Noël comme avant

My Christmas film viewings over-time have been a very mixed bag. With some surprisingly good hits, where regardless of how predictable they are succeed in being full of charm, warmth and heart so succeeding in being light-hearted and undemanding fun. But also some quite big misses, where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them.

2021 was a rather unexceptional year for Lifetime and their Christmas films, considering the circumstances they could have been a lot worse certainly but very few of their films stood out in a good way. 'My Christmas Wish' was no exception. It is not terrible and is watchable, but nothing is done exceptionally and it didn't feel like anything special. Lifetime did do worse that year, but they also did better. Also found Hallmark's 2021 Christmas output more consistent, and even that wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

There are good things, but they are too far and between. It looks good. Loved the scenery especially, regardless of any authenticity being called into question there is a festive look to it and it looks picturesque. Personally thought the photography, while never extraordinary, complemented it nicely, not overblown while not basic either. The music is a nice enough fit and is pleasant music on its own, it doesn't make as much of a mistake as other Christmas films of being used too constantly or being too loud (something that a number of Lifetime Christmas films are guilty of).

Did think that most of the supporting cast came off quite well, if never amazingly. There are moments of real charm and heart warmth and the film starts off quite well.

Against all of that, there are also a lot of flaws with 'My Christmas Wish'. Meggan Kaiser and Zane Stephens look as though their hearts weren't in it, Stephans particularly looked as if he wanted to be somewhere else, and their chemistry is lukewarm at first and mostly incredibly bland. On the other end of the acting spectrum, we have the out of kilter overacting Ashton Leigh and her character is incredibly annoying. None of the characters are that interesting or likeable and Kaiser and Stephans just don't have much connection, in fact most of the character interaction was flat.

The story on the whole could have been a lot more engaging. It has its moments, but the excessive predictability from doing nothing new with very familiar done to death ground does hurt it. Also thought that it dragged quite a lot, from the story being very thin and over-stretched, and the conflict is contrived and lacks any kind of tension. As does the too convenient final act, with a climactic moment that occurs far too early and an ending that wraps things up far too neatly. The dialogue is very awkward sounding and cheesy a lot of the time, as well as sappiness overload, and there is very little heart or charm.

Concluding, watchable enough but nothing special. 5/10.

A very classical Christmas: a woman who has made her life in another town has to return to her home town and meets her youth love. Abbey has to come back to Weston, her home town, because of a broken window and she will meet Josh and his son Noah. Abbey is quite ready to sell the house of her grandmother and to leave Weston as soon as possible. Little by little she feels well in Weston helping Ellen, sharing good moments with Josh and Noah, but she is always thinking to go back to Chigaco and her job. What does happen ? Abbey is afraid to take the decision to stay in Weston.

I enjoyed the performances of Meggan Kaiser, Zane Stephens, Bryson JonSteele, Maxine McIntosh and Ashton Leigh.

This movie uses many of the usual Christmas tropes starting with a woman, Abby, who has to return to her hometown because of her late grandma's house but it interrupts her work project for which she's up for promotion. She hires her old flame, Josh, to help her fix up grandma's house so she can sell it. He has a cute kid, Noah. All three spend a lot of time together. There are a couple of musical montages of them together. The story seems to wander between Abby's job, the house, Josh, Noah, and her childhood friend's new business. Overall, the story has no great highs or lows or surprises. The ending wraps up too neatly in too many ways, but that's normal for these movies.

The one thing that stands out, and not in a positive way, is Karen. In some ways, she seems to be the town's dictator, in the way that some administrative clerks are. She also has a crush on Josh and her jealousy shows.

It didn't seem to me that the actors had their hearts in their roles. It didn't seem like Abby and Josh had any serious chemistry.

I generally enjoy Hallmarky Christmas movies (yes, I know this wasn't actually Hallmark, but still), but this one was such a turd. Not a likeable person or a decent actor in the whole bunch. Decent enough story, but between the horrible writing and stilted acting it was very difficult to get through. Young Abby was just awful. And Noah-omg, what an annoying, obnoxious, pushy kid! These types of movies tend to stick to a predictable formula and the kids are supposed to be cute, sweet, and, yes, tolerable. This one was not. If I were Abby I wouldve had to tell Noah to stop with the intrusive questions and get out of my house. No chemistry between the two leads and Josh had absolutely no personality. At least Abby seemed to be trying. And the boss was a giant butthole. Yuck.

The dog, however, was adorable. :)

My Christmas Wish (2020) -

I did not buy the chemistry of the leading pair for one minute and while Zane Stephens as Josh was attractive, he seemed a bit of an arsey character and not someone I wanted to get together with anyone, until he could learn much more than he did in this film.

His kid, Noah, was annoying too and I've already forgotten all about Meggan Kaiser in the role of Abbey.

And while I'm on the subject of the cast, it should be noted that I thought Karen, the woman from the historical society was such a vile character and way over the top, especially in comparison to everybody else.

The story was incredibly predictable, even more so than usual and it just didn't grab me at all. It also seemed that the production was very low budget too.

Not one for my tastes and probably one that I will skip in future, because even the cheery Father Christmas character didn't bring any real cheer to it.

Overall, it was a bit pointless.

4.41/10.