Le Journal de Noël

I couldn't help but notice writer Anna White recycled plenty of her previous Lifetime movie 'My Christmas Inn' for 'The Christmas Edition.'

Here is Rob Mayes (Finn), again in Alaska, as an artisan who inherits his father's biz, mixing it up, again, with a driven San Francisco career gal of color on the verge of a promotion, Carly Hughes' Jackie, who lands sideways in a Christmas-happy small town.

Happily, Hughes is a breath of fresh air, and, with the exception of Finn's clutch of fugly sweaters (hello, wardrobe!), this movie is definitely an upgrade.

For one, Jackie, Finn & Co. unite around a real and heartfelt issue-the death of newspapers, specifically community news, a rare commodity in these films.

Jackie and Finn have an easy chemistry. Finn is off-the-beaten-path for a male lead, played with a laid-back touch by Mayes. It works. Most of the supporting characters bring some originality. It makes things flow, like rain in a desert of a stale among these movies.

All in all, it had a more natural vibe: less cardboard, more variety of folk, a few more interesting happenings, rather than the typical 'event' feel. Some thoughtfulness all-around. Even Marie Osmond, as the presumed villainess, packed a little surprise in the end.

One rub, FWIW: if you're set on calling it Alaska, and your cast is diverse, how about including Native Alaskan actors?

If you want realism, your in the wrong place. Actually, it's pretty easy to ignore the unrealistic parts unless one of them pushes personal buttons. I won't list them, but there's several.

The premise is actually a combination of some other Christmas themes. Jackie goes to Alaska as almost a last job resort. There's never really a deadline, but the idea is still to save Finn's family business (newspaper). The newcomer makes an immediate, somewhat unrealistic impact. A small town changes a city girl.

The story is thin. I thought there was going to be some tension from a certain quarter, but it didn't turn out that way and as a result, the only tension was the future for the newspaper and Jackie. There's no great highs or lows and no real surprises. What might have been a twist was telegraphed clearly before it happened. The ending was pretty typical.

The appeal is a combination of chemistry between Carly Hughes and Rob Mayes plus the small town charm. Most of the cast, if not all, performed well. Movies where residents go out of their way to help their neighbors always appeal to me. Throw in a couple of nice BFF's and I'm hooked. One note about chemistry: the movie diluted Jackie and Finn's screen time with too much of the rest of the story. The time they had was good and there's some interesting activities - not just the formula ones in all Christmas movies.

Hughes sings a beautiful Christmas song, but it's short and embedded in the middle of the movie.

Pet peeve that doesn't affect my review or rating: please make phone texts large enough for anyone who doesn't have great vision or a huge screen. This one may be one of the hardest to read I've ever seen.

Good story line good casting the only problem I have with it is it times it felt like you were watching a Disney show with the acting of everybody so Over the top all the time, Anybody with kids should know what I mean by that type of acting. But all in all a good Christmas movie to add to the lineup

Had potential but really hard to get into. The romance felt way too rushed and acted with over the top dramatic interactions between the two main characters. There's no real flow in the relationship being built so I didn't feel invested in the relationship at all. It was awkward. Also, a lot of the decisions of the character seemed rushed, underprepared and overly impulsive to the point of lacking common sense. Painful to watch and cringeworthy. No thanks

Hark the herald angel sing.

When she started singing I laughed so hard for a long time.

10 out of 10 funny. Would highly recommend. That part.

Edna had some great scarfs and I wonder why the mayor stopped wearing his top hat .