NORTH BY NORTH POLE: A DIAL S MYSTERY

Name: NORTH BY NORTH POLE: A DIAL S MYSTERY
Item: NORTH BY NORTH POLE: A DIAL S MYSTERY
Author: Review

"Marred by Two Non-Christian Statements"

Content: -1 Caution advised for older children, including teenagers, and sensitive adults.

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

NORTH BY NORTH POLE: A DIAL S MYSTERY is a romantic comedy on UPtv with some mystery elements. Zoey is a designer who wants nothing more than to organize the perfect Christmas Festival in her small hometown of Willow Creek. However, Zoey faces challenges when she’s paired with Dalton, the son of the matching donor for the festival. The funds will be used to renovate the town’s community center. Zoey and Dalton face a big challenge, however, because someone is trying to sabotage the festival. Can they find the culprit before Dalton’s father pulls his funding promise?

NORTH BY NORTH POLE is an enjoyable and funny romantic comedy. The mystery subplot adds an extra layer of fun. For example, one of the suspects is Zoey’s business rival. The rival flirts with Dalton, which annoys Zoey. Another suspect is the town’s elderly curmudgeon. NORTH BY NORTH POLE has strong positive themes stressing honesty, love, celebrating Christmas, generosity, and charity. However, the ending is marred by some Romantic dialogue about believing in yourself and following your heart. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for children and mature viewers.

Content:

(BB, C, PP, CapCap, Ro, V, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview with light Christian, redemptive content promotes small-town America and stresses owning a business, being honest to the ones we love, celebrating Christmas, forgiveness, love, and charity, plus the male lead character wears a cross necklace in a few scenes, there are images of a church in the middle of the town, and the Santa Claus character promotes having the “spirit of Christmas,” but he’s rather vague about what that means, and the movie has no overt references to Jesus or the true origin of Christmas, plus there’s a Romantic, Non-Christian element when the movie’s emotional climax has Santa telling the female lead, “No one can steal your faith, not when you believe in yourself” and adds that believing in yourself means that you are “following your heart”;

Foul Language:

No foul language;

Violence:

Someone is sabotaging the Christmas festival, ornaments are deliberately broken, a building is broken into, threats are made via letter to shut down the festival; Alcohol Use/Abuse: No alcohol;

Sex:

No sex (two unmarried couples kiss, one twice, in three scenes);

Nudity:

No nudity;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

No smoking or drug abuse; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Decorations and donated auction items are stolen when someone secretly enters the storage room where they’re kept.

More Detail:

NORTH BY NORTH POLE: A DIAL S MYSTERY is a comic mystery on UPtv.

The movie opens with Santa Claus deciding that the small town of Willow Creel needs his help. Cut to Zoey, a young designer who wants nothing more than to organize the perfect Christmas Festival in Willow Creek. Zoey and her coworker and friend, Avery, receive a threatening letter telling them to call off the festival. However, Zoey is determined to deliver on this long-time tradition.

In a funny scene, Zoey and Avery are working on hiring someone to play Santa Claus during the festival. Santa gets rid of all the other viable candidates by telling them a nearby town has a higher paid Santa Claus position. So, Zoey and Avery end up hiring the real Santa Claus.

Zoey is met with another obstacle when Dalton, the festival’s matching donor’s son, arrives. Zoey and Dalton clash over the festival’s design at a community meeting. If the festival’s successful in raising money, Dalton’s father will re-design the community center, which is called Heritage House.

Despite their differences, Zoey and Dalton quickly form an alliance when someone breaks into the venue, looking to sabotage the festival further. They decide to investigate the anonymous saboteur while Wilson, the assistant to Dalton’s father,” works with Avery to work on other things for the festival, such as gathering the donated items for the festival’s fundraising auction.

However, with the culprit still loose and Dalton not being totally truthful about his intentions, the festival seems like it has everything working against it.

Will Zoey and Dalton be able to work together to apprehend the saboteur and save the festival? Or, will Dalton’s father’s desire for money influence his son to betray Zoey?

NORTH BY NORTH POLE is an enjoyable, funny romantic comedy with some mystery elements scattered throughout the story. The movie tells a simple story. However, it does stress some positive themes like the importance of being honest to the ones we love, forgiveness, love, and charity.

The movie also does a good job of balancing three different romantic relationships throughout the story. Besides Zoey and Dalton, Wilson and Avery are developing feelings for one another. Also, Zoey’s mother has decided to join forces in the festival baking with her baking rival, a baker named Jim. It’s engaging to see how each of these different stories unravel.

The mystery elements in NORTH BY NORTH POLE are secondary, but they do add a unique quality to this Christmas story. Also, the Santa character magically and comically always seems to be in the right place at the right time.

For the most part, NORTH BY NORTH POLE: A DIAL S MYSTERY is a cute, harmless Christmas romance. However, in the movie’s emotional climax, after encouraging Zoey to have faith, Santa tells her, “No one can steal your faith, not when you believe in yourself.” When Zoey asks him how does she do that, Santa replies, “By following your heart.” Thus, the movie fails to recognize Jesus, or even God as deserving of faith and plays it safe. As the New Testament stories and writings about Jesus make clear, we aren’t supposed to rely on ourselves. We are supposed to turn to Jesus and His Gospel and rely on and trust in him.

So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for children and mature viewers when it comes to NORTH BY NORTH POLE.