Wildly implausible and often ridiculous. But there are some nice moments.

Murrayville Community Memorial Hall - 21667 48 Ave, Langley, British Columbia, Canada

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Jesse Metcalfe and Fiona Gubelmann in Christmas Next Door (2017)

Marlo Thomas, Alison Sweeney, and Maesa Nicholson in A Magical Christmas Village (2022)

David Alpay and Erin Cahill in Sleigh Bells Ring (2016)

Matthew Davis and Jill Wagner in Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses (2019)

Sarah Drew and Brennan Elliott in Christmas in Vienna (2020)

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Zane Holtz and Torrey DeVitto in 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (2022)

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Benjamin Ayres, Taylor Cole, Jacqueline Ann Steuart, Stephanie Van Dyck, and Grant Vlahovic in Long Lost Christmas (2022)

Michael Rady and Natalie Knepp in A Joyous Christmas (2017)

Bonnie Bedelia in A Joyous Christmas (2017)

Natalie Knepp in A Joyous Christmas (2017)

Natalie Knepp

Michael Rady

Bonnie Bedelia

Heather R. Provost

Scott Damian

A young self-help author returns to her hometown during the Christmas holidays to promote her new book--and discovers the true meaning of Christmas and family.

Allan Harmon

A Joyous Christmas

Although some reviewers didn&apos;t like her work in this movie, I thought Bonnie Bedelia did a convincing job depicting Joy, a broken, perpetually sad woman trying to help others. She was slow moving, slow talking, and withdrawn because that is in line with her sad and depressed character, especially when we learn why she&apos;s so sad. It&apos;s probably also worth pointing out that Bedelia was nominated for two Emmy awards and has been in countless TV shows and movies including the first 2 Die Hard movies (she was Holly McClane).

Michael Rady and Natalie Knepp were both fine. Rady has done good work at Hallmark (my favorite so far is Christmas in Homestead). Knepp, on the other hand, seems to be one and done at Hallmark. She apparently hasn&apos;t acted in much since. I liked her, but it&apos;s a tough business.

There are 2 big problems with A Joyous Christmas. One is the Big Reveal. It&apos;s not just implausible, it&apos;s insanely unlikely. It&apos;s like in Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey is told the chance of being with Lauren Holly is &quot;one in a million&quot; and he says &quot;so you&apos;re telling me there&apos;s a chance?&quot;.

And he had way better odds than the odds of what is disclosed during this movie&apos;s Big Reveal.

The other big problem is the whole &quot;Me First&quot; self help phenomenon that somehow justifies a pricey big production &quot;Event&quot; in Rachel&apos;s hometown during Christmas. I&apos;ve seen plenty of lectures and they&apos;re basically somebody standing on the stage in front of a lectern, or sitting on a couch or chair, talking for an hour. Occasionally, there&apos;s a multi media presentation projected on the screen behind the speaker. There&apos;s also, inevitably, a Teleprompter to help them out. There&apos;s not a whole lot of &quot;production&quot; involved, and there certainly wasn&apos;t any evidence of any special production with the &quot;Me First&quot; event despite all the scrambling around to &quot;get ready&quot;. Basic Christmas decorations don&apos;t count.

And Rachel&apos;s brother, and his kids, would likely have been bored out of their minds.

Plus, a &quot;Me First&quot; &quot;Christmas spectacular&quot; makes about as much sense as a Fourth of July celebration in Russia. How can Rachel promote her &quot;Me First&quot; brand in the midst of a holiday season centered around the selflessness of Christmas? Why would anyone set that up? And why would a successful producer just happen to be in their small town ready to work?

And if Rachel is inevitably convinced to wrap herself up in the Christmas spirit, and give a speech that embraces the selflessness of Christmas, how does that promote her &quot;Me First&quot; brand? In fact, doesn&apos;t that just undermine her book&apos;s message? And thereby invalidate her entire career?

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYTRmMmRiYTItMTRkZS00NjE2LWIzZGItOWUwZmQxMWRhOWVhXkEyXkFqcGdeQTNwaW5nZXN0._V1_.jpg

Although some reviewers didn't like her work in this movie, I thought Bonnie Bedelia did a convincing job depicting Joy, a broken, perpetually sad woman trying to help others. She was slow moving, slow talking, and withdrawn because that is in line with her sad and depressed character, especially when we learn why she's so sad. It's probably also worth pointing out that Bedelia was nominated for two Emmy awards and has been in countless TV shows and movies including the first 2 Die Hard movies (she was Holly McClane).

Michael Rady and Natalie Knepp were both fine. Rady has done good work at Hallmark (my favorite so far is Christmas in Homestead). Knepp, on the other hand, seems to be one and done at Hallmark. She apparently hasn't acted in much since. I liked her, but it's a tough business.

There are 2 big problems with A Joyous Christmas. One is the Big Reveal. It's not just implausible, it's insanely unlikely. It's like in Dumb and Dumber when Jim Carrey is told the chance of being with Lauren Holly is "one in a million" and he says "so you're telling me there's a chance?".

And he had way better odds than the odds of what is disclosed during this movie's Big Reveal.

The other big problem is the whole "Me First" self help phenomenon that somehow justifies a pricey big production "Event" in Rachel's hometown during Christmas. I've seen plenty of lectures and they're basically somebody standing on the stage in front of a lectern, or sitting on a couch or chair, talking for an hour. Occasionally, there's a multi media presentation projected on the screen behind the speaker. There's also, inevitably, a Teleprompter to help them out. There's not a whole lot of "production" involved, and there certainly wasn't any evidence of any special production with the "Me First" event despite all the scrambling around to "get ready". Basic Christmas decorations don't count.

And Rachel's brother, and his kids, would likely have been bored out of their minds.

Plus, a "Me First" "Christmas spectacular" makes about as much sense as a Fourth of July celebration in Russia. How can Rachel promote her "Me First" brand in the midst of a holiday season centered around the selflessness of Christmas? Why would anyone set that up? And why would a successful producer just happen to be in their small town ready to work?

And if Rachel is inevitably convinced to wrap herself up in the Christmas spirit, and give a speech that embraces the selflessness of Christmas, how does that promote her "Me First" brand? In fact, doesn't that just undermine her book's message? And thereby invalidate her entire career?

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