Hallmark Channel

The cover picturing Mark and Lea in Petit Marchon, the town of love

Romance. Coincidence. Comedy. Christmas.

All of these are just a few of the factors of the recipe that make up the perfect holiday movie. Whether it be the city girl getting relocated to a small town and falling in love with the local business owner, or the overused prince falling in love with the girl trope, each one has its own unique holiday charm.

Of course, every year, I have my favorites that I rewatch every December, like A Very Merry Mix Up or The Nine Lives of Christmas, but it’s also refreshing to watch the new releases that come out every year. This year, I’ve watched three new holiday films, each eerily similar and starkly different in their own way, but for now, I’ll just be talking about one: Joyeux Noel.

My mom—who gave me my immense love for Christmas movies— was ecstatic when she heard this movie was coming out, seeing as it incorporates almost everything she loves. It follows the story of copy editor Lea, portrayed by Jaicy Elliot, working for The Denver Post, a job she’s dreamed of having since she was little. 

It opens with the overall premise of the movie: an old French painting that has recently gained traction in the art community for the mysterious woman in the painting and the unfinished story behind it. Of course, due to one of the four aforementioned aspects of a Hallmark movie—this one being coincidence—Lea stumbles across an old box containing the journal of the artist, and she takes her high school-level French skills and somehow translates the entire journal.

In the journal, she finds a harrowing Romeo and Juliet-like romance story with an incomplete ending and decides it would make for the perfect article. This is when we are introduced to our love interest, Mark, portrayed by Brant Daugherty. 

When he first came on screen, I thought he was the villain of the story because he was immediately rude and dismissive of Lea and incessantly insulted her. I was sorely mistaken when they showed shots of him playing with dogs and being good with kids; apparently, these are the only two traits he needed to humanize him to the audience.

He and Lea are sent to France together to discover more about the artist and what happened, along with the prophecy that everyone finds their true love at Petit Marchon, the town they stay in. What ensues is just about what would be expected of a Christmas movie: the starry-eyed journalist with at least one dead parent, of course, and the pragmatic and closed-off love interest who is secretly a gooey romantic.

As much as I say I hate the stereotypical facets of this movie, I think, all in all, it was a pretty entertaining watch; it was filmed—at least for part of it—on a set in France, which was impressive for what seemed to be a relatively low budget movie. The movie would have been immensely better, however, if Mark had treated her well in the beginning and throughout the movie. It may just be me, but I appreciate it when the love interest shows basic human decency to the person they end up with. Although I did enjoy this movie, it certainly won’t be a new Christmas classic and definitely won’t be making it onto my yearly rewatch list.