer and a willingness of the actors to participate in? I believe it is.

Finding those good romcoms that are low on sap with good acting, production values, and story, is challenging but actually out there. Unfortunately you're stuck with this mess in your search to find them.

To be honest, this one didn't last on our screen for more than the third scene. The female lead is one of those actors who thinks that emoting requires CONSTANT head wiggling while she delivers lines. Of course, it doesn't sell the dialogue, it only distracts from it as the viewer becomes increasingly fascinated with whether the next random wiggle will be the one which makes her so dizzy she topples over.

Her ultra-irritating little girl voice didn't help.

Then the second actress came on and damned if she didn't have the same poor style, though her voice WAS irritating too, at least it wasn't as bad as the lead. However, she added pouty to every line. Yuck.

We have no intention of suffering through all that for the entire movie.

Colton Little is a doll, and basically the best thing in the movie. The dialogue is stilted and awkward and the main girl is SO bad!! Someone needs to start making decent Christmas movies.