Really wanted to like 'Jingle Belle' so much more and like it as much as some of the other reviewers. Being somebody that did find the idea kind of cute and who likes films centered around making and performing music, regardless of it not being novel. Get a lot of pleasure watching Christmas films and Christmas has always been very special to me, so there was no negative bias against the film from the get go. Far from it.
'Jingle Belle' had potential, not massive but it was there. To me, it just didn't live up to it. Is it a terrible film? No, there are far worse films out there. Is 'Jingle Belle' good? To me, no it wasn't and felt too that the bad outweighed the good. The good things are there and they aren't small, but the bad things stuck out at me more, not just because of there being more bad than good but also the flaws were bigger in size than the strengths.
Did like most of the acting, with the two leads especially being very appealing. Tatyana Ali in particular is a joy and their chemistry is sweet and has a genuine spark. The twist mentioned elsewhere was a nice and a welcome and successful attempt of breaking away from complete predictability, one that wasn't one prematurely foreseeable for me.
It looks good visually, the settings may not be authentic but they look attractive, as does the photography. Some of the music is pleasant.
Too much of it however for my tastes didn't balance well with the dialogue, it should have been used with a lot more subtlety in volume and in use. Am another person that didn't care for the main song, was squirming in my seat personally and felt that it was all noise but no soul with very uninspired text. While the acting was decent generally, Loretta Devine came over as annoying due to her overplaying her character. The characters mostly didn't irritate me but there needed to be more development to them.
One twist aside, this is very over-familiar territory in terms of story and executed in a quite hohum and quite dull way, taking time to get started and then running out of steam (nothing in the final act surprises). Nice ideas here, not followed through enough. The script is bland and the sentiment gets a bit too much in spots.
All in all, has its moments but not my cup of tea. 4/10
