Based on a book by Richard Paul Evans, not one I can say I am familiar with, The Noel Diary is, in many ways, a Christmas film with a bit more depth to it than most. That doesn't mean it's unpredictable, and it's far from perfect, but I was drawn into this from the opening scenes, and ended up rooting for the characters to overcome the various obstacles to happiness put in their way. That's the aim of so many of these movies, of course, but not all of them do enough to make you really care about the protagonists. This one did.
Justin Hartley plays Jake Turner, a successful author who has spent the majority of his adult life alone and happy. When he has to head back to his childhood home after the death of his mother, clearing out the items she had hoarded over the years forces him to remember the past events that made him the way he is today. It also leads to him encountering a young woman, Rachel (Barrett Doss), who is searching for her birth mother, a woman she believes once worked for Jake's family many years ago. As the two work together to piece together the journey of Rachel's mother, Jake ends up addressing and re-evaluating his own past, and our leads inevitably grow closer as they are forced to put themselves in a position of vulnerability.
Directed by Charles Shyer, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Rebecca Connor (her only screenplay credit, to date) and David Golden (responsible for many of these films, but this may be his best), this has a sheen of care and polish to it that many of these films can lack. Although there's an ambiguity in the opening act that makes the whole thing feel slightly odd (maybe it's just me, I wondered if Jake and Rachel would find out some big secret that would connect them in a way to rule out any chance of romance between them), everything soon settles into an easygoing and enjoyable vibe while our main characters realise truths that viewers will have suspected from very early on.
Hartley is a very good lead, believable and charming. He's genuinely good at showing someone struggling to learn how to let down the walls that he has built up over many years, and this performance is a reminder of how much screen presence, and talent, he has. Doss is equally good, delivering the kind of performance that has me hoping there will be many more lead film roles for her in the near future. Although the core cast is kept relatively small, both Bonnie Bedelia and James Remar excel in main supporting roles, both portraying people who have impacted Jake's life in different ways.
All of the tropes you expect are here (lots of snow, disrupted journeys, a potential failure or two on the way to success), but things feel fresh thanks to the moments that feel pleasantly atypical. There aren't any major misunderstandings between our leads, with clear and open communication helping them avoid the kind of confusion you usually get in this kind of thing, and the resolution feels satisfying without being as "paint by numbers"as it could have been, which makes this feel like a bit of a rarity: a Christmas movie with characters who don't keep jumping to the worst possible conclusion when one thing goes slightly wrong.
7/10
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