Un Noël à sauver

As part of a Christmas movie marathon here in December, I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 2023 movie "Christmas on Windmill Way". Sure, I had never heard about the movie prior to sitting down to watch it.

Did I harbor any grand expectations to the movie? No, not really, as it seemed to be a generic Christmas movie from the cover alone. But, of course, I opted to give the movie a fair chance.

Writer Billy Schofield put together a fair enough script. Sure, it held components of traditional generic sappy Christmas storytelling, but at the same time the storyline actually proved entertaining enough to be enjoyable. I actually did enjoy the narrative in the movie.

The only performer on the screen that I was familiar with was Chad Michael Murray, whom has been starring in other sappy Christmas movies as well. The chemistry between the two leading performers, that being Chad Michael Murray and Christa Taylor Brown, was good. The acting performances in the movie were fair.

Hardly a Christmas classic in the making, but I will say that "Christmas On Windmill Way" proved enjoyable and entertaining. And if you like Christmas movies, then you should check the movie out.

My rating of director Don McBrearty's 2023 movie lands on a six out of ten stars.

Finished this movie because of Chad Michael Murray.

What is wrong with the way the lead actress talks? Its like she is reading a book to let someone go to sleep, and zero emotions. I dont if its her voice or the way she talks. Did not feel any chemistry between the two lead actors. I watched Chad Michael Murray's other movies but never felt this off with the other lead actresses. Looks so forced. Do they not do a trail run before filming? And the plotline is so basic. Even a kid can guess the plotline and the ending. And this movie made me never want to watch another movie of the lead actress.

It's a one in a million Christmas movie with mediocre acting. Usually I enjoy these types of movies on a lazy Sunday afternoon, but as a Dutch person, this one is annoying me a lot.

The lack of research for this movie is honestly impressive. They're saying literally all the Dutch words wrong (except oma), they're even making up Dutch words, the details about traditions don't make any sense and the 'traditional' outfit the girl is wearing, is more a 'German Heidi' outfit, not a Dutch one.. there's just really nothing Dutch about this movie.

If you're not willing to do the research, just make a movie about something you have knowledge off.

Or the farm; or the plaza; or the outhouse.

This is another save movie, and quite run-of-the -mill (sorry) It stars Chad Michael Murray and Christa Taylor Brown. Just typing their names gets me halfway to the character requirement.

I gave it a six, but virtually all of that is on Murray. He's the anchor holding this whole thing together.

The story involves a cherished local windmill which is being threatened with demolition by the development company Murray works for. He rekindles a former relationship with Brown that ended in misunderstanding (naturally), and begins surreptitiously working with her against the interests of his company.

There really isn't much new here. Brown is very pretty, if she's not a model she should be. Her acting is better than some we've seen on GAF, but there is still room for improvement.

I would not recommend against watching this movie, but again, it's just ok.

I don't have high expectations for a holiday movie, yet I had a hard time just getting through it. There's nothing original or interesting about the story, the main characters had zero chemistry, and the actors sounded like they were reading from cards.

I watched this one with a few other people, and we all decided this must have been produced during the SAG writers' strike and on a low budget. We kept waiting for something interesting to happen, and it was really strange (and distracting) that the actors delivered their lines in monotone at approximately half-speed of a normal conversation, always in muted, whispery tones and with flat affect.

I don't recommend this unless you literally have nothing else to watch.