Natale sotto la neve

It could be better. It is the first conclusion about this decent Christmas movie out of real romance , nice for girls and for the fight of main actors against their roles. Some nice moments, few references to old fashion comedies, good use of cliches and Christmas.

And , sure, a too unrealistic love story and an end not very inspired but forced.

A good point - the supporting actors. And some gentle crumbs of humor.

The start point is so familiar than just seduce. And the two lead actors are so isolated than their work becomes amusing in effort of connection between characters. So, nothing good, nothing bad. Only.. . Christmas.

Thanks to the actor who played Uncle Ethan, this one was watchable. Kaley, two little girls au pair and their almost a stranger Uncle take care of her charges while the parents are stuck in New York due to a snowstorm. Kaley fancies herself a perfect little mother to the two girls which make her irritating and a little pitiable since they already have a nice mother. She actually considers turning down a big opportunity in her career field because she thinks of the family as hers and doesn't want to leave them which is a little disturbing. Not really sure what Ethan sees in her except she is attractive. I liked the actor and the character was pretty cool as well.

They all live in a very normal looking house in a normal city neighborhood for a couple that can afford an au pair. Or need one. The couple must have two high powered high paying careers, surely? I mean they flew to New York only to attend a Christmas Party and were flying back the next morning. Of all of the low wage earners on these TV romances that live in mansions or fancy big city apartments, this couple cannot afford a high end home, or a great location on the water somewhere?

Every time Kayla Wallace is filmed in full profile, showing off her bubble butt, everyone takes a drink. The director should be ashamed of himself, it was so clearly shot that way intentionally.

Kayla is awfully cute in the role though and does a good job in this. Hope to see her in more movies like this. The kids were not overly obnoxious as is typical in romance movies. A very watchable feel-good movie.

Overall it was fun 90 minutes and we will watch it again next Christmas. With drinks, of course.

Have said many times about my love of Christmas and getting a lot of pleasure out of in particular watching films, cartoons and specials during this period, something that most years has been much needed. Wanted to see some more festive films that were more recent, lower in budget and were not childhood favourites, so in a way to broaden my horizons and have been doing so since November 2019. Decided to see one that wasn't from Hallmark or Lifetime.

'Christmas Au Pair', or 'Snowed In at Christmas' in other places, could have been a good deal better than it was though. There are things that are good, but there are too many areas where it is lacking for me to recommend it. It is a long way from being one of the worst Christmas films seen recently, but it is also a long way from being one of the best. In my mind, 'Christmas Au Pair' is one of the average middle films, Christmas or otherwise from UPTV's 2021 output.

There are good things here. It is well above average in the acting department. Kayla Wallace did do a good job with what she is given, despite not being a fan of her character, and injects the role with a good deal of feeling. Jeremy Guilbaut's performance is beautifully understated but not phoned in. The children are not too sugary cute or too petulant.

Furthermore, 'Christmas Au Pair' is attractive enough visually, particularly in the scenery. The music has a pleasant nostalgia and isn't overused or overbearing. There are moments of charm and heart.

On the other hand, 'Christmas Au Pair' could have been a lot more. Wallace and Guilbaut have next to no chemistry together and both are disconnected together, individually they are committed but together there is never a sense of attraction or caring for the other let alone romance. The chemistry in general is too distant and the romance is really underdeveloped. Didn't care enough for the characters despite the cast's best efforts, Wallace's is far too judgemental to such an overblown degree and Guilbaut's is too in his own world.

Did find the script too stilted and schmaltzy. Although it did have charming and heartfelt moments, the story is thin, drags a lot and takes itself too seriously and safely (it shouldn't have been afraid of having some playfulness and light hearted-ness). Culminating in a blatantly predictable and unrealistically pat ending that doesn't make that much sense concluding the contrived conflict that came before it.

In summary, watchable but rather average. 5/10.

Snowed In For Christmas/Christmas Au Pair (2021) -

I've seen this story done before, so I was a bit annoyed that the writers hadn't come up with anything new or done something to improve on the others, but it was a better version of the same tale, without a lot of farce and daftness.

I'm also getting really tired of the overly busy executive trope. No one can be or at the very least should be that overworked. In my mind it shows a lack of skill to manage one's workload, but maybe that's just me?

As for the actors, initially I felt that Jeremy Guibaut was only fine as a goofy brother type and I didn't really think of him as a charming leading man with his depiction of Ethan. Perhaps he was just directed to be too comedic to believe that he was a serious businessman or human even, but he did feel like a secondary character in some ways. He was sort of cute though and actually as the film moved on I did grow to like him and appreciate the difference to the norm, although he should still have had a larger presence.

I didn't think that Ethan would ever make it as an artist though, based on what the props team had created for him to claim as his own.

Kayla Wallace as Kaley was alright for the most part, but towards the end she definitely started to get a bit frustrating with her overactive imagination and fretting over nothing, because it was like she was deliberately trying to push him away, but not to actually protect herself, but more because she was a bit clueless. She was so presumptuous about their budding relationship and about Ethan's ex.

The kids were not the best unfortunately, because a decent child actor can be the difference in a film about the festive season and the joy that it can bring to a young heart. Sadly their performances were quite poor and they were a tad too well behaved as characters too.

In general the film had plenty of Christmas going on, if a bit obviously tick list-y, but there weren't any specific issues with the production elements that I could see. It just didn't win any points for originality.

6.39/10.