Christmas 2020 Reviews: Day 15 - A Shoe Addicts Christmas (2018)

A Shoe Addict's Christmas: because the question on all of our minds is... how do people who love shoes a lot spend their Christmas?

This film follows Noelle (played by Candace Cameron Bure) who works in PR at a fancy megastore. She pretends to be content with this, but like with many other things in her life, she isn't really as happy or satisfied as she wants others to believe. She's still struggling with her feelings after breaking up with her boyfriend three years ago, and her relationship with her father has been strained ever since her mother died. One night, she's accidentally locked inside her store, where she meets Charlie, her quirky guardian angel. Charlie (Jean Smart) takes Noelle on a journey, by taking her to moments in her past, and showing her how different her life could be if she made some different choices. As Noelle starts to work on building a better future, in the present, she is roped into planning a local gala event with her attractive fireman neighbour (played by Luke Macfarlane) who may find his way into the future Charlie is guiding Noelle towards...

That synopsis sounds like a dumbed down version of A Christmas Carol (and I didn't even mention that it was by getting Noelle to try on shoes that Charlie is able to take her to moments in her past), but this film surprised me in a good way. It was actually well-written and this was the first Hallmark film I've seen where the romance wasn't the main focus, which was really refreshing. The main focus was actually Noelle's desire to be a professional photographer. This was a nice idea, but unfortunately, the photos we saw that were taken by Noelle were of very average quality, if not even occasionally a little bit shite. It might not be so bad if everyone around her didn't constantly act as if she was the Leonardo Da Vinci of photography. There's this one photo that everyone in the film adores, and thinks is, quote, "incredible". This is that photo, in a frame on Noelle's wall for all to admire:

I rest my case. This photo is fine, but not particularly impressive or aesthetically special by any means. It's too dark, it's not a satisfying use of of the rule of thirds, and the light glares that partially cover the woman's face are amateurish. Additionally, the light glares on the left side are distracting too. I believe that's a train she's supposed to be looking at, but it's hard to tell. The way the photography is shown in this shot, with a busy wall behind it (and I cropped out some of the busyness) also distracts from it. It's also unclear if some of the light glares are from the actual photograph, or from how the studio filming a shot of this photograph is lit. This isn't a massive spoiler, but Noelle decides to enter this photograph in a competition. She had previously been put off of this for several reasons, one of them being that she didn't know the name of the woman in the photograph. However, when she finds out the woman's name, she's happy to enter it into the contest.

That can't be right. Surely there's some consent form this woman should be filling out before Noelle does this? A photo of this woman might win a competition, and she doesn't even know that she's a part of it. She may not even know that a random woman - our protagonist - took a photo of her and displayed it in her home, for what was apparently several years before entering it in this competition. It just feels a bit funny to me. Surely it would make more sense to either not know her name and enter it in the competition, or find out who she is and then ask her if she's okay for it to be in the competition?

The cast was fine, with the strongest player being Candace Cameron Bure as Noelle. I didn't quite know what to make of Jean Smart's Charlie, but I think I like her. I think the character's eccentric behaviour would be very hit or miss, with a lot of people possibly finding her irritating, but there was something about her that reminded me a bit of Dory from Finding Nemo - she was naïve in her somewhat annoying behaviour, and felt bad whenever she realised she had done something wrong, that endeared me to her.

Our male lead had a nice smile and worked well with his leading lady, but I can't say that I remember anything about him other than the fact he is a firefighter.

Overall, this film was okay. It isn't as shallow as the title would have you think, and some of the writing is good. It's surprisingly very Christian at some points, which caught me off-guard at times, but I need to remember that the Hallmark Channel is primarily based in the Christian faith. Unfortunately, it's just too bland to be memorable - I had more to say about a photograph in the film than I did about the film itself. The execution of some things such as the mystery of who Noelle's soulmate is, and the quality of her photos makes this feel cheesier than could be enjoyable at times. It's harmless, but not entertaining, or impactful in any way. While I'm a fan of the romance not being a central theme, I think the target audience of romantics who genuinely enjoy these kind of films may be disappointed in the lack of it here, and find the film dull because of it.

THE SCOREBOARD

Would I recommend this film? No, unless you want something passive in the background while you open your presents or after you've had a big Christmas dinner.

Christmas quote of the film: "My mother loved the holidays. She wanted to call me 'Jingle', but my father talked her out of it." - Noelle

Film rating: 4/10