Ditch the mistletoe and holly and it would still be a well-crafted, well-balanced character sketch, following two lost souls as they discover what they’ve been missing.

Director Charles Shyer brings a journeyman’s ease to the screenplay (based on Richard Paul Evans’s novel by the same name): embracing holiday movie expectations here, gently deflecting them there.

It still falls in the category of “passable entertainment” for hopeless romantics and people on heavy medication. Tis the season.

The Noel Diary features charismatic characters in a story that has a lot of potential but squanders it through rushed storytelling and odd stylistic choices.