La Fable magique de Noël

I knew they were in trouble when Lindsey Stirling was featured in the previews. Turns out, that was pretty much her entire participation.

This is a story about people in crisis magically visiting a fairy tale land they had all read about as children.

It is very hard to pull off a fairy land in a two hour Christmas movie, and as it turns out, other than an occasional bell ringing, there is very little else to suggest anything special is going on.

A knowing look occasionally is about it.

Ryan Paevey is good in almost everything, and he's pulled some movies out of the fire before. But not this one I'm afraid.

I didn't care for the chemistry with the still-gorgeous Brooke D'Orsay, and I thought her acting was a little spotty in this.

Admittedly hard to do a film like this, but the result was nothing special.

Six.

While not everything about this movie Wow'd me to a high rating, it was so creative I have to reward it. The Chapter format with fairly tale pages to begin and end each 12 minute segment (commercials, don't you know) was very cool, and the entire idea for the story simply broke the mold. Not often do we get an enchanted town. :-)

The town comes from a fairy tale book all the guests of the town owned and loved as children, and the premise is that those who have broken places in their lives come to the town to heal. It's really a very nice idea and they pulled it off. The relationships and the mystery might have been sold harder, but I can enjoy what they did, and we'll watch it again.

Not my favorite type of movie, The writers weakened the storyline by following the Hallmark standards of time limits and editing to fit the 1 1/2 hour limitations. I want a well developed plot line and characters to fit. This movie. Should have been a normal two hour one. Chopped in the edit room for Hallmark, Low on my list of Ryan Paevey movies, but grateful when I realized there would be at least a year before he was chosen for another one. Realize that the "battle" with GAC for "religious" purity has seemingly given new actors huge openings to join the Hallmark Universe....and that the 3-4 favorites are still doing their regular 3 or more films a year. But, this should not be allowed to start making movies of lesser quality, with writers and actors of presumably lesser cost.

Give this jumble of a movie a higher rating because it could have been better if allowed to be.

7.4 stars.

A group of people are whisked (sort of) to a hidden fairy tale village in the middle of nowhere, but apparently somewhere between Idaho and Seattle. I Being a resident of Olympia, this movie piqued my interest a bit more than the average viewer's.

Brooke D'Orsay with her usual schwa de vivre, and Ryan Paevey with his old fashioned charm, are the leading couple. In this story they were best friends as children until her father died and they parted ways for almost 30 years. Coincidentally, they meet in her bookstore and then a few days later they both end up at this peculiar inn due to strange circumstances. There are several other people also who end up at this mystical place "by chance".

The rest of the tale is about odd occurrences and magical things that happen to help each of our guests find purpose, happiness, and love. As the story continues, rumor has it that the fate of this place depends upon specific outcomes being met for each of the various guests. Our leading female has a strong feeling that she's been here before.

Don't expect great romantic chemistry, drama, or excitement, because they are not the intent of this film. This is more of a super light and fluffy version of 'Grimm', or 'Once Upon a Time' with the potential of invoking that feeling you get when immersed in a children's story book (ages 4 and under).

This is a light film with an esoteric feel, importantly it is uplifting, distinctly festive and elevating in a manner most stories fail to accomplish. That is to say it encapsulates the fairy tale of Christmas better than most. And this is not a Santa version, but more like a faerie or elvish angle.

Deep in the woods there lies a sleepy little village with the biggest Christmas spirit. Look for it on a map and you won't be able to find it. It is said that only those in need of the village's particular joy can find their way to it's quiet welcoming streets and once these special visitors arrive in this magical little place they experience a holiday season like no other and are reminded of who they really are and the true joy and peace that is the meaning of Christmas...

And so starts this unusual Hallmark holiday romance. A father gives a daughter a beautiful picture book about a special village called Wunderbroke. The imaginative Talia, played by Brooke D'Orsay, dreams of being a writer one day herself. Coincidences align and Talia ends up in the magical Wunderbrook of the story with a friend from the past...Anderson who has become a surgeon but is questioning his calling...just like Talia.

"So which section is yours? Do you use a nom de plume?"-Anderson "More like a nom de calculator. This is actually my store. Which you know requires a surprising amount of math and sadly not as many clever turns of phrase."-Talia

They both end up staying at "The Gingerbread Inn" for the holidays...can both rekindle their passion and their callings with a little help from their hosts in Wunderbrook.

The narration was sweet and I like how the children's storybook was woven throughout the film. I liked the touch of magic...but the best part is the end. I love both Brooke D'Orsay and especially Ryan Paevey who played Anderson. Synergy or kismet...these two have great chemistry amongst this holiday backdrop. Can they keep Wunderbrook alive, rekindle it's magic and their friendship?

This was sweet and well worth the watch. Very family friendly, I recommend this to those with a good imagination and a love of Hallmark holiday films.