Last night I watched “The Noel Diary.” I honestly was kind of surprised at how good this movie actually was. For being a Hallmark movie I didn’t expect that much, but the plot line made this movie actually interesting and good. This movie was shot and directed by Charles Shyer and featured a variety of mid-level famous actors. The two main characters we see in this movie are played by Justin Hartley and Barret Doss.   

This movie follows Jacob Turner (Justin Hartley), a famous writer who has to go back to his home town after the passing of his mother. That’s where he meets Rachel Campbell (Barret Doss), who comes across Jacob at his old family house. She comes to seek questions about her birth mother who used to live there and asks Jacob if he knows anything about it. She is trying to track her down and find her and Jacob gets involved in this situation.This transforms into Jacob and Rachel going through this investigation of finding clues to find Rachel’s birth mother. This also transitioned into showing elements of Jacob and Rachel’s relationship, but there is an element of tension because Rachel is engaged. Overall, this movie shows a lot of heartache that these two main characters have faced in their lives and how they dealt with it. 

I didn’t see any trailers that had any insight for this movie. I just had this bias that it was going to be really cheesy because it’s a Christmas Hallmark movie, but it actually had a pretty decent storyline to it. However, the acting wasn’t that great — there were points in the movie where the way they talked was so generalized and vague. It didn’t lead anywhere, which made me kind of bored. But again, it mostly had those elements of a Hallmark movie where everything was pretty  and it didn’t really have me attached to the characters. I do give it credit for fitting that much storyline in an hour and a half movie for what it was and having the conclusion had. 

This is a movie that I would see once and mildly enjoy, but never see again. I’d only see it because I would make fun of it for being that cheesy and because it’s a Christmas movie. There are a lot of similarities that really make this a Hallmark movie. With examples like the bland and vague acting, it always ends in a romantic relationship, or it is so predictable. So many of these movies are just copied and pasted over and over again. That’s how I see “The Noel Diary,”as going on a certain theme makes it pretty obvious that it comes from a hallmark movie.

“The Noel Diary:” ★★☆☆☆