Film Review Throwback - "Noelle"

Noelle

Directed by Marc Lawrence

Starring Anna Kendrick, Bill Hader, and Shirley MacLaine

I suppose in a way, Christmas films are a dime-a-dozen. Quantity over quality, at least in the case of the Hallmark Channel. Netflix seems to be following suit nowadays, but I’ve heard good things about The Christmas Chronicles duology, and as I’ve said before Klaus is brilliant. 

Major theatrically-released Christmas films seem to be a thing of the past nowadays. And I’m not just saying that because movie theaters are on life-support right now. No, the last Christmas film that I can recall that was heading for theaters was Noelle, before Disney decided to make it an exclusive on their fancy new streaming service last year. Noelle received mixed reviews from critics, and sort of got lost in the shuffle in the first days of Disney Plus, overshadowed by Mandalorians, Goldblums, and High School Musicals. A year later, I was finally able to watch Noelle and I found it to be a simple and enjoyable holiday offering, that doesn’t completely live up to its potential.

Noelle (Kendrick) is the Christmas-loving daughter of Santa Claus (Jay Brazeau) who wants to be just like her father. Alas tradition dictates her older brother Nick (Hader) follow in his father’s footsteps. Flash forward to present-ish day and with their father passed away (Yeah Santa passes away in this film. Bold move, Cotton) Noelle helps her brother prepare for his first Christmas as Santa. Nick’s anxious and his training isn’t going super well, so Noelle suggests he take a weekend to breathe and relax. Instead, Nick vanishes a week before Christmas, and all of the North Pole blames Noelle (Because conflict?).

Disgraced, Noelle ventures outside the North Pole with her childhood nanny Polly (McLaine) to find her brother and bring him home. Along the way she befriends a private-investigator (Jake Hapman) and his son (Maceo Smedley), and learns a bit more about the true meaning of Christmas, and her own special gifts. Meanwhile, with Nick gone, their cousin Gabe (Billy Eichner) is nominated as the next Santa, but threatens to doom the holiday with modern technology and tighter “naughty and nice” guidelines.

Although I’m sure there’s some Hallmark or Lifetime film out there that’s tackled this idea to a lesser quality, I think the idea of a female, Santa’s daughter, taking over his job to be a rather unique concept we haven’t seen much of. I imagine if this film was released theatrically it would’ve been a modest hit. But release-methods aside, the film doesn’t seem very concerned with exploring that concept. 

Instead the film spends more time on searching for Nick, and going through the “fish-out-of water” routine with its protagonist as she explores the regular world, something that we’ve seen in film many times before. This makes Noelle a sort of Santa Clause/gender-swapped Elf hybrid. There are some genuine funny moments that come from this routine though. Additionally, there are some really nice scenes where Noelle is discovering her “Santa powers” for lack of a better phrase. A highlight in the film is where she meets a little girl who cannot speak and starts to sign with her, despite never knowing how to sign before (Santa can speak all languages and communicate in many ways with children apparently. It’s sweet.)

The character arc is so clear here. Noelle wants to get her brother home to restore the natural order of Christmas, but she needs to embrace who she is and take on the role as Santa. If the film was more concerned with following that path then silly side-quests, or focused more on the concept of a female Santa, Noelle could have gone from “good” to “great”.

What really sells the film is Kendrick in the titular role. She’s giving it her all. She’s funny, she’s charming, she’s full of heart. This is kind of a perfect character for her. Bill Hader has some enjoyable moments as Nick. I miss seeing him on a weekly basis. He plays the reluctant Santa with a nice balance of awkward and goofy. Shirley McLaine has a lot of nice moments as Polly. Billy Eichner is surprisingly subtle as Gabe Kringle, and a bit underutilized when you know what he’s capable of.

The visuals I would say are as nice as any you would see in any other live-action Christmas film. The North Pole sets are quaint, but you’ve seen better in say, The Santa Clause films. As a human with an affinity for elf culture, I must say the costume work in Noelle was very tasteful and festive.

Something that I wondered while watching was, is Noelle supposed to be a princess/Disney princess? Polly and other characters refer to her as “Princess”, but The Kringle’s aren’t royalty, but they get “family discounts” and there’s some old charter that says the oldest sibling must take over the role of Santa. She has a cute CGI reindeer sidekick named Snowcone, who probably was supposed to be plushy and covering shelves at the local Disney Store (The CGI on him was decent by the way). Anyway, just something the film left unclear.

 

Noelle is a sweet Christmas film that satisfies but leaves you wanting more than what it offers. But what we have is a reasonably entertaining film with a compelling premise and a wonderful lead performance. There are a lot worse films you can waste your holiday season watching, so I say give this one a chance before watching your 17th Hallmark film of the month...but also it’s good to support those films because they provide a lot of work for people in the industry. *The More You Know*