Christmas Belle (2013)

Please watch this movie on mute. Even on mute you will understand how horrible this film is. I was hoping it would be cheesy.... Nope, straight up brutal!I am convinced that the actors family must have written even the mediocre reviews. The acting is unbelievable.... The only decent actor is Tony... Well and the dog!Please.... If you watch this rate it properly. Don't rate it a 4 and then say it is garbage.If you have any Christmas spirit watch 10 minutes, realize it is the worst movie available and rate it appropriately.

The story kept my attention, although the script was awkward and stilted. But the music during the ENTIRE movie was so invasive it ruined the movie. The male lead was attractive and Duff was refreshing because she is a normal weight woman, not a stick figure. The setting was beautiful.

I like holiday movies and I like "Bad" movies as most have redeeming qualities. However, this slice of festive fun is neither festive or fun. The story is loosely based on Beauty and The Beast. Sadly, when The Beast isn't a Beast, just a man whose beastly, then it becomes difficult to have the love interest fall for a man, who shouts at her, degrades her, and lashes out at her.However, this gaping whole in the script isn't the only let down. The acting is below average. Even C Thomas Howell cannot lift the cast... to be truthful he takes it a bit further into the quagmire; his high-pitched effeminate portrayal of the father is cringeworthy. It made me smirk the first time I heard it, but by the end of the film I'd had enough. Which is a shame as I think C Thomas Howell is a pretty decent actor.I wouldn't recommend this movie to anyone.

I'm not someone who rags on TV movies. I enjoy them most of the time, despite their flaws. But this one is absolute garbage that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. For starters, the other reviewers were right about the music. Oh my God the music! It's this cheesy canned e-card piano music that never ever stops for one single second. It will drive you insane! I cannot stress enough how awful it is and how it ruins any chance this movie had of being a good experience. However I did try to look past it and see if there was anything of worth in the movie that the ear-bleeding music was hiding. Sadly, there was nothing. The story is a flimsy take on Beauty & the Beast. The Christmas part is irrelevant. Haylie Duff is the beauty and, while she's certainly giving it her best, after awhile you get tired of her character being a doormat for every man in the movie and you just give up caring what happens to her. Nicholas Gonzalez is the beast, a jerk with few redeeming qualities who seems to suffer from an unfortunate shirt allergy. His character's tragic backstory does little to make us care about him. We just want him to shut up and (some of us) want him to put on a shirt. He also "gets the wrong idea" repeatedly just to give the movie some manufactured angst. So annoying and yet another character trait you'll find yourself asking "Who wants to deal with that?" It's nonsense like this that makes it hard to root for the main characters to get together. Supporting cast is not much better, led by a supremely annoying C. Thomas Howell as the worst dad ever. Then we have Mark Famiglietti as one of the most despicable characters I've ever seen in one of these TV movies. He's the 'other guy,' the one the girl is never going to end up with and we all know it from the first minute of the movie but have to suffer through feigned uncertainty for the sake of the predictable plot. This guy is given no positive traits and, as the movie goes along, you begin to wonder if there's some kind of fake-out going on and this is actually going to be a thriller where he kills Haylie Duff and the beast guy must solve her murder. At least then some of the movie would have made more sense. Anyway, avoid this trash at all costs. It's poorly acted, written, and directed. It's sappy, schmaltzy, corny, cheesy, dumb, obnoxious, and offensive to the senses. That music! That *expletive deleted* music!