Coup de foudre au village de Noël

As staples of Hallmark movie casts, Sweeney and Macfarlane deliver solid acting and are the draw for the movie. It's great to see Marlo Thomas in a supporting role that is actually more developed than Luke Macfarlane's (which is unfortunate). Yes the plastic surgery is a distraction at first, but she's looking pretty darned good for 85! I really want to rate the movie higher because of these actors, however it just feels there's something missing in all the other characters' development.

There are plenty of choices each year for new Christmas movies. A Magical Christmas Village is entertaining enough to be worthy of 90 minutes of your attention and should make the cut.

This was not one of Hallmark's better efforts. One issue is the complete lack of chemistry between Alison Sweeney and Luke Macfarlane. First time I have seen Macfarlane not connect with his leading lady. As someone who has always admired Marlo Thomas and enjoyed her performances over the year, I was disappointed that her role was so quirky and off center. I do not know what is happening over at Hallmark, but the quality of the Countdown to Christmas movies this year have been a disappointment. This film was so slowly paced and at no time did I feel the main characters were a match. I just kept hoping the story would develop, but it never did.

Whew! Would have never guessed that was Marlo Thomas. Why are women afraid of wrinkles, she looked very freakish and it looked painful. It was distracting for me to watch the movie. Her character was just absurd, rude, disrespectful. I saw a loving daughter wanting to help her mother, obviously her mom needed help. The whole "you just gotta believe" nonsense. Tell the bill collectors that and see what they say. Alison was of course, wonderful to watch. I'm so glad she didn't jump ship to the other channel like Candace and Danica did. And Luke, I just can't get his role as Scotty on Brothers and Sisters out of my head. Loved him on that show, he's good on Hallmark too. The more the movie went on, the more I disliked that mom. I would have ran away from home as a teenager. Haha.

A Magical Christmas Village (2022) -

I had a feeling watching this film that the little girl, Chloe (Maesa Nicholson), must have been a witch! She created a magic which moved the story forward and while I'm sure it was all a coincidence really, it would be nice to think that magic was real and that playing around with a Christmas village could bring Luke Macfarlane in to my life. He always plays such lovely guys that he must surely be that nice in real life. In the role of Ryan, he was as charming as always and his character was slightly more simple than the others I've seen from him, which seemed to make him even more accessible.

Initially I thought that Alison Sweeney, playing Summer, might be too old for Ryan, but actually I really liked them together and I empathised with her character.

I also thought that Grandma Viv (Marlo Thomas) was going to drive me nuts at first, with her "Hippy" ways, but she was actually a good character too and played well.

The script was a little off, not the usual cleverly written and organic flow that I've been used to and it had some lines that were a bit twee or corny, but in general I felt contented by what I saw.

Maybe I was just feeling emotional and it hit some of my buttons, but I really liked this one. I didn't know why there were so many poor reviews from others.

Christmas, charity, romance and Luke, what more could you want?

7/10.

When I saw Marlo Thomas attached to this movie, I was eager to see it. I'm an original Marlo Thomas fan since That Girl back in the 60s. However, her role in this movie didn't work for me, and I believe that was a failure by the writers.

They went for kind of a zany hippy but wise character who was irresponsible but several times promoted the idea that "the universe will make things right". The dialogue simply sounded contrived and delusional.

I also found it painful to watch her. Marlo has done a lot of great things, including continuing to support and promote her father's effort with St. Jude's hospital, but she's also now a cautionary tale for any older woman considering plastic surgery. It doesn't look good on her ... at all. But with the face lift and died hair, they had her playing a role probably 25 years younger than her actual age, and that didn't work well, either.

More on just the movie. Despite us liking the actors in the romantic lead roles, I wasn't sold there. Again, just writers going through the motions rather than selling the characters and the relationships with something deeper than a magical fake pond causing him to suggest ice skating or some very thin dialogue about architecture.

This movie won't be on our rewatch list.