Joyeux Noël Ours

Children, a dog, a single man, a single career woman. Good ingredients for a nice romantic comedy in which the Christmas is only a pretext because all is so familiar, the secondary characters so...secondary , reminding children drawings and the predictability so high than nothing is missing, nothing remarkable. Only a comfortable Hallmark Christmas film after a busy day.

This is not a knock-your-socks-off movie, but it's cute, clean, and fun. The dog, Bear, an escape artist yellow lab who falls in love with two families, plays a central role, so that's fun if you're a dog-lover. The rest of it is pretty usual for a Hallmarky-type movie (there may be a few spoilers, so if you want to watch it first, quit here): leading lady WAS in a relationship with the wrong guy who tries to sabotage her new romance with the dog's other significant other. The dog's "dad" apparently has another woman after his affections, so leading lady gets the idea he's involved with this woman. So, she goes back with the ex-boyfriend who dumped her. His fatal move is to drop Bear off at the pound; this brings dog's mom and dog's dad together, as fate would have it. Of course, the two kids of the single parents hit it off like they'd known each other forever, and they all have a picture-perfect Christmas together and give the distinct impression they will all live happily ever after--with Bear as the center of all their lives. James Welch Henderson Arkansas 9/10/21.

Maggie McPhail (Chandra West) is stuck in a rut. His boss at the ice cream company doesn't appreciate her and her work is being undermined by weasel coworker Brendon Lutz. Her pathetic boyfriend Chance Glidewell breaks up with her. Christmas is coming. She decides to get a dog for her and her son Ethan. Jack Burgin (Antonio Cupo) is a stay-at-home sports writer single dad to teenager Olivia. He got a dog for her naming him Bear. Bear's runaway tendency gets him locked up at the pound. That's where Maggie finds and adopts him.

This is a relatively harming romantic Christmas TV movie. Chandra West is a solid TV actress. Antonio Cupo may not be that good but he has enough sensitivity. They and the dog are all set up for a functional holiday romance. The chemistry is generally set at a slow boil. The other men are all weasels or idiots or both. It's OK to waste a couple of hours as long as one understands that this is a waste of time.