Warning: SPOILERS for The Noel Diary are ahead!
Whether you save watching Christmas movies for after Thanksgiving is over or have been doing so since the end of Halloween, there’s no question that we’re now squarely in the festive cinema viewing season. Obviously classics like It’s a Wonderful Life (a production packed with behind-the-scenes facts) and A Christmas Story are favorites to put on this time of year, but among the new Christmas movies that have already been released in The Noel Diary, which can be streamed with a Netflix subscription. However, while The Noel Diary is ranking at #1 on the streaming service, there are some people who’ve already checked it out and have a lot of issues with the ending.
The Noel Diary stars Justin Hartley as author Jake Turner, who comes back to his hometown to settle his estranger mother’s estate and comes across information concerning both his past and that of Barrett Doss’ Rachel. She’s in the same town trying to learn about her birth mother, Noel, who was Jake’s nanny and gave Rachel up due to not having the money to take care of her. I won’t delve into a beat-by-beat breakdown of what happens between these two, but by the end of the movie, it seems, though still with some ambiguity, that Jake and Rachel could get that classic rom-com ending of coming together. Also, while Rachel does eventually find Noel and decide not to disrupt her birth mother’s life, Jake does meet Noel and tell her about her Rachel’s existence, so there’s the possibility that the two women could still meet someday.
So now that we have the basic beats of The Noel Diary’s ending laid out, let’s cut right to the chase: numerous fans have gone on Twitter to voice their dissatisfaction with how the movie ends. Starting off:
The Noel Diary was (almost) one of the best Christmas movies yet...that ending KILLED me. Why would @netflix do that!?!?!?!Please give us a part 2 for redemption.#noeldiaryNovember 27, 2022
Like the movie as a whole, The Noel Diary’s ending has received polarizing reception. In this person’s case, it was the freeze frame aspect that displeased them.
the noel diary was cute but the freeze frame ending took me outNovember 24, 2022
One viewer went so far as to declare that The Noel Diary delivered the worst Christmas movie ending ever, and shared something they would have preferred to see in those final minutes.
The Noel Diary had the worst Christmas movie ending I have ever experienced I would have preferred a flash mobNovember 27, 2022
One of the main issues this section of The Noel Diary fandom has is the ambiguity regarding where things are left off with Jake and Rachel, as we don’t know for a fact if these two will begin a romantic relationship.
The Noel Diary was sooo good, and on the verge of being one of my favourite movies….and then that shitty, robbed the audience ending. I’ve *never* been that disappointed in how a movie ended, way too quick. Boooo.November 25, 2022
Then there are folks like the person below, took issue with how Rachel chose not to meet Noel after going to all that trouble to find her, among other things.
I watched the Noel Diary on Netflix and knew it was going to be cheesy but what was that ending? Why the buildup with the mom but never seeing it through? And why did he leave her and the dog in the car, while it was snowing /cold? Lol they couldn’t have waited inside? pic.twitter.com/B2k2heer8NNovember 27, 2022
The Noel Diary currently ranks at 67% on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, and the Audience Score rests at 55%. So while not a terrible Christmas movie by any stretch of the imagination, and it’s definitely getting a lot of views, its chances of being heralded as a Christmas classic are up in the air. You’ll have to see The Noel Diary on Netflix for yourself to determine out if you want to add it to your yearly rotation, but before reaching that decision, figure out your feelings about the ending.
Don’t forget to look through our 2022 release schedule to learn what movies are left to come out for the rest of the year. This include Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and other flicks that will be available to stream on Netflix in December. And if you’re not interested in viewing The Noel Diary, Netflix has plenty of other Christmas movies to check out.
