CHRISTMAS MOVIE REVIEW: The Noel Diary (2022)
When a Woman Doesn't Deserve Love But Gets It Anyway
I continue to pound through new release 2022 Christmas movies this season. This wasn’t anything I pre-planned ahead of time, it’s kind of just happened, made easier by me getting sick for the second time in six weeks and having little else to do. Maybe it’s just fate I guess.
Anyway, I caught “The Noel Diary” on Netflix with no prior knowledge of it. As I watched and post this today it’s actually No. 1 on the Netflix Top 10 movies list, so checking it out was a no-brainer. Here’s my takes and grade on it.
BE WARNED---THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS HERE. If you want to watch this movie but don’t want anything spoiled at all, scroll on past the remainder of this until you’ve watched.
PROS: Justin Hartley AKA Kevin from “This is Us” and I was impressed. He’s emerged as more than just on-screen eye candy and into a pretty damn good actor.. On the surface I think “The Noel Diary” is a pretty good plot: successful author returns to his childhood home around Christmas time following the passing of his mom, meets a female in search of her biological mother that once worked for his family. Along their journey they face past demons, in his case a father he hasn’t spoken with in more than three decades and hers not knowing anything about her real mom.
This isn’t a Christmas comedy by any means so if I ain’t chuckling, you sure as hell better tug at my heart strings and there’s positively a few watery-eyed worthy moments to be had here.
Also, I thought the film imagery was excellent, definitely had all the Christmas in a small town vibes, complete with plenty of snow and authentic decorative scenery.
CONS: I have two with one admittedly my fault. I praised the work of Hartley above but simply can’t get past seeing him as anything other than Kevin from one of my favorite TV shows ever. To make matters worse Jake Turner is just like Kevin Pearson—not just handsome but highly successful and famous yet reasonably humble and irresistibly charming. It’s like, trade best selling author for actor and Jake and Kevin Pearson are essentially the same fuckin’ person. Anyway, pigeonholing Hartley’s on me and unlikely an obstacle for you, especially if you weren’t obsessed with “This is Us” like I was.
My biggest con is definitely Rachel. Kevin’s (oops, I mean Jake) mourning the loss of his mother in the home he grew up in just as Rachel comes in and literally turns this man’s life upside down. Her initial purpose (to learn about her real mother) is innocuous and pure but it’s not long before she digs her emotional claws directly into Jake’s heart. Typically this leads to romantic adventures for all to enjoy but there’s one slight problem---- she’s engaged to a dude named Adam, who by all accounts in the movie is nothing but sweet. Rachel and Jake clearly start to develop feelings for each other throughout their journey and it culminates with Rachel transforming from flirtation to straight-up whore. There’s a scene with a romantic candlelight dinner over fancy red wine and smooth jazz music, with her dolled up to the nines. I mean, she’s thirsty for Jake at this point— like, super horny. Being the low-key villain she is, she essentially breaks up with him while he sleeps after they get it on and she returns home, having found out what she was looking for (her mom loved her). Jake risks it all on Christmas Eve by showing up at her place but she shuts him out, even telling Jake she doesn’t love him. Sure, she comes around the next day and while Jake was happy I’m not quite as forgiving. That vixen doesn’t deserve you dude, GTFOH.
VERDICT: I hope it’s obvious at least portions of my venom for Rachel is sarcasm but seriously, significant parts of this story were extremely flawed. That’s not to say “The Noel Diary” was a complete shit show. Again, I thought Jake was a compelling character, I loved the physical interaction he had with Rachel’s biological mother at the hospital (best scene of the movie in fact), I felt his inner peace when he found a bunch of old letters realizing his father wrote him constantly for years during their estrangement and I liked the slow burn developing relationship between he and Rachel. Conversely, I found it incredibly nonsensical how quickly they changed directions after they hooked up (was he horrible in bed or something?) and I also felt bad for her fiancé --- what the hell that dude ever do to deserve this—she clearly broke up with him either late Christmas eve or early Christmas morning—what a monster.
Lastly, I appreciated having the pleasurable Christmas ending I craved but holy shit man, it ended entirely too abruptly. Let them enjoy a Christmas smooch or fucking something before cutting to the credits! If you’re binging every Christmas movie you can get your eyes on this may suffice but by no means should this be any sort of priority. Grade: C -