Noël à Mapple Creek

The acting is as stiff as a high school play with the student forced to play characters that they hate. I've seen better from theead actress I expected more out of her but I assume the director had a thing for actors who sound like they're reading the script because EVERYONE sounded like that. Barely enjoyable even for a hallmark-esk film.

There are strong echoes of the stories and formulas of many other Christmas movies. The conflict is textbook beau-sees-something-and-misinterprets. The solution to the underlying problem everyone is trying to deal with is overly simplistic. The novelist has returned to her favorite town to overcome her writer's block and meets a guy there. She finds out the town is in trouble and the two of them set out to have a gala to save it. Lots of formula and predictability.

Yet for so much of the movie I forgot about the formula. One thing is the setting of a recreation of the late 19th century which happens to be where her novels are set. That setting flavors a lot of what the characters do especially for the gala. It seems to me that both Diana and Carter are much more honest about their feelings with each other even before the climax.

Despite the threat hanging over them, the story is upbeat and the characters, Dianna especially, are so full of life. There's also an element of quirkiness.

Jeni Ross's Diana fits my dream girl very well, so I am prejudiced about this movie. She's shy and modest, quirky and positive. And she's only 22. Her chemistry with Jake Epstein is fantastic. I hope to see much more of this woman in future Christmas movies.

I found the dialogue fun, but I admit there was some nerdiness in it.

The start didn't was good as it was quite clearly summer, with the leaves on the trees still a glorious green. The acting was bad and the lead didn't seem old enough to pull off a successful writer role plus her voice was very young and overly saccharine. Unfortunately I had to leave this one part way in.

Let's get one thing out of the way right at the start. The lead actress is too young for the character she plays and it is obvious, even though a minor character does comment on her being "younger than I expected" at one point.

With that said, I found this really enjoyable. As mentioned, Jeni Ross is young and looks it but she's a charming presence and avoids the overly perky style that seems to often be expected of female characters in these films. She and Jake Epstein have an easy chemistry, but Olivier Renaud's male model character is a bit lazily drawn (although entertaining if you watch with a glass or two of wine).

No spoilers on the story although once you've seen one you've seen them all. Lastly I want to address one of the other criticisms in a few reviews about there not being a lot of Christmas in the film. That's true, it's more Christmas-adjacent than Christmas focused, but who cares? And who cares that the film is 'too sunny' for a Christmas setting? Not everywhere is snowing and cold at Christmas anyway, so there being bright sunshine in this film shouldn't make a difference.

Overall, this film is very light but enjoyable, and while the lead actress is young for this role she showed promise. Hopefully she will get future roles that suit her a bit better.

The female lead was a miss. She was fresh out of high school when she filmed this. Way too young to for the lead male and the part she played. I wonder who makes these decisions? I had to turn it off, not believable in the least.