Netflix decided to jump on the cheesy Christmas special train a few years ago, but this was the first one I found about a writer.

Jacob Turner is a successful historical thriller novelist with his face pasted on buses and people coming to signings dressed as his characters. He lives with his dog Ava in a house full of pretentious trappings like French cinema, David Sedaris books, Nina Simone albums . . . aw, crap. I’d totally be friends with this shmuck. His mom, a hoarder, passes and Jake goes home for the first time in years to clear out her house. He reconnects with his favorite neighbor, Ellie, whose house he used to stay at when his mom was having “bad days”. Ellie points out how she can recognize characters from his books, especially the two based upon his parents. His father had not been around much after Jacob’s brother passed away in a childhood tree-related accident.

Unexpectedly, a lovely young woman name Rachel shows up on her door looking for her birth mother (Noel) who was Jacob’s childhood nanny. She’s looking for a job as a UN translator which is a great job. In fact, everyone in this has a great job! Rachel’s parents make their own jewelry, Ellie is an artist, and Ellie’s boyfriend is in a symphony orchestra. Does this world just have awesome jobs for all? Who collects the garbage?

The pair go on a road trip to find Jake’s dad, Scott, while reading Noel’s Diary which Scott found in a box. It’s a Christmas movie about look for a woman named Noel. Get it? Yep. Groan. While on their journey they watch It’s a Wonderful Life on an outdoor screen in the snow. It’s a lovely scene and all I could think was, “Cold. So cold.” Jacob works on his latest book while Rachel bonds with Ava the dog. Rachel reads the first book in Jake’s series, but waits to tell him until she’s finished for the plain and simple reason of “what if I didn’t like it”. She uses the book to psycho-analyze him, yet does still compliment him on the ending.

The film gets all dramatic as Jake reunites with his dad and they find Rachel’s mom. There’s a lot of commitment issues and “Say Anything” moments minus the boombox. This was a more serious movie than I was expecting. Still cheesy. Suuuuuper cheesy. Then I found out it was based on a Richard Paul Evans book. That makes sense. But at least one of the main characters was a fluffy dog!