Noel Next Door

8.1 stars.

Ah yes, very nice change of pace, change of atmosphere, and theme. I feel this is not solely a Christmas movie, it's a drama about an unfortunate chain of events that usurps a man's happiness. Not your garden-variety holiday film. 'Noel Next Door' is a reprieve from the mundane viewings I've been exposing myself to for the past week. This is my new second favorite of the 32 Hallmark Christmases so far this year.

The leading man is a very good looking well known Hallmark guy, but this time he's a stroke victim, his left arm doesn't function very well, and he uses a cane. Our main gal likes him very much, and the attraction matures in the midst of difficult circumstances. She has not seen his really grouchy side, but everyone else who encounters him knows him as the neighborhood scrooge.

As the story continues, more and more unfavorable incidents are piling up against him, various incidents of scroogery. When she finds out he is the ugly and unapproachable beast that everyone else knows him to be, will she have ample patience and heart to forgive him and restore the relationship?

There are at least 3 laugh out loud comedy moments, and equally touching, tearful moments. This is not a sad movie, it started with a shade of melancholy and delivers a most inspiring conclusion. What a trip. Bravo!

A must see every Christmas.

Hallmark's first Christmas movie of the 2022 festive season will be difficult to top. As bad a some of these made-for-TV Christmas movies are, when Hallmark (or Lifetime and GAC Family, for that matter) get it right, they really get it right. And that is definitely the case here as rising stars Corey Sevier and Natalie Hall star as neighbours going through things close to Christmas. Sevier as Jeremy, a Scrooge type of guy who seems to hate the world, is struggling from a stroke that has left him partially paralysed and separated, whilst Noel is a single mother (with a young son) whose ex-husband is marrying his mistress and wants his son with them on Christmas morning.

The chemistry between Sevier and Hall is great. This isn't their first rodeo together and it shows. Their efforts are helped by a very good script, too. Sometimes the actors are good in these films but are let down by poor scripts. Not so here. Sevier is particularly good, portraying in a sensitive manner a person with a disability. He is the star of Noel Next Door, and deserves all the plaudits he receives. This was a good one.

The novel was "How the Grinch Stole My Heart".

I read the Kindle sample and the novel does NOT start out like a Hallmark movie ... more like the now abandoned Skinemax fare. LOL

But this story goes beyond the normal Hallmark fare. It's not about abandoning the city for a small town, saving a business, putting on a Christmas parade/pageant/event, or the girl moving on from a bad boyfriend.

Instead it's a story of a damaged man and a woman mired in a bad divorce. It's a classic antithetical romance, but where the man and woman like each other in person but hate each other remotely. Nice twist. In that way it's a bit like Pillow Talk, except here no one is pretending.

It's a story of recovery and redemption, and it's one we're likely to watch many times in the passing years.

Noel Next Door was excellent. A youngish recently divorced waitress meets handsome partially paralyzed stroke victim who is sweet and kind (he gives her a 200% tip on his takeout order) and they are instantly attracted to each other. Her name is Noelle. Yes, really. Meanwhile, her tween son has several run-ins with the neighborhood scrooge who has recently moved into the neighborhood. In addition to insisting the condominium complex take down their Christmas tree, slamming his door in the faces of some little kid carolers, and walking around with an angry disgusted face all the time, he yells at and threatens young Henry who continually kicks his soccer ball against the wall of his condo. Noelle's son is a nice boy at home but does have a bit of a bratty side. In other words, he acts like a real kid. Little do the two know, while they fall in love, that he is actually the Christmas-hating neighborhood grouch with an anger management problem, and she is the incompetent mother of a mean little punk.

The tension builds throughout the movie in anticipation of the two neighbors meeting in person and discovering each others' true identities. Meanwhile, they grow more and more attached and happy with each other. It is handled very well, as the big moment doesn't come until about the 75% mark and their reactions are pretty hilarious and well-acted. In addition to her work, her son, and her new relationship, Noelle has to deal with an ex-husband who is a one-man asshole parade. He threatens her with a lawyer when she won't surrender her court-appointed Christmas day with young Henry to him and his mistress at their old home. There is some blind date comedy (Are you one of those people who believes the Earth is round?) and some heart-tugging moments as well.

Both Corey Sevier and Natalie Hall were terrific. I still don't like Natalie's hair and makeup, but she did well in a more mature down-to-earth role than she is usually given. Joanna Douglas plays her sister and she was lovely and appealing as always. She needs to be given a lead role with Hallmark if she is even interested. Corey had the difficult job of being a bit of a jerk on one hand, and a sympathetic romantic lead on the other. It didn't hurt that they had a good script to work with. It dealt with serious situations with a nice blend of comedy, drama, and romance along with a good message and plenty of Christmas Spirit to spare.

Countdown to Christmas is here and this is the first premiere of 2022.

This movie really doesn't follow any of the common plotlines other than a divorced mother having a conflict with dad over Christmas custody and that's really a minor thread here. Some movies in this genre have a hidden identity factor in them, but this movie approaches that differently. The movie is crammed with all the Christmas activities like baking cookies, snowball fights, a Christmas pageant, and so on. There are a couple, but it's not crammed.

No one is hiding an identity, but there is something about Jeremy that the audience knows from the beginning, but Noel doesn't, namely that Jeremy is the one her son is having problems with in the neighborhood. You could also say Jeremy doesn't realize who Noel is. It's a neat trick that the writers don't let the two discover that until way past the halfway point. That is a good scene when everyone is stuttering at each other.

Noel is an angel of a woman. There are several examples with one of the big ones being a spoiler related to her ex. Natalie Hall does a good job with this part - I think one of her better ones in this type of movie. She and Cory Sevier have quiet chemistry.

There is some humor in this move, I think Hall is the better comedian and Sevier more the foil of the jokes. The humorous moments sometimes border on the silly, but not overly so.

I'm disappointed with two things as far as this being Hallmark and they are about good old common sense values, maybe even call them family values. It is interesting that this movie has already resorted to this kind of values when Jeremy makes the jerk at the diner apologize to Noel. Why should he apologize? Because he was insulting her as a lady. Yet later in the movie there are two things I would say belong on the same level. 1 - Jeremy gets passed out drunk on hard liquor. This is a strike against this movie being good for children, which it could be. 2 - Noel lets Henry off for lying without any consequences. Given the situation, I could understand light consequences, but there should have been something. Henry went beyond the bounds of a rambunctious kid more than once and clearly lied. These criticisms have nothing to do with what many reviewers complain about Hallmark going woke in the past few years. These values have nothing to do with that, although lack of consequences seems to be more common among younger parents than it was for parents years ago.

This is a decent move. It is still something that most of the family can watch and it doesn't have the feel of a formula driven story. Some of the scenes are funny. Time will tell if I watch it again next season, but I think I might.