Un message pour Noël

A stranger's text leads to a Christmas dinner invitation and an unexpected romance in this cute holiday story about found family. Unfortunately, the over-the-top, tacky holiday decor is a big visual distraction rather than offering a warm festive setting. (This seems to be a reoccurring problem with GAC/GAF productions.) Hoping that for next year GAC learns the art of classic, elegant holiday decor - less is more people! There are also a few disconnects that should have been caught in editing, but overall this is a festive, uplifting watch with a primary romance in the making, as well as a sweet secondary romance.

The GAF movies I wave watched so far have improved a little this year but the decorations & set design are awful to look at; too much just lumped on and it appears its recycled into several movies. It takes away from the improved story telling. Even the snow is visibly fake, no care is taken to create a convincing illusion of it. Someone is a sleep on the job and could do so much better with some effort Please please do not let your audiences and cast down with this lack of attention to the canvass on which the stories are told. Without which we are better off listening and not watching and that's a real let down.

The last GAF movie I watched had over the top autumn decorations and annoying background music. Fast forward to this Christmas movie and now we have over the top Christmas decor and more distracting background music. I'm not sure who thinks this adds to the movies but please stop!

Other than these distractions, I thought it was a good movie although the pace was slow, especially the romance between Addie and James. The leads, Merritt Patterson and Trevor Donovan, worked well together and I liked the interactions with Jayne Eastwood's "Nana". Probably not a movie I'd watch again but enjoyable for a one time view.

7.3 stars.

I like both the actors, bar none both are in my top five of Hallmark and Family channels males and females. Unfortunately this story is so beat to death it becomes old hat. The dialogue is generic and plain, a lot of phony small talk with no point. Two adults are doing a dance year after year, as the timeline spans a few Christmases, she comes over to an old woman's house every holiday and it's just about as generic as they come. The romance doesn't build up enough tension, it's too easy going and expected. It seems realistic in a sense, two very familiar friends finally take the romantic plunge, but mostly his character is too uncomfortable and indecisive. Her character has much more personality, although she could have shown a bit more frustration, or impatience, I don't know. The whole story is lacking angst.

I'm not sure why all the rave reviews, 'Twas the Text..' just doesn't have what it takes for a memorable experience. Again, I really love both of these actors and I soooooo hoped this was gonna be mind blowing awesome. The rating currently is 7.1, very high praise for anything in this genre, but there are only 17 reviews, which indicates it's actually only a bit above average, and deserves no trophies or ribbons in my book. Aww man, I wanted it to be good. I might have to give it a whirl again, you never know when your mood has colored the experience badly, and I feel this could be one of those rare instances.

This movie is supposed to span a period of 2 years, and 3 Christmases. But amazingly, none of the characters change in any way during this 2 year span. They wear the same clothes, I think Trevor has maybe 2 shirts during the whole movie, one of which looks very very cheap and poorly made. The character's hair, all of them, doesn't change one iota. A 11-12 year old girl, an age at which there are normally TONS of changes, does not change one little bit.

The restaurant scenes with the female lead and her father are exactly the same all 3-4 times. Same table, same background people, everything the same. Even though the several scenes take place over this 2 year period.

The movie itself is pretty boring. The actress playing the elderly mom would be more suited to play the grandmother, she has to be at least 75. She's fine, but unless Trevor is 50+, too old to play his mother.

Merritt Patterson is exactly the same in every role. Shiny happy face, no depth. Neither her nor Trevor are given much to work with here, just so so boooring, no chemistry at all. He is so wasted here.

GAF need to tone down their set decoration for these movies. It's always over the top and unrealistic. And doesn't anyone use other types of Christmas tree decorations? Why just large shiny balls everywhere? A women who loves Christmas and is 65+ in age would have a ton of more vintage looking stuff.