Neuf Vies pour Noël

This is a charming film that contains all the best things; romance, humor, and animals. It's rare you find two extremely likable leads yet Nine Lives of Christmas has managed to do just that.

Sustad is an underused actress whose roles are usually only supporting. She is wonderful as a lead. Beautiful with a wonderfully expressive face, she needs to be cast as the main character in so much more. Routh is eye candy, but he does it so well. Their chemistry is believable and I enjoyed every second of this movie. For you Hallmark fans, I highly recommend putting this at the top of your watch list.

While I wouldn't say that he's my favourite Superman, Brandon does do a good job in this film. He's handsome for a start and working with great characters like Ambrose and Queenie, both amazing and beautiful cats.

I like this story, it mixes things up a little bit and the romance is quite charming, however firemen calendars should always be at least topless.

Why can't I find a cat and a sexy fireman for Christmas?

If you're a cat person, check out the Hallmark sweet movie, The Nine Lives of Christmas. If you're a dog person, check out The Search for Santa Paws. My fellow feline lovers will adore this one about cat playing cupid with an unlikely pair. Okay, that's not exactly the premise, but it does happen.

Handsome firefighter Brandon Routh gets adopted by a stray orange marmalade kitty when he wanders into his house and refuses to leave. Brandon doesn't have the ideal lifestyle for a pet, but he can't help himself and the kitty quickly becomes the station's mascot. Meanwhile, Kimberley Sustad is struggling to afford her tuition and keep her job at a pet store, and also to keep her landlord from finding out she has a cat in her apartment. They meet buying cat food, and even though one wants commitment and one doesn't, they just might fall in love. Even if this movie didn't take place during Christmas, and even if there weren't cats in it, I'd really like it. The dialogue and chemistry are refreshingly natural. Brandon is very convincing as a bachelor afraid of commitment, supported and egged on by his coworkers and friends Gregory Harrison, Dalias Blake, and Sean Tyson. Kimberley is equally convincing as a woman with other priorities besides love, but who feels pain as deep as the next person. Check out this sweet kitty Christmas movie; it'll surprise you how much you'll enjoy it.

Here you have two nice, attractive people of the opposite gender bound for professional success. the problem is they're too busy for love and romance. The woman is a compassionate brunette pet store employee who's studying to become a veterinarian due to her love for animals. The man is a hunky and affable junior firefighter who upgrades and flips houses on the side. He does have a casual girlfriend, a glamorous but bitchy professional model who'll make the women viewers say, "Why can't he tell she's wrong for him?" Conveniently, he working on a beautiful Victorian dream house, while she's in a campus apartment that doesn't allow pets, and of course she loves cats and secretly keeps one. They live in a nice small town where most people know and are nice to each other. If you don't know how this story ends, than you've never watched Lifetime of the Hallmark Channel before. All that being said, it's completely painless to watch and it'll appeal to its target audience. The leads are likable, the supporting cast competent and the technical aspects are satisfactory. I enjoyed it enough and so will most people if the plot interests them.

Even as the plot set-up was unfolding, I knew it would be a Happily Ever After story-- is there any other kind of Hallmark Christmas story? What I didn't expect, whoever, was to find the script full of wry humor and gentle mocking. The emotional tone was low-key and no one overacted. Kimberley Sustads' warm and slightly ditzy character was within the range of believability and Brandon Routh's characterization of a reluctant firefighter gradually falling in love was also in keeping with the movie. The guys in the fire station were a little too perfect, but were still the kind of men we'd like for fathers or brothers. The movie was a bit too slowly paced and could have used about half an hour's worth of editing, but was overall a satisfying watch.