I found this movie on Netflix streaming. I watched it with my wife on Christmas Eve, as we both were suffering with very bad head and chest colds. Bah, humbug!
The story focuses on young Erin Galway-Kendrick as Noelle O'Hanlon, so named because she was born on Christmas day and, because her dad had vehicle issues, she was born in a manger of sorts and delivered by an older woman who had only delivered calves before.
Noelle grows up much like all her friends in their small sea-side town, but she finds she has a talent, the ability to perform "small miracles". Usually manifest this way, when two people were quarreling she could look at them, squint a bit, and all would become happy and cooperative.
The drama comes when Rob James-Collier (the nasty guy on Downton Abbey) as Pat McKerrod comes back to town. He grew up there but obviously with great disdain for the place and its struggling snow globe factory. He has returned to represent himself as their savior, he will buy the company and assure jobs for all, but he is lying to them. He is working for Pierce Brosnan back in the States, who literally phones in his role as Mr. Shepherd, a tough businessman who only cares about himself.
So the resolution of the various stories requires Noelle and her young friends to discover the truth and to point it out so that her small town and its snow globe business can be preserved.
It is all fairly trite and over-simplified but I don't believe the filmmakers ever thought they were making an award-winning movie. It is just a small movie with a Christmas theme and entertaining for those in the right frame of mind for it.
The story focuses on young Erin Galway-Kendrick as Noelle O'Hanlon, so named because she was born on Christmas day and, because her dad had vehicle issues, she was born in a manger of sorts and delivered by an older woman who had only delivered calves before.
Noelle grows up much like all her friends in their small sea-side town, but she finds she has a talent, the ability to perform "small miracles". Usually manifest this way, when two people were quarreling she could look at them, squint a bit, and all would become happy and cooperative.
The drama comes when Rob James-Collier (the nasty guy on Downton Abbey) as Pat McKerrod comes back to town. He grew up there but obviously with great disdain for the place and its struggling snow globe factory. He has returned to represent himself as their savior, he will buy the company and assure jobs for all, but he is lying to them. He is working for Pierce Brosnan back in the States, who literally phones in his role as Mr. Shepherd, a tough businessman who only cares about himself.
So the resolution of the various stories requires Noelle and her young friends to discover the truth and to point it out so that her small town and its snow globe business can be preserved.
It is all fairly trite and over-simplified but I don't believe the filmmakers ever thought they were making an award-winning movie. It is just a small movie with a Christmas theme and entertaining for those in the right frame of mind for it.