Un drôle d'ange gardien pour Noël

This time the angel is part of a deceased brother and his targets are his sisters who have become bitterly estranged. The journey is a rocky one with a lot of anger which is expressed mostly in words and turning away from each other. Romance is not really a focus in this story, although one of the sisters develops a new relationship.

There is a strong emphasis on charity work which was a big family tradition when these siblings were children. Dani is a rich CEO and her motives are questioned by both her sister and potential beau. This rich snob softens considerably as the story progresses.

The acting is good and the script is decent. There were not any real highs or lows or surprises.

I really debated on watching this because I thought I wasn't going to like it for some reason. Maybe the typical angel comes back and saves the day like a lot of other movies. Not that some of these haven't been really good, I just wanted different stories this year. But, even though this was still based around that concept, the movie dealt more with the sisters and their lives. It showed how families can grow apart without even realizing. It centered on forgiveness and love. Showing such an accurate description of what Christmas is all about. The scenes where the brother/angel admitted his part in the breakdown of his family were very emotional. The ending was beautiful and I found myself tearful several times. Really good movie.

The Holiday Stocking (2022) -

It was a different story and one that I wasn't expecting to even get through. Based on the TV images and IMDB thumbnails, it looked over the top and cheesey, but I was soon engaged and enjoyed the way that the story went, not focussing on romances, although there were some, but rather concentrating on the idea of family at Christmas and reuniting estranged sisters.

Overall I felt that it was enjoyable, heartfelt and easy to connect with. In fact the whole production was well done and a new spin on the Heavenly intervention of a Guardian Angel at Christmas trope, whilst also being cheerful and festive.

Nobody gave a bad performance and while some of it was a bit of a stretch, nothing was so unbelievable that I couldn't get on board with it.

I might have liked handsome men to come in to the ladies lives more prominently, which they probably could have achieved with just another ten minutes, but I did appreciate that the focus was on the family relationship this time.

A film that was full of the importance of family and shared the joy of the season will always be alright by me and I would definitely look to watch this one again in the future.

7/10.

A family of a mother, 2 daughters, and a son, are excited about their tradition of pulling out a Christmas riddle from their special Holiday stocking. Whoever solves it first gets to pick out the charity the family as a whole will participate in. 5 stockings, 5 charities. Even though they have their differences, working together for others at Christmas always brought them together. Thirty or so years later, the brother has died and is about to enter heaven. But first, he is allowed to try to correct his biggest regret, the estrangement of his sisters who have grown apart over the years. In fact, because of long nursed grievances and being too busy with their separate businesses, they are actively hostile and don't speak. Robert has 12 days (the boss has a thing for the number 12) to bring them back together. He is allowed to come back to earth to fix matters and decides to get them to participate in their old Christmas tradition. But nothing doing. Dani is too busy with being the owner of the biggest black-owned marketing firm in Chicago and Marlow is too busy trying to make her bakery a success. Charity work is not even a stray pen mark on the to-do list. That is until Dani is on the verge of losing a big business opportunity due to no community giving or participation, and Marlow realizes that her daughter Gia is becoming a mercenary self-involved little brat. They both agree to participate in the holiday tradition, led by the executor of the dead Robert's will, RJ Angel, who is really dead brother Robert in disguise.

The journey to the sisters becoming family again, Gia becoming a good kid, Marlow's marriage getting a kick in the pants, and a little romance entering all three ladies' lives, is very entertaining. It is well-paced, and full of humor, tender moments, and angst. The road to reconciliation is not always smooth, and of course, we have the climatic drama with about a half hour to go in the movie to get over, but all their lives are on the right path at the end. There is a shocker at the end involving CEO Dani that I didn't see coming, and even dead Robert has a personal revelation that needs some tending to. Penned by prolific black scriptwriter and sometime novelist Cass Sigers-Beedles and directed by Tyler Perry's first assistant director, Roger M. Bobb, this movie was in the best of hands and it showed on screen. I had never heard of any of the female actors but they were all fantastic, particularly Tamala Jones as Marlow.

Yes, this is another movie where an angel goes back to earth to resolve a problem from the angel's past life - this time, it's reuniting his estranged sisters.

But, this really works because of the really fine writing by Cas Sigers-Beedles which is sharp, with realistic dialogue and enough twists and laughs to keep the story really interesting and fun to watch. It also works because the acting is excellent - the leads: Tamala Jones, Nadine Ellis, and a wonderful B. J Britt as the angel, are just terrific, and the rest of the cast supports them with nice performances as well. It's all here - humor, warmth, some spark, a little intrigue, and a little sadness, all played by the cast with sincerity, spirit, and genuine feeling.

A pleasure to watch all around.