Un Noël câlin

Good movie, simple and straight forward. As the title suggests there were 3 subplots. The main plot about a couple who had broken up, but are reunited when one of them David is about to propose to a new love. Then Lisa, the heroine has a pre-teen niece who has her own little love story. Also Lisa's neighbors, a newly retired couple have a subplot. Oh and David and his fiancé have a little story where he becomes aware of how different they are from one another--and out of sync.

The story was realistic there was no over the top conflict or drama. No one was grieving a a parent. Tho Lisa was bitter about her father abandoning the family--which factored into her own trust isues. Lisa and David don't argue, but the audience finds out about how they broke up. No tragedy happens. My only critique is David and Lisa didn't have enough romantic moments in the film to justify the ending.

I loved the theme of the movie: Marry your best friend.

This story isn't full of all the usual stuff. But there's really no surprises. It's kind of a mishmash of embarrassing situations often caused by the dogs. Lisa, Kelly and David talk a lot of nonsense that sends the story around in circles with David committed to Kelly but his heart isn't in it. Kelly is pure annoying. Lisa is wimpy. I didn't see any chemistry between Julie Gonzalo and K.C. Clyde. The only thing that makes sense is that Lisa and David really are friends.

The story with the two kids is at least as interesting as Lisa and David. The girl is over the top as far as understanding things. The dogs are the other highlights.

I did not realize this was a sequel of sorts to a Golden Christmas. I have not watched that one yet. The cast is good, the story is sweet. A few things bugged me, like no single women would get three golden retriever puppies and what landlord would allow her that many dogs? That felt like a plot gimmick to me. But really who cares? Cute girl, cute puppies, cute kids, who were pretty good actors too. I used to live in LA, so while I watching it, I thought what beach did they film this on, kinda low rent. Then it said Long Beach in the credits. That explained that. The setting is not lush in any part of the movie. The story is sweet, the acting is good and it is enjoyable. I am not giving a plot synopsis, because other people did that and I avoid spoilers. Holiday movies are their own genre, when I read reviews on those, I just want to know if they are any good, not the plot really. Since there are only about 4 plots that keep getting recycled for Holiday movies! Happy Holidays.

I put this movie on one day just to get a Christmas atmosphere in the house while doing other things. I had no real plan to pay much attention to it. But I wound up getting a lot more involved in it than I expected. It's funny and touching in parts and the characters are interesting with pretty good acting. It has some really beautiful and well-written scenes especially when the older neighbors try to help the young friends sort out their feelings. The movie even has some good life lessons. Having said that, I have to say this is not really a Christmas movie but a romance that happens to take place in December. Still, I highly suggest it to everyone even when it's not December.

I just watched this film for the fourth or fifth time and was reminded why I like to revisit it each Christmas season. It first caught my eye as a movie that my girlfriend's young daughter would enjoy and that might have something for her mom and me as well. But it turned out that this movie isn't about puppies, and I wonder if it might have found a larger audience if it had not been presented as a "family" film. It's more like a Hallmark romantic comedy, but with much better acting. In that regard, Julie Gonzalo is luminous, but she's not just a pretty face. I was impressed with her acting and prompted to check out her other credits. The other acting highlights for me were Alley Mills and Alexandra Peters, the latter being a rarity: a child actor who could really act. These three ladies all made me feel like I was eavesdropping on real people having real conversations. There are a couple of morals to this story, but the one I like best comes from Aunt Pearl, whom we never meet: A gift without a big price tag can be priceless, and rich are the ones who realize it.