La Valse de Noël

The leads, the dances and the sets are absolutely joyful to watch. It is sweet and lovely.

Hallmark re-teams Lacey Chabert (Avery) and Will Kemp (Roman) for this holiday romance about a jilted fiancée who makes the best of the situation.

Avery decides to take the dance lessons that were to prepare her for her wedding day. At the studio, she meets studio owner and dance instructor Roman, who encourages her to challenge herself.

The film features a strong cast and believable chemistry between the leads. Will Kemp, especially, deserves praise for his acting, which is supplemented by his classical dance experience. The dance sequences were choreographed by Jean-Marc Genereux.

Watch for J T Church, the talented young dancer who appears to have an acting career in his future. You might remember him as a junior dancer on "Dancing with the Stars".

The satisfying ending includes a finale that is reminiscent of "Dirty Dancing".

A Christmas Waltz (2020) -

Although Will Kemp as Roman was very British for a Russian, he was actually quite lovely and charming. Sometimes a Brit in films like these can really stand out as awkward, but he worked nicely, without laying on a cockney or royal accent too thickly.

I also really liked the connection that he made with Lacey Chabert as Avery, although the upsets and walking away all the time got to be a tad boring. But, at least the falling out that always happens was more genuine this time. It was a believable scenario and not just a misheard conversation or a sudden lack of trust. To be fair, she obviously didn't love her fiancé David either.

I honestly wasn't expecting to like this one because the dance ones are usually terrible, but this wasn't at all.

I also liked that the two leads were both capable dancers and it wasn't just bodged and blagged. I've seen so many of these films where "Amazing" and "Professional" dancers perform to save the town, Etc and they look like an old, paraplegic, football player on week one of 'Strictly Come Dancing' (2004-) / 'Dancing With The Stars' (2005-), so it was nice to see that the final result was a show that I would actually be happy to pay to see.

Even the kids were good dancers, I could have easily believed that the stage show element was real footage from an actual paid for performance and the audience was real.

I will definitely watch this one again and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did this time.

7/10.

This movie reminds me very strongly of another movie that I can't name. (Watched that movie a weeks or two later--"Come Dance with Me" aka "Christmas Dance".) Many details are the same including taking the lessons for a to impress the girlfriend/fiancé, and dancing on the sidewalk. Otherwise, the story is a bit different than many of the Christmas movies coming out every year.

At least one of the developments may be predictable, but it is totally outlandish. That's OK though. I recently pointed out in another review that this type movie is only a couple of steps removed from the Fantasy or SciFi genres for suspending realism. Realism aside, it was quite a beautiful and dramatic development.

Beside the beauty of the dancing, the attraction here is the chemistry between Lacey Chabert and Will Kemp. They also starred in Love, Romance and Chocalate. For me this movie was a great improvement for both of them.

Chabert commented in at least one interview that she had to work hard to even learn the basics for the dancing. She's not a young kid - got to hand it to her for the effort. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Chabert is ready for professional waltz contests, but for most of us amateur viewers there was some nice dancing together with Kemp.

I get a little uncomfortable in these movies when one of the main male rivals takes on the Neanderthal approach. I guess the outcome of that effort here makes it clear that there is no place for that attitude.

I enjoyed this one. As another reviewer said on here, it's 'waltzing with chemistry'. It is a lovely romance story, and the script is strong. Don't get me wrong, the story was quite predictable, a typical Hallmark storyline. That said, what is most important, I think, is whether the film engages me, pulls me in. This one did just that from the start. The bonus here was dancing, the Christmas waltz, that is. The dance sequences were charming. I wonder how long they spent working with the choreographer on this one. I would have loved to see a bit more of the children's performance at the end (John Talan Church was great). The acting was very good. Lacey Chabert's performance was convincing. Indeed, she performs well in this genre of film, which is why she is a Hallmark regular, of course. She has sort of a soft and sweet vibe to her performance here, which worked well, I thought. Will Kemp was great. I first saw him on screen in Reign as Henry Stuart. Good series. I was impressed with his performance here. The chemistry between the two was good, believable. They had several sweet scenes together, which worked well on screen. The supporting cast was strong too. No complaints there. The dancing, along with well-polished scenery, props, and sets, really gave this a Christmas feel to it without having to watch, for example, people building gingerbread houses (which Hallmark is obsessed with) or hang wishes on a tree (seems to be a popular tradition this year). Overall, it is a delightful Christmas movie, which fans of Hallmark will no doubt enjoy.