Coup de foudre au village de Noël

Summer is an architect and a single mother who is busy busy busy. She is all about fixing things, control, rules and organization. She doesn't have time for a serious relationship, and plus she just hasn't felt that "spark" yet. She is kind of forced to take her hippy dippy mother in, (Marlo Thomas) when her lover leaves town and sells the house she has been living in.

Her mother, Vivian, is the exact opposite of Summer. She believes in living in the moment and letting "the universe" guide her life. Plans Schmlans. Because of her lifelong irresponsibility, she is in a financial mess, without enough money to live on. Luckily Summer and her other daughter, April, provide a safety net. But to my irritation, that does not stop her from nagging Summer about her overly planned out life which has stopped her from living freely, finding love, and stopping to smell the roses. All while living in Summer's home, on her dime, one step away from homelessness.

The irony is that Summer is the way she is because of Vivian's unstable parenting. It is revealed that *16 year-old* Summer had to go to the bank and set up a payment plan after 6 months of living without electricity because Vivian just couldn't be bothered to pay the bills after her husband died. Throughout most of the movie, Vivian thinks she is some kind of wise shaman with all of the answers, which is far far from reality. I was not a fan.

The main story is about how the two women learn from each other and learn to find a happy medium. The charming Luke Macfarlane provides the Love interest and he has great chemistry with Allison Sweeny, which, TBH, I was kind of surprised about.

Their happy ending, and to a lesser extent, the rapprochement between Summer and Vivian is guided by the Magical Christmas Village that Vivian sets up at Summer's house. Summer's daughter starts to move the figurines around and soon figures out that she is also guiding the footsteps of people in real life as she does so. It was a cute concept if you ignore the horror movie aspects to it. This was pretty good, despite the fact that I hated Vivian's guts through most of it.

Agree with the other reviewer. Marlo Thomas's freakish looks were distracting and I found it hard to watch her. She has had more than one too many face lifts. Also agree her character was rude and disrespectful and the whole " just believe was " was very annoying. I found myself wanting to yell at the tv every time Marlo was on screen. Also I have always found her voice annoying.

She was in no way a sympathetic or likeable character. It was impossible to find any redeeming qualities in her character as a mother. Alison Sweeney as always did a marvellous job. It was easy to feel sympathy for her character.

The four main actors Alison Sweeney, Luke Macfarlane, Marlo Thomas, and Maesa Nicholson did their very best to make this a pleasant Christmas themed film, which they succeeded in doing. Having said that I need a heck of a lot more icing on my Christmas Yule logs than a run of the mill romance with a new handsome guy moving into town to sweep a single mom off of her feet.

Marlo Thomas's performance as the mom and grandma who lives life not only as a glass half full type of mom and grandma but more like a gypsy woman who can cure all that is needed for her family and friends. Marlo Thomas may have been in her mid 80's when she filmed this but you wouldn't have guessed her age with the expressive energy she has displayed of a much younger octogenarian.

It is an okay Christmas film but I must admit it's rather a forgettable film to watch once and forget about it.

The story strongly implies that the family's Christmas village set has magical powers that intervene in the lives of the story's main characters. One thread of the story is the developing romance between Allison Sweeney's Summer and Luke MacFarland's character. Another thread is the family struggles that center around Marlo Thomas' Vivian.

I am more than happy to imagine how Chloe can use the village's magic to find romance for her mother whom everyone says over and over is controlling. As controlling characters go, I found Summer to be not nearly as bad as many in this type of movie. I resent that the movie implies that there is something wrong with a woman who is financially responsible and works hard to accomplish the tasks before her through her organizational skills. Summer has rules for Chloe and holds to them, but in a reasonable way balancing carrot and stick in her parenting.

Vivian seems to think that overdue bills will be taken care of by the Universe in its own good time. Even Summer's sister recognizes her mother's challenges. She and Summer have a running joke about whether a discussion about mom is a "five alarm" discussion. Yet she seems to take mom's side when these differences create conflict within the family. This entire premise in the movie turned me off to what could have been fun.

Sweeney and MacFarland have chemistry. The dialogue in the movie is good, although not as sparkling as some movies. The acting is good.

We always watch Alison Sweeney movies because she is such a real, natural actress. We figured the icing on the cake would be to see Marlo Thomas act again after not seeing her since a St. Jude commercial a couple of years back.

Well, Marlo's opening scene in the beginning of the movie was sort of shocking. She obviously saw the Jackson Family cosmetologist for her nose and Goldie Hawn's botox physician - to the point that her appearance distracted big time from what was going on. To Hallmark's credit, though, they gave Marlo a lot to do in this movie.

This wasn't just a couple of scenes for namesake value - she plays a fully developed character with many interactions with the rest of the cast. And, once you get used to her appearance, you realize that Marlo is really quite good. Let's face it and give her credit, this month she turns 85 and she can still give an honest, natural, and interesting performance, which ultimately becomes rather endearing.

As a matter of fact, she has a "show down" scene with Sweeney that is quite excellent and her second meeting with Macfarlane at a market is moving and sweet. Throughout, her scenes with Maesa Nicholson, playing her granddaughter are very well done and, at times, nicely humorous. Nicholson is an impressive young actress.

As far as the story goes, it really kept our interest - an elderly person going broke is not all that uncommon nowadays and the relationship between Sweeney and Macfarlane's characters is nicely developed. As usual, they give really fine performances, particularly Sweeney whose character she seems to be relaxed and comfortable with - so much so that her performance is more multi-faceted and complex than in other Hallmark roles she has been given.

It's not the best new Hallmark this season, but it's still enjoyable and worth a watch.