The Noel Diary (2022)
WARNING: this is not the same Justin Hartley from A Bad Moms Christmas
IYKYK
He is a successful son cleaning out his recently-deceased and estranged mother’s home, while still wearing the pain of a sibling who passed many years prior, and a still-estranged father. She is an adopted daughter of a teen birth mother, in search of her beginning. Hijinks ensue!
Just kidding - this is a slow and dramatic movie that is not at all the rom-com it sort of wants to be. And, I’m sorry, but it’s really hard to root for someone who takes off with a celebrity author on a backwoods road trip and might just conveniently ignore her fiancé the entire time, most significantly when she falls into bed with said author before sneaking out in the middle of the night to… go back to the fiancé.
Released as part of Netflix’s Christmas lineup in 2022 to a moderately receptive audience, but really it’s not even a Christmas movie per se. Sure, it hits some of the classic tropes, but overall I wouldn’t put it in my lineup. Definitely shows the Netflix production value though, which truthfully makes for a more seamless watching experience, even if it didn’t entirely resonate with me.
You’ll like this if…
You enjoy watching Justin Hartley on screen and were a This Is Us viewer.
