The Noel Diary Ending Explained: The movie was released on Netflix on November 24, 2022, as one of its many Christmas releases of the year. Directed by Charles Shyer, the film’s screenplay was handled by Shyer with Rebecca Connor and David Golden. It stars Justin Hartley, known for his emotional deliveries in the family drama series This Is Us, Barrett Doss, James Remar, Bonnie Bedelia and more.
Netflix describes the Christmas movie as follows:
jAKE DOESN’T LET ANYONE GET CLOSE. THEN RACHEL WALKS INTO HIS LIFE. THEIR CONNECTION IS CLEAR, BUT AMID PAIN AND LOSS, WILL THEY TAKE A CHANCE ON LOVE?
-The Noel Diary Ending Explained Contains Spoilers-
The Noel Diary Ending Explained
Does Jake Finally Find Love in Someone?
Despite Jake’s rather ‘eligible bachelor’ aura, he stayed aloof from people and relationships in the sole company of his beloved dog Ava. He mentions to Rachel that he’s been in a couple of relationships earlier, but none of them stuck with him. He starts developing feelings for Rachel over their adventure during Christmastime, and she reciprocates. Still, due to her relationship with her fiancé and soon-to-be-announced engagement, she tries to keep her feelings for Jake at bay.
During their trip, they get a chance to express their feelings for each other, but Rachel takes off the next day, leaving a letter for him. Jake realises that Rachel is his better half and confesses the same to her on Christmas Eve, outside her home’s window.
Does Rachel Find Her Mother?
As it happens in the film’s earlier stages, Rachel finds her mother’s diary, hence the title The Noel Diary, in Jake’s possession. The latter isn’t quite aware of the significance that diary carries yet. For him, it was merely one of the things he procured from his mother’s hoarding stash. It is revealed that Noel Ellis, Rachel’s mother, had had her daughter before her marriage, and her family disapproved of the child born out of wedlock.
She’d hoped to name her daughter Angelica, as mentioned in her diary. The following journey confirms that her mother did love her and was forced to do what she did at the time under the given circumstances. The answers retrieved during the journey are enough to put her doubts to rest. She decided to return home to her foster parents after discovering that her birth mother eventually married a man and is possibly leading a peaceful life now.
Rachel leaves Jake’s side and returns home, but he carries on and finds her mother working as a nurse at a hospital. He introduces himself as the little Jacob, at whose house she worked as a nanny and helped make a big difference in their lives back then. Then, he tells her about her daughter, to which Noel responds by adding that she’s more than willing to reconnect with her and learn about her.
What Happens to Rachel’s Engagement?
When Rachel met Jake, she was engaged to her fiancé. However, in every interaction between the leading pair, whenever the issue of her engagement was brought up, her smile would dissipate, and she would start listing out various explanations as to why they hadn’t finalised a date for the ceremony.
Due to her struggle to find her birth mother, she felt as if a part of her identity would always be lost and could never be compensated for. To overcome this problem, she sought comfort and reliance in relationships that guaranteed her a safe space to fall back on due to the need for ‘certainty’ in her life. With Jake, she initially stays in denial about her feelings and fights back the urge to start something with him due to his reputation as a world-class author, who wouldn’t be able to offer her as much certainty as she wishes.
In the end, Jake professes his love for her and claims he’s finally found someone with whom he can stay put in a serious relationship; however, Rachel feels conflicted with this timing as she’s already figuring out how to tackle her conversations with her fiancé. She tells Jake she doesn’t love him so he can leave, but she comes by his house later, insinuating that she’s cut things off with her former fiancé and is ready to move on with Jake instead.
Are Jake and His Father Able to Mend Their Relationship?
After his trip to find his father to seek connections to Rachel’s mother, Jake and his father finally sit down and chat about the past. His dad comes clean about why he left their family early on and never came back. The reason revealed eventually is that after Benjamin’s death (Jake’s brother), their father held himself responsible for the fateful accident since he built all those steps leading the kids up to the higher branches of the tree outside their home.
Benjamin was a determined young boy who wanted to hang the Christmas ornament from the tree’s highest branch. While he successfully reached the apex, he stumbled while hanging the ornament and fell headfirst from the severe height. Their father cut down the tree after that incident and moved to an isolated location alone as the boys’ parents couldn’t patch up their relationship after that day.
He left Jake behind with his wife because he didn’t want her to be left on her lonesome after what had happened. Jacob finally understands the motive that fuelled his dad’s actions and forgives him. On the other hand, not much is said about the illness of Jake’s mother, but we can’t help but think if he was supportive enough of her not because all that is said about her by their old neighbour is that she had too many bad days, which in turn had a negative impact on Jake as a child.
The Noel Diary is now streaming on Netflix.
I was enjoying this movie soooo much and the ending was lazy bullshit…a cop out! What ass wipe decided to end the movie like this?. I wonder if her hair was blond and she had blue eyes if the ending would have been so BRUTALLY DISMISSIVE!!
Really disliked the love arc. It was so unnecessary as per my taste.