First up is the 2011 Ion Television classic A Christmas Kiss, starring Laura Breckenridge and Brendan Fehr. I’ll be honest and admit that part of my loyalty to this movie stems from my love of Roswell (circa 2000). Seeing Brendan Fehr go from moody Michael Guerin to also kinda moody businessman Ken was very fun for me. His character is so trapped in his bubble of wealth that he can’t see his girlfriend is manipulative. It takes basically an hour for him to find out that his soulmate is the mousy bespeckled assistant he’s been hanging out with. Who is also the girl he kissed at the beginning of the movie, because obviously cheating is rewarded with true love. On the other side of things our heroine taps into a reformed theater kid energy that I thought I’d left behind. Never mind the tried-and-true cliché of the white brunette who isn’t recognized as pretty until she takes off her glasses, and, in this case, puts on be-wild body glitter. Still, I sat through the whole film marveling that homegirl’s friends spent the whole movie encouraging her to get with a cheater…and then she does! The real take away is that Jerrika Hinton is a scene stealer and that I love her. (she plays the bff of the main girl and the movie needed even more of her)
I don’t understand why there are so many royalty centric Christmas movies but I did like this one. I appreciate it differently now that I’m older (but not old mind you) and I realize that trying to raise someone else’s traumatized kids must be insanely hard. It’s actually a kinda unique plot point for a fluffy holiday romance.
Anyway, I can’t exactly quantify why I like this movie, but I do know that it is in spite of a terrible hip hop dance break (after which the antagonist calls it ghetto dancing). The bare bones of the movie are pretty straightforward, aunt cares for dead sister’s kids and falls for their rich prince uncle. A different movie would have had the characters akin to Dr. Phil guests, but the actors are just hokey enough to come off as relentlessly pleasant. I will say the wide-eyed Disney princess energy of Jules Daly (Katie McGrath) was annoying at times but when paired with Sam Heughan’s stuffy good-hearted prince it sort of worked. Or perhaps I’m just a sap, there is also that, I guess. Still the quick romantic turnovers in these kinds of movies are always a bit jarring. The prince breaks up with a harpy and immediately hightails it into the heroine’s arms, all during a ball no less. All in all, this movie follows the Hallmark formula, right down to the easily solved misunderstanding that almost dooms the couple. Classic.
This movie appealed to the frustrated 20-something in me and I’m happy to see it work out for someone. Especially when it’s pretty Black girls (shout out to Kat Graham). There’s also the fact that, historically, I’m an absolute sucker for a seemingly hopeless friends to lovers arc. This movie like the others is nowhere close to perfect. Netflix holiday romcoms are a unique kind of corny that I generally appreciate. This is deepened further because The Holiday Calendar was the first project I saw Ethan Peck in after the short lived 10 Things I Hate About You tv series. His character in here is a pompous doctor who takes the main character out on lovely personality free dates. Spock is more charming, but Netflix romances definitely don’t have the same kind of quality control as Star Trek. Apples and oranges and whatnot.
The main thing that bothered me about this movie was the conflict between the couple. He messed up a potential job opportunity and her current job, but she shouldn’t be mad cause she stood him up to see an almost 40-year-old movie that pretty much everyone has seen. Obviously, she has the right to be mad as he messed up big time, made worse cause he’s messing with her money, and people deserve space to feel however they’re feeling. This movie though has her calling and texting him a montage later, while he ghosts her. By the time they get to their big love confession I couldn’t even care. Definitely had me re-examining how I feel about the best friend trope, cause homeboy certainly did not deserve her because he waited around and bought some Italian shoes.
Final Thoughts
These are all movies I actually liked once upon a time and rewatching them made me realize that I may not like holiday romances after all. I’m also a little worried at how easy it is for me to turn off my brain and enjoy some of the things I watch. Nostalgia really will have you romanticizing all kinds of nonsense. Like movies about cheaters in elevators and helplessly quirky Americans who bring the Christmas spirit back to old castles. But… I’ll still probably rewatch at least two of these come next year.
I have been rewatching my childhood favs too. And realizing they’re not as good as I thought they were.
It can be a hard pill to swallow, but I fear it’s necessary sometimes. Makes room for new things.