Mon père Noël bien-aimé

The Hallmark Channel produced a dozen new made-for-TV Christmas movies for the 2012 holiday season. I've seen a few. They're alright.

However, when it comes to this one, "Matchmaker Santa," I am not the least bit shy about confessing that I loved it! Yes, it's not deep & it really has no antagonists nor any real conflict that's essential to most plots - but so what!

And yes, we all know very well who Lacey Chabert is going to end up with, but with all the rotten things facing us out there in real life, this is exactly what the doctor ordered!

This Christmas romance fits like a glove! It is quite wonderful! The Christmas atmosphere of the fictitious small town of Buford Falls (a possible nod to "It's a Wonderful Life's" Bedford Falls), courtesy of Art Director Vahn Armstrong & Set Decorator Linda Louise Sheets is so rich, so warm - so charming & wonderful.

And the supporting cast of veterans Florence Henderson & Lin Shaye as active local businesswomen; and John Ratzenberger as Budford Height's easy-going mechanic & town mayor; and Donovan Scott, who has made a fine career out of playing Santa, are all so friendly that before long it hits you that you'd love to have these folks for neighbors. In fact, you'd love to live in Bedford!

"Matchmaker Santa" is a marvelous, indeed, magical new Christmas movie, and this comes from a guy who loves the old classic holiday films and TV specials, but who has never been overly impressed with the new ones.

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I always do whenever I see it.

This is a fun, sweet holiday movie that checks all the boxes. Of COURSE you see the end coming, I mean, Hallmark isn't going to pull a 6th Sense surprise on us, but the last 5 minutes are ridiculously concise... it's like they were suddenly told the theater was about to close and they had to wrap up a 30 min conclusion into 4 minutes like a cancelled tv series.

All of the characters were believable, the townspeople were charming and the heroine FINALLY wasn't acting like a spoiled victim. Lacy is a perfectly suited Christmas movie actress and I'm glad to see her in a role that doesn't demean her into being helpless.

A worth-while watch.

Meh. Another run-of-the-mill Made-for-TV Christmas movie that has no special charm yet isn't pure trash either. Lacey Chabert (Party of Five and the original Meg on Family Guy) is nice enough to watch. Florence Henderson (Mrs. Brady) adds a nice touch. But overall this does nothing for me. It's a romance, a chick flick, a Christmas movie chick flick and the Hallmark Channel is quite adept at making these. Plus they have a disease of adding too much musical score that's too loud -- they don't rely on strength of dialogue, they cheese it up which is most unfortunate. Not that this is all that strong but they oughta give movies a shot instead of masking them with unnecessary background music.

5.6 / 10 stars

--Zoooma, a Kat Pirate Screener

Lacey Chabert is getting serious with Thad Luckinbill -- he's just invited her to his hometown for Christmas to meet his mother -- but it soon becomes clear to the audience that she should be with Adam Mayfield. Good thing that Santa Claus is on hand in the person of Donovan Scott -- he's played the role almost every year on TV since 2000. The result is a low-key and very pleasant Christmas fantasy movie.

As with the best of the Hallmark TV movies, the real pleasure for me is not the pretty people and the inevitable working of their romcom plots (although Ms. Chabert is particularly winsome in her role) but the presence of some fine players in key but minor roles. John Ratzenberger is on hand to play an almost incoherent auto mechanic and Florence Henderson is a mildly ditzy hotel clerk. The entire production is shot handsomely with lots of earth colors to produce a nostalgic sepia tint to the proceedings. The movie won't win any awards, but it should certainly please anyone who decides to tune in.

There were quite a few reasons for wanting to see 'Matchmaker Santa'. The title was a little corny but also somewhat appetising. The idea for the story was hardly innovative but sounded cute enough. Lacey Chabert is always a likeable watch, like her voice work too, and generally one of the better prolific Hallmark leads, whether their festive efforts or in general. Have been on another one of my completest quests since November 2019, and this was part of it.

If there was one word to sum up 'Matchmaker Santa' it would be watchable. It is not a bad film, it is at least palatable, and there are things that come off well. At the same time it is not one of Hallmark's better Christmas efforts and a bit of a missed opportunity, too many of its components being average at best. Will say though that 'Matchmaker Santa' is not one of the worst either, there are worse written, acted and looking and ones that bored, annoyed and insulted the intelligence more.

Visually, 'Matchmaker Santa' looks good with it being shot and lit well and while standard the settings are lovely looking and festive at least. The film started off very nicely, with a lot of charm and warmth.

Chabert is her usual likeable and charming self, as a character with no exaggerated negative qualities without being too perfect, and carries the film with ease. She has natural chemistry with both male leads, Thad Luckinbill and Adam Mayfield match Chabert's charm and one can see their appeal. Florence Henderson's performance is not subtle but she is a lot of fun. John Ratzenberger makes the most of what he's given to work with, and he's underused.

However, the story doesn't have enough to it. Actually don't mind awfully that it was very formulaic, what bothered me was that there was very unimaginatively executed, was really not much of one at all, had some fairly contrived situations and the film gets so sweet (too much so) in places it was almost sickly. The script is similarly thin and quite routine, especially in the more eventful parts, with too much cheese and sentimentality. The chemistry between Chabert and her male leads varies, it's nice with Mayfield which has more growth but a little under-explored with Luckinbill (despite them being sweet together).

Did find that Lin Shaye overplayed to an embarrassing degree. Pacing can be a problem, with the story being too little a lot of the film crawls along and feels over-stretched. The direction is only functional at best and can be on the leaden side of things. Would have liked more development between the characters, a far less over-neat and rushed ending and especially far more subtle music. Do agree with those that found the music over-bearing and ill fitting.

Overall, watchable but pretty average. 5/10.