My Southern Family Christmas

My Southern Family Christmas is my new favorite movie, not just for Christmas, the town is awesome the actors were amazing, the characters were very relatable and likeable. I will be showing this movie to my whole family Jaicy Elliott did an amazing job as Campbell, love Bruce Cameron as Everett, loved that is was set in Louisiana, you dont see many movies set in the Bayou, I want to see more movies set in the south, and it was cool getting to know more about Pere Noel, the two young ladies that played Mary Margaret and Amila were great, the whole cast did an amazing job, would love to see a part 2 to this movie!

This is a surprisingly sweet Hallmark family drama in which a reporter gets to know her biological father, who she thought abandoned her, under the guise of doing a story on him as his Louisiana town's newly appointed acting Père Noel. Jaicy Elliot as reporter Campbell Wallace, hoes to Louisiana for a Cajun Christmas to do a story on their new Père Noel and Cajun Christmas traditions like the lighting of bonfires. What the new Père Noel, Everett Bergeron (Bruce Campbell) doesn't know is that she is actually his daughter. Campbell gets to see what a wonderful man and loving father Everett is to his new family and his two other daughters...and she struggles with if or how to tell him that she is his eldest daughter.

The end is excellent and well worth the watch. I really like Bruce Campbell and I loved him in Burn Notice, he is a great comedian. I enjoyed seeing him as a loving father in this film...it was also fun to see Moira Kelly (she played his wife), who I haven't seen since the film Cutting Edge (which is a guilty pleasure of mine).

My one complaint is that I wish there were more actual Cajuns in this film. I appreciate their lyrical accents and missed hearing the endearing cherie (or as they say "cher"). As a big fan of Michael Doucet and BeauSoleil, I also secretly wished there was more Cajun music and traditions...like the ball of fire or boule de feu.

But having said that, this is still a recommendation from me...the endearing story kind of transcends what it lacked in Cajun authenticity.

I really enjoyed the new take on a Christmas movie here for Hallmark! There was no looking for love, or finding love, or running into an old love, as in every other Hallmark movie. At least not in the typical sense. And that's what made it interesting for me. Waiting until almost the very end to reveal the secret made you wonder throughout the movie how it was going to happen. Like another review here, I really appreciated that they didn't use fake Cajun accents, or attempted Cajun accents, which are quite difficult to do accurately. I lived in Louisiana for 12 years, and so I would immediately have hooked onto a bad accent, which would have definitely had me turning off the TV, as it would have been like hearing nails on a chalkboard.

The only things that I wish the Director would have done is to have pulled out more range from the lead female actress. She was very one note in her emotions. The dialogue may have shown anger or frustration, but her face never did. And the only thing that revealed her happiness was a smile. But all smiles were the same! And also the love connection was either edited way, way back in the final screenplay, or didn't happen at all. These two people who barely said two words to each other, and maybe spend 20 minutes together were in love? There should've been a rewrite for that part for sure.

Even though we're from the South, this movie did nothing to warm our hearts. The lead actress seemed to have no fire at all, and while I don't want to seem shallow, we thought her either an odd or brave choice for the romantic female lead.

Thirty minutes in, the story lacked momentum, the cast personality, and we simply had no empathy for any character or what happened to them.

When the female lead was introduced to the male lead and they'd barely exchanged two lines, the "mayor" comments to another character "I don't know if they're flirting or fighting". Well ... neither. They'd just been introduced and barely said a word to each other.

We don't tolerate writing that stupid, so we ended this experiment, despite our appreciation of Bruce Campbell.

I chose this as the first Hallmark Christmas movie of the season on my DVR because it sounded atypical. It did not disappoint. Of course, there's the usual Christmas schmaltz, but at least it's geographically different schmaltz. Also, as an adoptive mother I'm interested in the "What if I met my biological parent" storyline. Added bonus: the heroine is not a size 2.

It was a pleasant movie but not entirely believable. Hard to believe that the love interest had never been outside his county before. However, I do know a Louisiana gentlemen who CLAIMED that he'd never been to New Orleans until my husband's Navy reunion took place there. (At least that whole Vietnam war thing got him out of the state.) But I digress.

I did enjoy the movie, even though the plot was predictable. It won't go on my list of Hallmark Christmas movies I could watch every year ("The Christmas Card," "A Very Merry Mix-up," "Nine Lives of Christmas," and several others), but I could watch it another time or two.