Notre promesse de Noël

Slow, boring, not a typical Christmas movie for hallmark. Cardi Wong was the only one who could act. The other main characters were boring and blah. We turned it off bc we just couldn't watch it any longer. The female main lead was physically expressionless in her face, which made her look like, well-nothing. I don't mean to be rude, but the Botox in these young women has to stop.

I struggled a bit with assessing and reviewing a 'Christmas for Keeps'. On the one hand, I liked the friends' group concept, especially the individual storylines (and backstories) for each friend and how these intertwined together (with their past). On the other hand, I did not connect with some of the individual characters and their stories as much as I would have liked. Put differently, aspects of the story did not engage me, pull me in, unfortunately. That said, 'Christmas for Keeps' is still an entertaining movie that highlights friendships and the positive impact teachers can have on their students (the student-teacher bond) in a warm and heartfelt manner. The story follows a group of close, high school friends - Avery (played by Christa Allen), Sarah (played by Ashley Newbrough), Mia (played by Marielle Scott), Noah (played by Cardi Wong), and Ben (played by Ryan Rottman) - as they return home at Christmas to celebrate the life of their favorite high school (drama) teacher, Mr. Massey (played by Everick Golding), who recently passed away. However, getting the gang to spend time together this Christmas is not going to be easy, as each one of them is busy with jobs, kids, and much more. As I alluded to above, the writer does a good job of intertwining the friends' individual stories (i.e., the struggles they face in their personal lives) into a coherent narrative. The beauty of the movie lies in the love, support, understanding, and encouragement the friends give each other in their time of need. I also enjoyed the individual flashbacks where we learn how Mr. Massey impacted their lives and how this influence helps them reconnect and strengthen their friendship. Moreover, the individual stories are quite diverse so that most viewers can find a bit of themselves in the characters. Of course, there is some romance in the movie as well, a sweet friends-to-lovers storyline with some heartwarming scenes between Avery and Ben. The acting, overall, is pretty good. Both Allen and Rottman have strong performances. The chemistry between the two is great (it is convincing). They have a couple of touching scenes together, which are lovely to watch on-screen. Wong especially has a brilliant performance as Noah, the stay-at-home dad with unfulfilled career goals and a passion for baking. Out of all the friends, I found his performance the easiest to engage with; it pulled me in from the start. Finally, the movie has all your classic Hallmark Christmas elements, from lovely decorations and hometown traditions to Elf and Santa Klaus costumes and much more. All in all, 'Christmas for Keeps' is a sweet, festive, and heart-warming story. It will likely have you wanting to catch up with friends and reminiscing about the good old days.

I rank movies like this on a Hallmark scale, so 4 stars is quite low for me for one of these. It just wasn't that good and not very engaging.

There are some curious choices for me here that make this a less than entertaining Hallmark movie. This has an all around younger cast than many Hallmark movies, 5 high school friends meeting 10 years later, so it gives to idea that it'll be modern and a bit fun, but it's far from that. It's very slow paced, it's a more serious drama, not a comedy drama, there is no lightness here. They are honoring a favorite teacher that died and the movie keeps that general tone throughout. The photos and trailers for this movie are deceiving on that end, this is not a movie about a jovial group of high school friends seeing one another again. The laughing and smiling shown in the promos is not what this movie is about at all. It's lacking most of what you think of when you picture good friends reuniting.

The casting here isn't bad, but it's not enough to overcome the rather maudlin feel to many of these storylines. I think some may struggle to recognize the lead actress (Christa B. Allen) because the Botox plus being a bit older makes her look much less like she did on Revenge (she played Charlotte). Her character isn't as strong of a lead as they need here, some of it is the acting, this isn't her strongest effort. But also I don't think her character's storylines are as engaging as they need to be for the lead, you'll be more invested in the other ones. And her heavy-handed mom can kick rocks.

Ashley Newbrough is great at playing light and fun characters, and here she is an overworked doctor in a very strained marriage. She doesn't do bad with the role, but she's someone who could've brought some fun to this, made that trailer and those photos seem accurate, but they don't use her in that way in the least.

The character of Ben getting mad at his best friend because he doesn't think he's fun anymore was very on the nose. Ben felt like quite the drag. I don't know what his character was supposed to bring to this movie, but whatever it was, didn't happen.

Marielle Scott and Cardi Wong (so nice to see him in more of a leading role) are playing the characters that are likely the easiest to connect with and just like them with no reservations. They certainly made this better and helped me get to the end. But again, it's not enough to change the overall dynamic of this movie. The storyline, the direction, the tone, the muted color palette, they were all choices that made this movie far less entertaining than I anticipated.

If you don't care for the more dramatic and serious Hallmark movies or if you were expecting a fun movie featuring reunited high school friends, I think you're going to struggle to get through this the way that I did. I enjoy the heck out of Hallmark movies and have seen countless Christmas and regular ones, but this is not a good one. And I've liked several of the more dramatic Hallmark movies even if that's not my first choice, but this just wasn't up to par with the better of those either. One December Night from this year's new Hallmark M&M movies is a great example of how you can do a drama with many light moments and not carrying a maudlin tone even with sad aspects being incorporated into the storyline.

I love Hallmark movies but this just average at best. I didn't really buy the life long connection between the 5 high school drama students, only one of whom actually tried to continue that experience as a career. The relationships all seemed forced (I found the chants of "Noah, Noah" and the peer pressure of him really irritating) and all 5 of the old classmates had multiple conflicts and issues that really couldn't be adequately explored and resolved in one TV movie that was supposedly about the passing of a beloved high school teacher.

Although the stay at home dad married to a doctor subplot was an interesting change of pace, I'm tired of the "I can make a career out of baking cookies in my home kitchen" trope. And Noah couldn't go sledding with his busy wife and their kids because he had to help Mia sell his cookies at a Toy Drive? Seriously? It's not like he was in the back of a bakery trying to churn out more cookies for an unexpectedly high demand. He was at a table selling pre-made cookies at a Toy Drive that Mia could have handled without any help. Go spend time with your wife who's apparently never around.

Christa Allen, who plays Avery, was recently in the news for turning 30 after once playing the 13 year old in 13 Going On 30. She does what she can with the role of a daughter of an overbearing mother (way over the top) and the love interest of a morose and unpleasant character named Ben (we get it, losing parents sucks; welcome to the club everyone joins and one that's featured in virtually every Hallmark movie). But, without spoiling anything, the solution of the geographical challenges facing their relationship was out of the blue and unrealistic, as was the manufactured tension between Ben and Noah.

And why did it seem that these were the only 5 former students of the beloved Mr. Massey (all from the same class) who cared enough to show up for him?

For me, the best Hallmark movies of 2021 were An Unexpected Christmas, A Dickens of a Christmas, My Christmas Family Tree, Next Stop Christmas and Every Time A Bell Rings.

It's a good premise and I like the diversity... just acting wasn't that great or maybe just didn't make me feel anything for them and it was just okay to watch. I felt like, okay, what's next?