The Christmas High Note

I was pleasantly surprised with The Christmas High Note. The story is quite basic. There are no beautiful castles, picturesque landscapes, cross-country adventures, (time traveling) Christmas carousels, or wishing trees in this one. Rather, it had a down to earth feel to it, which I enjoyed. At the center of the story is Rachel (played by Jamie Luner), who, after being stood up by her boyfriend Brad, meets Michael (our other protagonist in this story, played by Johnny Messner) and his teenage daughter Sophie (played by Madeline Grace). Sophie, who dreams of a singing career, is having some difficulties with her solo for the upcoming Christmas pageant. Rachel, who gives singing and piano lessons, offers to coach Sophie for her big performance. Through this connection, Rachel soon discovers a new romantic interest in Sophie's dad, Michael. What the writers do well in this one are the dialogue and interactions between Sophie and her father (and Rachel and her father), and Michael and his sister Emma (played by Kassandra Clementi). There was an authentic feel to the family dynamics, I felt. What made this work, of course, was the acting. Overall, I thought it was pretty good, strong even, at times. I have not seen Jamie Luner since Melrose Place in the 90s, so I was unsure what to expect. She had a good performance, I thought. There were some nice dialogue and interactions with her father (played by William Katt, he was great, by the way). Johnny Messner too had a very good performance. Indeed, his interactions with his daughter and sister were quite convincing and lovely to watch. A good example of this was the scene the morning after Michael and Rachel's first kiss: the dialogue and exchanges between him and his daughter, then him and his sister were fun and cute (and they felt real). The chemistry between the two (Rachel and Michael) was decent. It started strong, I felt, but faded in the latter half of the film, and the final kiss was unfortunate, I'm afraid. The supporting cast was great. Kassandra Clementi (playing Emma, the sister) was impressive. She had this cute and caring vibe to her performance, which worked great on screen, I thought. Madeline Grace also had a good performance. Again, some good interactions and exchanges with her father in the story. All in all, it is a decent Christmas movie, not as refined as some of the other movies this season, but it did have an authentic feel to it, which is a plus.

The story was all over the place. There was no chemistry between the leads. The most appealing part of the movie was the teenage daughter, played by Madeline Grace, but her voice is good, not outstanding. Same with Jamie Luner.

I really hated Brad. So why did Rachel keep giving him hope? He proved himself to be a jerk more than once. The worst of it is, he wouldn't take no for an answer because he didn't think she meant it. And how did they ever get together in the first place? Brad didn't become a total jerk overnight - he's been that way for a long time.

Brad's isn't the only bad behavior by males. The boys laughing during rehearsal deserved a far worse rebuke than "stop laughing". Rachel's dad is no gem either although his bad behavior is a little restrained.

What I liked about this movie is this, it's more down to earth than most. The families seem normal, no one lives in a $9000 apartment on a bookstore employee salary.

The acting was ok to good and love the daddy/daughter relationship. The singing while not the best, is truer to what we would expect from a real life family, and auditions at school. Yes, there are standouts, but most are just good at singing. And this made the movie a little more enjoyable.

Johnny Messner (a fav) and Jamie Lunar chemistry was a little off for falling in love. But again, when we like someone-the first month or so is hit and miss a little while we get to know someone.

It was good to William Katt back at it.

Now on to what I didn't like-Brad. This character was absolutely ridiculous. The seen at the Vet and the Bar, threw the stars down on this movie.

Throughout my whole Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas film completest quest undertaken namely late-2019 onwards, an interesting quest but very mixed one, there was never the mentality of expecting a classic or the film in question to be flawless. Something that was never managed with Hallmark's output. There was always the expectation of seeing a film where one can see at least some effort rather than merely cash-in level. One could see that with most of Lifetime's output but not all.

2020 was a variable year for the Lifetime Christmas output, though it could actually have been a lot worse than it turned out. 'The Christmas High Note' is not one of the best or one of the worst. Personally put it in the middling category, and consider it a film that started off well but peters out. Which is actually the opposite of some of the Lifetime Christmas films (and also Hallmark, UPTV etc) seen recently, which started not so good but improved.

Of course there are things that are good. The best thing about it is the acting, which is in general much better than average. Jamie Luner and Johnny Messner are very appealing leads, while William Katt is a dignified father figure. Madeline Grace gives a lot of heart to the film and has the film's most likeable character, really empathised with her and didn't find her too cute. Loved her chemistry with Messner and the father and daughter dynamic was charming and heartfelt.

Furthermore, it looks nice as a film, especially the scenery. The music has a nostalgic festive atmosphere generally. It starts off very light hearted and heart-warming and has a lot of charm. Did care for the characters on the whole.

With one exception, which was ex-boyfriend Brad. Lifetime did not have a particularly good track record when it came to the ex-boyfriend cliche, and the jerkish-ness was very overdone here. To the point where Luner's character's too naive and forgiving manner in the latter stages started to frustrate me. While the chemistry between Luner and Messner was there in the first half, it lost sparkle in the final third which was where the relationship is neglected too much. The ending is too neat and with such forced and tired conflict beforehand it felt too out of the blue as well.

Quite a lot of the dialogue has awkwardness and the story in general is nothing special. A tried and tested formula with little variation, especially the conflict.

Summing up, a bit mixed here. 5/10.

This is disappointing. No chemistry. Dump dialog. Bad music