Le Concours de Noël

Well, as I sat down to watch the 2021 Hallmark Christmas movie titled "The Christmas Contest", I have to admit that I wasn't really harboring much of any high expectations. Why? Well, Hallmark tends to just spew these movies out by the dozens and usually following the same blueprint for each and every single movie.

But "The Christmas Contest" might be different, so I gave it a chance.

And while "The Christmas Contest" is watchable, it was just another run-of-the-mill Christmas movie with that archetypical Hallmark feel to it. So if you enjoy these overly sappy Christmas movies that are based around a hate-turns-to-love feel between the two lead performers type of movies, then you will certainly enjoy "The Christmas Contest". And if you are into the archetypical Hallmark Christmas movies, then "The Christmas Contest" is definitely going to be right up your alley.

The acting performances in the movie were good, taking into consideration the limitations of the script and the premise of the whole thing. Candace Cameron Bure and John Brotherton actually does have good on-screen chemistry together. The movie also had the likes of Barbara Niven and Jennifer Higgin on the cast list.

"The Christmas Contest" is an archetypical Hallmark Christmas movie in every meaning of that thing. So writer Joie Botkin didn't really bring much of anything new to the table with this 2021 movie. The movie was as predictable as it was sappy.

My rating of "The Christmas Contest" from director Paule Elle lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Candace Cameron Bure is a mainstay of the Hallmark holiday romances for good reason. She is very affable and conveys a positive energy. But sometimes it is difficult to rise above the material.

We have seen other films that included contests strung out over several days. Usually there is no reason for the format except to draw out the action over time, allowing for other action to occur between the competition segments. Unfortunately, this usually serves to slow the story, providing a drag on the action. In "the Christmas Contest", the competition occurs over a full week; this might be the reason why the film drags.

The lack of energy undermines the story, making this one of the lesser films of this holiday season.

'The Christmas Contest' is a fairly entertaining Christmas romantic comedy, not one of Hallmark's best this season nor one of their worst. Although the comedy falls a bit flat at times, the banter between the leads is fun and engaging. The story itself is formulaic. Hallmark fans, I suspect, will find this comforting, while others may not. Our two protagonists in the movie are Lara (played by Candace Cameron Bure), a successful company executive who feels something is missing in her life, and Ben (played by John Brotherton), a former professional Baseball player and hometown hero. The two exes are thrown together (years after a painful breakup) when they enter a week-long televised Christmas contest to win $50,000 for the charity of their choice. As the competition progresses, we watch the two begin to rekindle their relationship while battling each other to win and become Denver's Queen/King of Christmas. As noted above, the plot follows the standard Hallmark playbook. That said, the writer does a decent job with the dialogue and banter between Lara and Ben, and Lara and her mother Donna (played by Barbara Niven). Though I never had a laughing-out-loud moment, I did smile and chuckle a few times during the movie. The writer develops a couple of sub-plots in this one as well, both of which are warm and heartfelt, especially Ben's relationship with his grandmother. The Christmas competition, at times, is over the top, as you might expect in such a film. The humor, I'm afraid, fell flat more times than not during these scenes. The acting overall is strong. Bure, a Hallmark regular, had an impressive performance. As others have pointed out, in addition to her comical abilities in such roles, she had a couple of very good scenes where she did an excellent job of portraying Lara's anguish and distress over her relationships with Ben and her mother (Niven's performance was excellent). Brotherton had an entertaining performance, which was comical at times. The chemistry between the two was convincing. As I noted above, the banter was great. Given that the story was about a Christmas contest, there is plenty of holiday spirit and festive cheer in the movie, which I enjoyed for the most part. All in all, 'The Christmas Contest' is a fun and light-hearted movie. Fans of Hallmark romantic comedies will no doubt enjoy.

I was looking forward to this movie because Candace is one of my favorite actresses and I like Barbara Niven.

The storyline was boring and the comedy ended up being stupid rather than funny.

Hallmark is so NOT hitting the mark on Christmas movies this year. Thank goodness for Lifetime and GAC.

Being a fuller house fan and actually then hoping she would end up with her fellow pet doctor, this seemed to be a home run.

But o boy... The beginning! They were both very very unlikable and I actually stopped watching. Barbara Niven almost has the same role as in chesapeake shores but her role gets better too.

After a few days, I gave it another chance and it's just the first 12min. Then Ben's grandma enters the story and the movie gets so much better! Too bad there will indeed be people who remember only the bad start or won't give it another chance.