Un vœu d'amour pour Noël

Hallmark movies are pleasant and entertaining because they all have similar themes. In this one two attractive and single 40-ish people, a lady and a man, meet when the man's 10-yr-old daughter gets involved in the "Christmas Wish" festivities. They get attracted to each other, something gets in the way, but before the movie ends they work to achieve a resolution. And everyone lives happily ever after.

My wife and I enjoyed it at home on DVD from our public library, just a basic DVD, no previews, no language selections, no subtitles, no extras. Which is fine for this type of movie, not much different from watching it on broadcast TV except with no commercials.

My curious observation, in movies years ago the parents of adults were mostly depicted as older people, sometimes older than they needed to be. In this movie the parents of the 40-ish characters don't seem much older, more like 15 years or so older. Curious casting.

Amanda Schull, Travis Van Winkle, and the daughter, played by the adorable Averie Peters do an excellent job, they have great chemistry together. It's a well written, funny and interesting Christmas romance that's well worth watching

This one surprised me because the two leads haven't been on my radar, at least not positively, until now. Amanda Schull and Travis Van Winkle had great chemistry. Averie Peters, as Max, also clicked with the two romantic leads.

The premise is similar to movies with themes of Christmas miracles or Angel Tree. In this case, the prime mover for the wishes is front and center, not anonymous. We get a lot of the usual Christmas tropes like baking cookies or picking and decorating a tree. Like one other movie, the gingerbread house was giant. A cute little girl almost always pulls me in.

But there was also something totally different about this movie. For one thing, I laughed out loud several times. This is not a silly comedy. The laughs come from clever lines or situations. I especially liked Max's last line followed by Lucy's. I could just see what they were thinking.

This movie is a little like another favorite of mine - Two Turtle Doves. It deals with grief and sadness at Christmas but it doesn't go quite as deep.

The outcome is inevitable as always with Hallmark but I thought there were a couple of surprises getting there. Surprises and predictable things mixed together. The important thing is that it was put together nicely.

This one starts out with a Meet Cute that is anything but. In what Hallmark seems to insist, the Hero is a jerk to the Heroine the first time they meet, for no apparent reason. But of course, they wind up having to spend an inordinate amount of time together, and she realizes his cranky veneer is merely masking the pain he feels from a great personal tragedy. Inevitably, they fall in love and everything works out for everyone. A little predictable, but Amanda Schull's performance in particular was enjoyable and lifted this above many of the others in the Hallmark library.

Omg! This has got to be one of the sweetest Hallmark Christmas movies I have ever seen. Lucy is the head of the small town of Elmherst's Project Christmas Wish. I love the motivation behind her wanting to be behind Project Christmas Wish...someone in the town when her and her widowed mom were down on their luck at Christmas made her childhood wish come true. Lucy's dream is to do that for others.

Lucy is sweet, beautiful and selflessly helps others achieve happiness...enter a little girl who lost her mom and her wish was about having a Christmas like they used to have when her mom was alive. She reallly just wants her widowed dad to be happy.

"What you have to give is you and that is very special."-Christmas Dad Lucas

""The infamous Elmhurst Christmas horse, I mean I still don't understand it based on my logic based brain, but I understand the sentiment."-Lucas

"I was going for strong independent elf ready to get back out there."-Lucy's mom

The witty interchanges between Lucy and Lucas are what roped me in...but the humor, generosity, chemistry and love are what kept me watching. These two are both attractive in their own right and together Lucy and Lucas are magical.

I don't know if I have drunk the Christmas nog or not, but I loved this film. I laughed, I cried...I was filled with love and the Christmas spirit. I feel like whipping up a batch of egg nog and decking the halls right now.

Thanks for the warm fuzzy, Hallmark!