Les Petits Miracles de Noël

Well, while this 2020 Hallmark Christmas movie titled "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" certainly was watchable, writers Zac Hug and Shari Sharpe just didn't quite manage to recreate the magic of the 2017 "Christmas in Evergreen" movie.

The storyline and the script for "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" was fair enough, however, it just never managed to rise about the mediocrity of the million other Christmas movies that Hallmark spew out year after year. So ultimately, "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" just turned out to be another generic run-of-the-mill Christmas movie.

But hey, if you don't mind the usual Christmas cheese and sappy romance, then "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" should be right up your alley. So "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" is definitely a movie for the average Christmas movie fan.

They had a good cast ensemble for the movie, and it was nice to see returning cast reprise their roles from the previous movies in the "Evergreen" series.

My rating of director Linda-Lisa Hayter's 2020 movie "Christmas in Evergreen: Bells Are Ringing" lands on a mediocre and generic five out of ten stars.

This is not your usual Christmas romance. For one thing, there are no new romantic couples. The main couple is one we already knew about from last year. There's also a wedding being planned for a couple from an earlier installment.

Rather than the romance, the main focus, if there really is one central focus, is the Scrooge, the Cooper twins angry brother, who carries a chip because Evergreen's only factory closed on his watch. But there are a lot of other stories. The wedding is about equal to the Cooper story. Then there are a few smaller stories as well.

The appeal to this movie is reliving the characters from the previous three Evergreen movies, at least most of them. For me, that wasn't as enjoyable as following one happy relationship as it develops. It's strictly personal taste.

This was enjoyable due entirely to Rukiya Bernard. I'm pretty sure that this is the first Hallmark that she has been the principle character, although even in this one, there was an abundance of supporting players. There were also a lot of stories. But like I said. Rukiya Bernard. I have been a fan of hers ever since I first saw her in One Winter Weekend. I love her energy: she just lights up the screen.

The multiple plots were not that interesting. Holly Robinson Peete's fiancé gets snowed in and can't make it back to Evergreen in time for his wedding Or worse, Christmas. The actor might have been busy and couldn't make it to the set, but we did see him on Zoom. Peete's sister arrives for the wedding that is not to be along with her father. Sister is mad at Dad and cold to his nice new girlfriend. Rukiya's story is that Elliot, her boyfriend, is opening a branch of their store in Boston and they will be separated. The other story is that she is now the head of the Evergreen museum but the Cooper Twins' brother never signed off on using the building which puts the kibosh on the museum. He was horrible and mean. Rukiya did absolutely everything to get his cooperation but to no avail. How anyone could resist her charm let alone be so mean to her, I just did not understand. His inevitable epiphany was very weak. He saw a video of his twin sisters saying the same thing Rukiya (and they) had been telling him in person throughout the movie. His change of mind made no sense.

So the whole thing was weak, but I enjoyed you know who.

I was looking forward to this new instalment of the Christmas in Evergreen movie series. My favourite was the second instalment starring Jill Wagner and Mark Deklin (some great acting). I thought last year's instalment was very good too and remember enjoying Rukiya Bernard (playing Hannah) and Antonio Cayonne's (playing Elliot) sub-plot, which partly explains why I was looking forward to seeing this new edition to the series. I am afraid to say, I was a bit disappointed with this one. I think the writers spread themselves too thin this time around, not focusing enough attention on the two main storylines revolving around Hannah Turner (i.e., her romance with Elliot and her new job at the museum). For example, the storyline about the bells could have been cut to free up space; I don't think it added anything to the movie. As a result, I simply was not pulled in by the movie (pulled in by these two storylines), I did not connect with it, as I did with the previous ones. For example, the fight that the writers try to develop between the couple seemed rather weak and unconvincing, as a result. The one storyline that I really enjoyed was Michelle's marriage delay; the acting by Holly Robinson Peete (playing Michelle) and Marci House (playing Sonya, she was great, by the way) was very strong; I wish they had more lines/scenes too for Colin Lawrence (playing Thomas). The acting overall was good. That said, is it me or was the first 20 minutes or so of acting a bit over the top regarding how happy everyone was? It seemed forced, surreal at one point, even for the Evergreen movie series. A good example of this thru-out the film was the performance of Chris Cope as Ezra. The smiling and lines were simply too much, over the top. The scenery, props, and sets were, of course, well-polished and very festive. The music and music editing were good too. All in all, it is a pretty good Christmas movie, but not nearly as good as the first three instalments of the Evergreen series, unfortunately. Another reviewer on here describes this one as the subplots plotting to steal the production. I laughed at this, as I had not thought about it in those terms, but it does sound about right.

Hallmark took a swing at creating a more diverse movie and ended up with kind of a hot mess. They had great leads with Rukiya Bernard, Antonio Cayonne, Holly Robinson Peete and Colin Lawrence. Instead of fully concentrating on their storylines Hallmark threw everything but the kitchen sink into the mix. It felt as if Hallmark didn't trust that these four actors could carry the weight of an entire movie. That's a shame for two reasons. If Hallmark really felt that way they should have had the guts to use actors they felt could cut it. Secondly, those four actors have proven time and again over the last several years that they can indeed carry a movie all by themselves and they will appeal to a wide range of people because they are engaging and believable. Instead of making a movie that showcases their talents they ended up, once again, as supporting players to everybody else's drama. I still enjoyed the movie and I especially love it when they use cast members from previous Evergreen movies. I just wish they had done this one justice.