earnestness

The film is a bewitching spectacle, a classic holiday season event movie that brims with enough earnestness to keep even its fluffiest moments from becoming corny intellectual property slop.

The earnestness is almost as overwhelming as the ambiance.

Neither does “Happy’s Place,” even as it flirts with making the youthful earnestness of Escobedo's character into a joke.

But Garfield, aided by his earnestness — and Britishness — more often comes across as a seeker, not a preacher.

“There was an earnestness behind the why, and then he listened. … That coach was already instilled in him starting to play out.”