Trois frères Noël et un couffin

The story about three men who find a baby has been told many times in the movies, starting with a silent movie in 1916, followed by several more, most notably "3 Godfathers" with John Wayne in 1948 and 1986's "Three Men and a Baby" with Tom Selleck.

Writers Paul Campbell and Kimberley Sustad have taken the story and updated it in clever and expert fashion. This is extremely well written as the baby causes the three men to come to understand themselves, as well as women, particularly their own mother.

The three actors here, Campbell, Tyler Hynes, and Andrew Walker, are all just wonderful and you can tell they really enjoyed playing these parts. Supporting them are Ali Liebert as Fiona and Fiona Vroom as Susie, both very good, and the producers cleverly cast Margaret Collin, who co-starred in the Selleck movie, as the mother, and she is simply terrific. Add Matt Hamilton as an obnoxious neighbor and Sustad herself, briefly, as an ER doctor, and you've got a cast that comes together perfectly.

The direction and editing are great and serve to add to the spirited, funny, and sometimes heartwarming script.

Sustad and Campbell have written before for Hallmark (the wonderful "Christmas by Starlight") and we can only hope that this partnership continues.

Sustad's other new movie this 2022 season is "Lights! Camera! Christmas!," another "10" in my book, but "Wise Men" beats it by a "baby step" as the best so far.

If this doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, nothing will.

Ps Wrote the above review in 2022. Turns out that this movie was the most watched made-for-cable movie of that year in the US and Campbell and Sustad won a Leo Award in Canada for their screenplay/writing.

This movie has a lot going for it especially in the way it swayed from the usual generic hallmark movie format/formula, I was looking forward to it for that reason, so had higher expectations than usual and ended up having a pretty fun time. It was cute, the script was good, it was genuinely funny at times and got quite a few giggles, smiles and laughs from me. The 3 main actors were good choices for their respective roles and actually seemed to be having a nice time acting in this, which is more than I can say for some of these made for TV movies, and it still kept in the usual vein of somewhat corny, lighthearted Christmas spirit one looks for in these types of things. Worth a watch.

Almost every Hallmark movie uses the same formula, a single woman with some stereotypical job who wants to make it in business meets an attractive single male... It's really, really, really BORING ! This movie isn't.

So what if this was a rip off of "Three Men and a Baby", plenty of Hallmark films are rip offs of previous ones. And Hollywood is full of rip offs and remakes, there isn't a lot that is new. I really liked Paul Campbell, Andrew Walker and Tyler Hynes together in this film, we know them from other rom-coms. They are flexible and can do romance and comedy.

Kudos to Paul Campbell and Kimberly Sustad for their script. I really liked them together in "A Wedding Every Weekend".

Why does this have such glowing reviews?

Three reasons:

It's very, very funny. It's well written. And the cast, for the most part, are all equally superb.

Paul Campbell and Kimberly Sustad have hopefully already signed long-term contracts w/Hallmark as they clearly know what they're doing. They're both not only excellent actors with great comic timing, but they KNOW HOW TO WRITE comedy -- and drama as well.

They create empathetic characters with believable relationships right from the start. No line is wasted, no line is unnecessary. A few reviewers have mentioned how horrible and unfunny it is that someone left a baby alone right before Christmas, but IMO these people must've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed and are really angry about something else in their lives.

It's a MOVIE, not a documentary, and again, the way it's set up is credible, as is the resolution.

And while all three leads are great -- both funny and at times very touching -- special kudos go out to Tyler Hynes, who's dry, sarcastic delivery is spot-on, and to Margaret Collins, who matches him line for line. She's completely believable as the mother of these three misfits.

Bravo Hallmark. (Something I never thought I'd say.)

I just watched this a second time and I laughed out loud all over again. This is a very funny movie. These guys really work well with each other .

This was a highly anticipated all-star movie for pretty much all of us devoted Hallmark movie fans. With 3.6 million viewers on its first night, this was the most watched TV movie on cable in 2022. But that just measures how many people wanted to see it. They were not disappointed. It was great. The three wise men (Paul Campbell, Andrew Walker and Tyler Hynes) represent three of Hallmark's most likable and popular male movie stars, but there was so much more to like. Margaret Colin, who starred in the original Three Men and a Baby, was great as always. As was Ali Liebert, who has starred in AND directed other Hallmark movies. I also liked Fiona Vroom as Susie even better during the second viewing. There's a sadness below that bubbly personality that actually moved me.

Paul Campbell, who wrote this with fellow Hallmark all-star Kimberley Sustad, is also becoming one of Hallmark's best writers. And they have a real feel for comedy. But it has also been revealed that, presumably because of the great camaraderie, there was a lot of ad-libbing. Whatever the formula, it worked. There are a lot of great lines, and a few "wink winks" to those familiar with the writers. At one point, Campbell's character Stephan says:

"Well, this is an unexpected Christmas".

"Unexpected Christmas" was a great Hallmark movie from last year that Paul Campbell also wrote and which, coincidentally, also starred Tyler Hynes as a somewhat unlikeable character. People often joke about incel adult gamers living in their mom's basement, and yet this movie bravely features such a character. The one other depiction of that kind of person which comes to mind is Kevin Smith in Live Free or Die Hard. It's a testament to the charisma of Tyler Hynes that he can humanize unlikeable flawed characters.

And Campbell's anxiety ridden character had plenty of problems too (effectively depicted by the actor). Walker's Nate was the most well adjusted, but he also carried the lifelong effects of being abandoned by a deadbeat dad. I'll never understand how a father can do that. Although this is a mostly fun and upbeat movie, there is an undercurrent of sadness that these 3 brothers and their mother were left to fend for themselves. And that results in some touching scenes amidst all the laughs.

There are 2 classic moments that fans will talk about as being their favorites: the elves and Santa photo op and the 3 brothers' artistic dance routine. Both were truly wonderful.

There's also an uncredited cameo by a big Hallmark star who also has a "wink wink" line that only a true Hallmark fan will catch.

And the rest of the movie was filled with other fun lines:

"The noblest of firs, fir sure"

"Nice truck, did it come with an unearned sense of self-confidence?"

I could go on, but this was such a fun movie to watch. I hope they do a sequel. Perhaps they can do a better job of detailing the baby's mother's dire straits and desperation in Part 2.