Un message d'espoir

As a highly emotional person with absolutely no life, I'm a sucker for holiday movies of the type Hallmark usually shows around Christmas-time each year. Between Thanksgiving and the New Year, if a movie uplifts personal spirit, promotes feelings or thoughts of closeness with family, or otherwise has a happy ending, chances are I'll cry and I'll like it. Not so with Hallmark's latest effort: "The Note". I thought the script was very weak and the story itself just wasn't believable. The movie is about a Newspaper columnist who finds a note in a plastic bag following an airline crash. Assuming the note was written by a passenger on the flight, the lead character, Peyton Magruder sets out to to find the note's intended recipient - it's clear the note was written by a father to his child. With little else to go on, Magruder -played by Genie Francis - takes us on an unbelievable, unrealistic and ultimately unrewarding journey. Blame the script, mostly. I hadn't seen Genie Francis in quite some time and I was really pleased to see how she had changed since I'd seen her last (long long ago). I think I like her and I'd like to see her in something else; she has an interesting and expressive face. It's a good face. Even Ted McGinley who has unfortunately been type cast as the henpecked neighbor from Married With Children was fine. The rest of the cast was awful! The storyline was dreadful! I was tempted to rate this movie one star but I relented because I thought Genie Francis brought it up "a couple of notches" as Emeril might say. While it's a blessing that Hallmark isn't making any more of the dreadful "meet the Santas", their latest fare including this movie and another recent one in which a child sets out to find a husband for his mom (I'm glad I don't remember the name of it), make you wonder if maybe Hallmark's best efforts aren't behind them.

The search for the owner of the note by a newspaper columnist, that is believed to have come from and airplane crash touches the lives of all who read. The journey to search out the intended recipient has many little turns that keep your interest. Perhaps the biggest changes take place with the reporter. There is also a little conflict as a national television news reporter is trying to steal the story. There is additional personal conflict in the life of the columnist that comes to light as the movie progresses. The many elements come together to create a heartwarming film. I rated it at a nine rather than a ten, just because there were a few moments where the acting didn't seem quite on, and there were a few small elements out of place, but on the whole they distracted little from the overall story. This tale of loss, broken families, past mistakes, and most importantly forgiveness and love, definitely deserves a place in your viewing schedule.

Poorly written story that's internally inconsistent, amongst other problems, including the dialog and acting.

Clichés: now, let's write another movie filled with clichés in an hour to dump on TV so the station can sell ad-time to holiday card makers. Halmark and others are losing money to the more enjoyable and personal emails, videos, and photos that can be shared directly without trying to find and pay for a card that sort-of says what you're really trying to say. So, they basically pay for movie length ads, in addition to the more well-known TV shows employing more obvious product placement.

The story had potential as a concept, but it's clearly motivated by the desire to promote and sell other things. In short, it's one more reason to limit your TV watching to PBS and Comedy Central and to demand some form of rebate system for the time wasted watching such simplistic stories.

This movie had several hidden meanings the some people will miss.... Overall I enjoyed the movie and would highly recommend it to anyone that loves a story with a good ending. No matter how insignificant we feel we are, we are all inextricably linked to each other and play an important part in the fabric of one another's lives.

No violence ... Just wholesome clean enjoyment! I wish all movies could be this good! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. These are the types of movies I grew up watching.

Be sure to watch "The Note II".

This movie carries the typical high qualities of the HALLMARK movies! My hat is off to the Hallmark Movie folks! Thanks Hallmark!

The start is a bit slow but don't give up on it, once it gets rolling it delivers. Genie Francis is good. I would disagree that this is poorly written. I thought Francis and McGinley's parts were well acted. For what it is, basically a Christmas movie, I'm not sure what more the viewer would expect?