Usually, Netflix Christmas movies are a little more put together than movies that are on a cable television budget. The more money you have to throw at something, the better it is, right? Well…maybe not.

Jacob Turner (Justin Hartley) is a famous mystery author. When his mother passes, he has to go back to his hometown to clear out her house in order to sell it. As he is working, he meets Rachel (Barrett Doss). She is looking for her birth mother who may have worked for Jacob’s parents. Together, they set off to find the truth in their histories.

The Noel Diary is probably one of the slowest movies I have ever watched. A majority of it is filled with Rachel reading a diary while Jacob drives them to his estranged father’s house. Rachel makes a giant leap of logic assuming the diary was written by her birth mother, Noel (Essence Atkins). This is a romantic drama so of course she’s right but Rachel didn’t know her mother’s name or what she did. All she knew was that her mother once lived at Jacob’s mother’s house. Anyway, we don’t get to see anything Noel was going through. We only get to see the writing in the book.

We don’t even get deeper scenes when Jacob finally meets up with his father, Scott (James Remar), who he hasn’t seen in decades. There’s a Christmas tree decorating montage while poor Rachel and Jacob’s dog, Ava, freeze in the car. (Seriously, why does Rachel keep agreeing to stay in the car? Girl, you are going to die.) This is where we should get some good emotional backstory. Scott knew Noel! Instead of trimming trees, we should have gotten loads of stories from Scott. About Jacob’s deceased brother, Ben (Baylen D. Bielitz). About Rachel’s mother, Noel. About what Jacob’s mother, Lois (Monica McCarthy), was going through. But, no. We get Christmas decorations and a small conversation about Noel. Sad.

Normally, I don’t like spoiling movies. Even the crappiest of Christmas movies doesn’t deserve to get spoiled. However, I feel obligated to tell you that there is no payoff in The Noel Diary. All of those things the movie leads you to want, you don’t get. It is extremely frustrating to sit through an hour and forty minutes for nothing.

So, in the end, I can’t recommend watching this one. The pacing is too slow and we don’t get anything out of it. I almost wish for a sequel so we can get those things this movie promised us. But I don’t think we’ll get either. Netflix really failed on this one.