Le Père Noël d'à côté

This is a feel good movie where the female lead, Ashley, a regular woman who at the moment happens to be struggling a bit, gets the chance to become Secret Santa. Throw in some hardship in several backstories and a budding romance, and it is hard to miss.

Take away a star for K.C. Clyde, as Will. First off, his character needed some definite refitting. Add to it that it just didn't seem like Will and Ashley had that much chemistry. For me, the only indication that there was any connection for Ashley was the fact that Nick kept selling Will to her. He says something like "you know you love him", but that wasn't obvious at all other than the fact that she had no one else.

Still, Kari Hawker was a pleasure. I just saw her for the first time today in another movie which was so bad, it's amazing I was intrigued by this actress with a fairly small and unknown filmography. She played this part perfectly in my mind. She plays as a slightly insecure woman who really doesn't want any fame, yet she doesn't oversell the insecurities. She steps into the role Nick gives her reluctantly, but she applies herself completely, and rocks it. She's easy on the eyes, but isn't particularly seductive, and I mean that in a positive way.

The epilogue was a bit lackluster even though it was generally what you'd expect.

This has a bit of a Hallmark feel to it, but all the credits point to a non-American production. It would certainly play well on the Hallmark Channel and I would love to see Keri Hawker show up there in other things.

I have quite often taken the pee out of Bruce Davison for all of the crappy roles he has taken on, most of which I have felt are a bit typecast, but looking back at his career, I have to say that he is a work horse, never out of work since the 70's and in this film he gives a really good performance worthy of note.

It's another charming Christmas story about how doing good things can make you feel good, as well as making the world a better place. I have said before, having watched "A Christmas Carol" that I'm slightly concerned about the length of the chains I have forged in life and films like this one show that it doesn't have to be a big gesture for it to be worthwhile.

Intertwined with a budding romance, this film shows the true meaning of the season and there's a dog in it too!

I enjoyed this movie overall. It's a nice combination of predictable and unpredictable. Main actors all did a fine job. However it really isn't particularly Christmasy, even though it's set at Christmastime. I would define this more as a romantic drama that happens to fall in December. The main character, Ashley, really isn't terribly likable to begin with. In reality, her romantic interest probably would have given up on her fairly quickly due to her cold responses. But anyway, it was enjoyable and it's worth the time so I'd give it a shot.

The story is rather nice and the movie could have scored higher, if it weren't for the male lead character. Davison was pretty good and Hawker did an OK job, but Clyde would better have been replaced by the dog as the male lead. It's performance was, at least, above average. Can one speak of a one dimensional character? Well, it's not even that. Both the actor and the character were virtually non-existent, noise at best. For that reason alone this movie hardly qualifies as a romance. Nice, but don't stay home for it. After this dismal performance I will probably never again take the risk to watch a movie with Clyde in it. And like Forrest Gump said: "That is all I have to say about that"

With so many Christmas movies on television at the moment sometimes a gem can be found among the dross. This film is one of the best seasonal movies of the past 10 years. It must be good because I can watch it again and again. It is perfectly cast with Kari Hawker and KC Clyde finding love in an unexpected way and Bruce Davison brilliant as the very wealthy cancer-ridden former property developer who regrets aspects of his past life and seeks to help those in real need at Christmas. The film lacks sentimentality which adds to its attraction.