Pas de plan pour Noël

I am a HUGE Hallmark movie fan and this one did not disappoint. My only complaint was the little girl. Why was she wearing red lipstick? She was not a very likable child, but she didn't distract from the story.

But I did wonder how old the little girl Finley was meant to be ! In some scenes she acted like a 6 year old, then with her hairstyle, pearl earrings and wearing lipstick all the way through the film made her look years older - like a miniature 30 year old. A pleasant enough watch

This movie is a combination of inexperienced-nanny-fixes-controlling-executive, and another common plot line that isn't fully revealed until late, so I won't explicitly say what that is. There are enough clues as to what's going to happen at the end so most viewers will figure it out, certainly before Celeste does. (Even if it is easy to figure out, I wish reviewers would not give these things away without tagging spoilers.)

Ali Liebert isn't as controlling as I think she was meant to be, but then Liebert is just too sweet to be that rigid. There is a heartwarming aspect to the story as shown by Celeste's devotion to Finley reinforced by their backstory. Liebert does the role so well, and with tenderness, that it's hard to maintain her character as overly rigid.

Unlike a lot of Christmas movies where the female lead bonds with the male lead's child, the genders are switched, but the idea is the same. Jake Epstein has good chemistry with both the child, Habree Larratt , and aunt turned mom, Ali Liebert.

The story includes the token existing fiance which leads to some competitiveness in things like building a snowman, but the fiance never really seemed viable.

Despite loving Christmas so much, that is not to say that all films about and centred around Christmas are great. A fair share of them are not, and some aren't even good. There are quite a big number of classics and personally have seen in the past couple of years or so a good deal of well above average Christmas films. The quest that 'A Storybook Christmas' was part of has been and still is interesting and worth it but has also been very hit and miss.

'A Storybook Christmas' leans towards being one of the hits luckily and as far as the films seen as part of the quest goes it's somewhere around very high middle. Also to me it's one of the better 2019 Christmas films, which has been a very mixed not particularly exceptional year for them on the whole. There are a lot better Christmas films certainly, but also a lot worse (the worst of Hallmark for instance). 'A Storybook Christmas' has flaws and didn't bowl me over, but the concept sounded very cute and it was a very pleasant watch overall and serves its purpose very well.

My problems with 'A Storybook Christmas' have been mentioned already actually, but will state them anyway to show my agreement. The ending also seemed gotten over with too quickly and suddenly, it definitely felt rushed. Some of the dialogue is repetitive to the point of being beaten around the head and made me cringe.

Do agree too that the fiance character was not needed other than convenient plot device reasons, and he is not an interesting character either.

However, Ali Liebert does a great job in the lead. Celeste has character traits that should make her a hard character to warm to, and yes that is so at first, but Liebert is very charming and sympathetic. Also she doesn't look stiff in my view, and doesn't exaggerate any negative character traits that a lot of actors/actresses in similar type roles do in similar films. Every bit as likeable, even more so actually, is Jake Epstein in the more sympathetic (while not being too perfect) role, whose performance is very warm. And there was nothing unnatural or affected either. Habree Larrett is sweet without being too precocious. Libert and Epstein have a bond that felt genuine and easy to root for, it is charming and tender while not moving too fast or too slow.

The acting from all is above average even and most of the character relationships are very well handled. Only everything with the fiance doesn't work out so well, it lacked tension and wasn't necessary. Most of the dialogue is not too bad, it amuses in spots while also not being too heavy in the sentiment, it flows well on the whole. The story is far from perfect, but it's engaging, coherent, not overdone, light-hearted and it's heart-warming. It knew what tone to take, not being too frothy and keeping things light and becoming too dark or dreary. It's a lovely film to look at, especially the scenery, and the music is nostalgic and appropriately festive while not being as in your face and too constant as the music in other Christmas films.

Overall, likeable and charming. 7/10

That nice Christmas film who you expect. But not enterly the familiar mix of cookies and cocoa and one of motifs is the good acting, the chemistry between lead actors, the other, the story itself, proposing a game of roles and the romance , expected but more seductive builded. And, sure, the clues for the end. So, nice. In lovely manner.