Joyeux Noel

A romantic painting of a Christmas market captures the imagination of copy editor and wannabe reporter, Lea. She is sent to France with pragmatic reporter "moody" Mark to uncover the mystery behind the artist. While Lea is all eager to solve the puzzle, Mark is less excited, somewhat annoyed at being sent on an assignment which is beneath him. Lea and Mark are total opposites. Lea tends to correct Mark's speech, which is annoying. Mark has his own view on how to research a story.

The French Market town is very festive, decorated with Christmas lights and featuring an accordion player, multiple shops, hot chocolate and roasted chestnuts and singers. Lea goes around the shops but it is embarrassing how she speaks to vendors and passersby. Meanwhile, Mark tries to get some sleep (jet lag) but is bothered by Sophie, the landlords daughter. The cute gnomes left around by Sophie are a highlight. Wonder why she isn't listed in the cast on imbd.

Jaicy Elliot, as Lea, is the wrong person for this role. She has deadpan delivery and facial expressions are equally blah. She dresses in a boring coat and beret and her French accent in pronouncing "Merci" is also blah. There is no chemistry between herself and Brant Daughtery.

An interesting feature of this movie is that the plot was written by Brant Daughtery's wife, Kimberly. Maybe she should have been cast in this movie along with her husband.

I had waited to watch this movie because the ads made it seem like it was going to be tough to watch. All I could focus on when seeing the ads is how the female lead is so monotone and has such a flat delivery.

Having watched the movie, I will say that this is certainly a problem that detracts from the story, which is unfortunate because I love the idea of more realistically sized women being leading ladies. The national average is closer to a size 14 than a size 0, I think they should have no trouble finding an average-sized woman who can deliver lines more convincingly. I've only seen her in this movie, so it's hard for me to know whether she's not a good actor or if she just wasn't good in this part. Who knows, maybe it was because they put her in a jacket that was 2-3 sizes too small that she was self-conscious and struggled to be comfortable as the character.

Also, I understand that characters must grow towards each other to fall in love on these hallmark movies but they started out at such different places. In the beginning he so clearly did not respect her and she came off as detached and disinterested so it was hard to buy into them being potential love interests or them being in love at the end. As I was watching, by the end I felt they gave off 'friend vibes' not 'hopelessly in love vibes'.

It's unfortunate because I liked the idea - it was different than the run-of-the-mill hallmark Christmas movie with the usual checklist of plot points - but the execution didn't live up to its potential.

6.2 stars.

Joyeux starts out with a lot of promise, but immediately I was deflated by the way they forced a potential adventure to become a flat non-event. She finds something by chance, but the chances of this would be about one in 10 billion, that's just a guess. Astronomical does not begin to calculate. You'll see what I mean. And then after she finds it, goes low key about the whole ordeal and then finally has to fight her way into getting the story, and is stuck with a guy whom we can see shares no chemistry with her. Then they are in France and the whole story had so many missed opportunities and so much potential was hamstrung. Just a really fowl production, something that could've been one of the greats. Wow guys, you really blew chunks on this one.

I'd normally award it 5 stars, but the acting was good, the little girl's games and pranks were refreshing, and the city scenes and backdrops were breathtaking.

Joyeux Noel (2023) -

I always find it hard to believe that journalists are given so much money, time and leeway to deliver just one article and just a few days before Christmas for the big seasonal issue. Surely these things should be wrapped up well and truly before December even starts?

I also didn't believe that the two leading actors, Brant Daugherty as Mark and Jaicy Elliot in the role of Lea would ever be more than just friends, certainly not within the space of a few days and don't give me that magic of the season crap. I'd need to see an actual wand being waved and actual magic happening to believe this one.

Before he started to mellow and grow as a human, Mark was clearly not interested in Lea as a person or seemingly anything else for that matter, showing an indifference to most things, but obviously hiding an intelligence and capability to do his job. As the story progressed, I could see him warming to her for her abilities as a novice journalist, but not romantically, despite the festive activities that they took part in.

Sadly Lea was just annoying and stand offish. She was so concerned about being right all the time, that I couldn't imagine that she would ever let anyone in and where it was clear that Mark did start to ponder their connection, I could see nothing to suggest that she had any inclination towards him at all. Perhaps it was Jaicy's acting abilities that didn't show that budding romance or maybe she was directed or edited to come across like that, but it just didn't work. She was just an odd casting choice to go up opposite Brant who was the writer of the screenplay and must have had some input surely. Unless they were specifically trying to show that love is blind and don't get me wrong I believe that it should be about the person inside, but she didn't seem to have any redeeming features at all.

Brant Daugherty is an absolutely beautiful man, which made it easy to be on Mark's side from the off. In spite of his "Moody" monicker, he had a sweetness and a definite charm that just made him even more attractive. And in fairness to him, I wouldn't have wanted Lea tagging along either, regardless of whether she had found the information that lead to the story they were researching or not. So I might have started off with a bad attitude too, but at least he did mellow. I'd also be annoyed that I wasn't doing something more substantial as a journalist with ambition, but I would be thrilled to take a holiday to France for Christmas, whether I enjoyed the festivities and hoopla of it all or not, so he could have appreciated that a bit more keenly.

As the story progressed, and I did enjoy the journey that they were following with its investigative side that wasn't all tree decorating and cookie cutting, as these films can tend to be, I still couldn't buy Mark ever getting together with Lea. Not just because she was nowhere near as hot as him and had no personality, but also because their onscreen chemistry was sooo incompatible. I might have believed it more if it had been a TV series to show that opposites attract or beauty is in the eye of the beer holder, but I would have needed at least ten episodes of really good writing to ever want them to end up together. They didn't get that across in this hour and a half made for TV film though.

If either of them had been swapped out it would have actually been a nice little film as a whole, but that error irked the whole thing. He was so beautiful inside and out, while she was so dumpy and plain and lacking anything attractive from within that the final kiss actually made me cringe.

And while the two reporters searched for the information for their article intent on discovering who had painted a picture and written in a lost diary that Lea had found from so many years ago, there was some convenience to the events that unfolded as well. The lady that let them in to her house without ID and then later unearthed boxes full of photos that were incredibly helpful for instance and completely out of the blue, with no explanation at that.

It's also incredibly frustrating, when the characters are looking in to something, that they never explain to those that they've interviewed exactly what they know to get the full answers and they have no patience to come back when the person isn't busy. It's like watching a crime show when the lead Cop doesn't ask all the questions that are burning in my head, but keep going back to that person for another bit of information and another and so on.

Other than that Sophie (Ciara Prioux), the daughter of the inn keeper where they stayed, was incredibly annoying and I didn't even buy her French accent. She was actually a bit surplus to requirements, where they could have used her screen time to develop the romance instead. And the accordion player who seemed to turn up on every street corner looked like Freddy Krueger*.

However despite all of my moaning, it was still one of the better Christmas films I've seen this year, because the writing was mostly good, the production was well done and it was clear that they had a good budget. The setting was romantic at least and the creative season evenly spread throughout to provide warmth and joy. If they had put anyone else in Lea's role I might have given this film at least a 9/10, but she did let it down.

7.39/10.

*Robert Englund's burnt and knifed glove wearing character from 'A Nightmare On Elm Street' (1984).

This is the 3rd Hallmark movie I've seen the female lead in and unfortunately, she seems to act the same in all of them. She tends to have a very flat affect - maybe it's her inherent personality and not her acting. But she doesn't seem to ever be overy excited or overly upset. She just .... IS. .. whether she's tracking down a msytery story in this movie or designing couture clothes or tracking down a father she never knew. It isn't the worst movie Hallmark has ever made, but it won't go down in history as one of their most popular ever. The authentic location really saves it. For once, Hallmark spent some cash and filmed in France instead of trying to make Vancouver look like France. Whoever oversaw the wardrobe should be fired. The female lead is a plus-size woman, apparently Hallmark's attempt at body positivity. She's very attractive, but was dressed in clothes at least 2 sizes too small for her. The winter coat especially was nothing short of criminal. It was a nice sashed wrap-style coat but she was forced to wear it like a bolero. It was literally inches short of even meeting in front, much less wrapping. She kept tugging on it and trying to straighten it over her bust, almost self-consciously. If it had been 2 sizes bigger, it would have wrapped and fit nicely and she'd have looked slimmer and sleeker than she did poured into a too-small coat and fighting it constantly. Somebody in the wardrobe department needs some pointers in dressing plus-size people. They hired a plus-size lead, but then don't treat her with the respect due a lead. I'd bet my last dollar Lacey Chabert's wardrobe fits her perfectly. Everytime ;-)