‘Tis the holiday season, so it’s literally the only time of the year when you can watch Christmas movies. I’ve written about how holiday-movie-watching is a relatively new phenomenon for me. In 2022, I’ve had the opportunity to catch up with a handful of films, including Hotel for the Holidays, a multi-character rom-com that could have been a lot better executed. Here are short reviews for a number of other holiday films I’ve caught up with.
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| Image courtesy Hallmark Channel |
The Royal Nanny
Rachel Skarsten, Dan Jeannotte, Greta Scacchi, Toussaint Meghie, Isabelle Wilson
MI5 agent Claire (Rachel Skarsten) is tasked with an unusual new mission—going undercover as the nanny for the royal family in order to protect them from a potential threat. Claire is 100% certain she is unsuitable for the job, but hey, she’s the only woman on the team, so she gets drafted for this terrible task. But The Royal Nanny being a holiday film, its not long before she and the obnoxious kids become besties, and Claire and the kids’ annoying uncle Colin (Dan Jeannotte) start making eyes at each other.
Aside from the fact that this
movie would have been so much more interesting if Claire and her partner Wallace
(Toussaint Meghie) had switched places as nanny and security guard, this film
wasn’t bad. The story itself isn’t taxing, but I liked the espionage subplot,
however silly it may have been. The action scenes were a bit disappointing, but
the MI5 angle cut the monotony of what could have been yet another romantic
comedy revolving around fictional royalty.
I will say that there were a few
story moments that made me scratch my head. At one point, a character pleads to
a multi-millionaire to invest in presents for foster children, though he has
bigger aspirations that will actually help these kids in the future. I kind of side
with the rich guy this time.
Admittedly, the performances
aren’t great, but Skarsten is really fun in it though. There’s a little bit of
her Alice affectations (her
character in The CW’s Batwoman) in the film, but Skarsten is also
very earnest and likeable as Claire. Claire has a very rounded characterization
and I feel like she doesn’t have to settle or curtail her dreams to get a happy
ending. I am still wholly unconvinced by the central romance, but I guess that
had to happen.
These Hallmark films follow a
formula, and though The Royal Nanny doesn’t buck any trends, I thought the
spy subplot added a new and interesting dynamic. All in all, kind of enjoyable,
if not particularly memorable.
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| Credit: Erin Simkin/Prime Video. Copyright: © 2022 Amazon Content Services LLC |
Based
on the book by Melissa Hill, Something from Tiffany’s
is a film where UCLA professor Ethan (Kendrick Sampson) and his daughter
Daisy (Leah Jeffries) go on holiday to New York and lose the film’s MacGuffin. The
central premise is retrieving said MacGuffin, but said retrieval is much more
complicated than anyone could have expected. Along the way, Ethan meets Rachel (Zoey
Deutch), a quirky baker who should be doing better with her life than settling
to marry her long-time boyfriend, Gary (Ray Nicholson). Love is lost and found
along the way, because this is a Christmas film, and that’s how these stories
go.
It
was very odd to watch this film soon on the heels of finishing Hotel for the
Holidays because it features New York as a central character and both
films have a main character who is a chef. Is that a trope in holiday films
usually? It is now! That said, I loved the production values of this film. New
York, or at least the same five blocks that were also the setting in Hotel
for the Holidays, looks gorgeous in this film. The food, especially the
baked goods, looked delectable. The chemistry between Zoey Deutch and Kendrick Sampson
is pleasant, though not outstanding.
The
story falls into the trap of making the main characters’ partners irredeemable—Gary
is an unclean-looking flake who employs learned incompetence to get out of
making any effort in his life and relationship. What hurt Rachel so much that
she chooses this man? Ethan’s partner Vanessa (Shay Mitchell) isn’t as bad, but
she’s totally incompatible with him, so I’m not sure how they thought there was
any hope for their relationship.
The
bright sparks were Jojo T. Gibbs as Terri, Rachel’s best friend and partner at
the bakery, and her relationship with Sophia (Javicia Leslie). Gibbs and Leslie
have precious few scenes, but they’re hilarious in every scene they’re in.
Instead of dragging out the hunt for the MacGuffin—this took way too long to
resolve—I wish the creators had created a third subplot with Terri and Sophia
so we could have had more laughs with them. Trust me, we need the laughs because Something from Tiffany’s is stressful. Like really stressful. For a romantic
comedy set around the holidays, it’ll have you sweating wondering how the
interactions will go as Ethan attempts to get the MacGuffin back.
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| Image courtesy SEAC |
This is Christmas
Chris Foggin (director), Alastair
Galbraith (writer), Martina Zamolo (editor)
Alfred Enoch, Kaya Scodelario, Timothy Spall, Jack Donoghue
Many of us (prior to the pandemic at least) spent at least five days of the week commuting to and from. Maybe you noticed the same people joining you on the train, and maybe, like most people, you just kept your head down and didn’t interact with any of your fellow passengers. That’s exactly the case for Adam (Alfred Enoch). Every day, he takes the same train into London from his picturesque village alongside the same faces over and over again. As the owner of an advertising agency, he has an epiphany about bringing these strangers together.
This is Christmas is the
story of Adam’s attempts to organize an event for the strangers on the train. The
person most invested in Adam’s idea is Emma (Kaya Scodelario), a chef
(another chef in a 2022 holiday film!), and a woman who is lonely and dissatisfied
because of her gaslighting partner Simon (Jeremy Irvine). Does Adam succeed in his
efforts?
This is Christmas is simple, beautiful, and comforting. Aside from two moments of conflict, the entire film is calm and low-stakes. Nothing happens, and nothing bad will happen if said nothing happens. But along the way, we meet these people, these people meet these people, and a Christmas miracle is waiting to happen.
I liked this film. Once again I wished that more of the supporting characters were given larger plotlines and more screen time, but the main characters, especially Adam, were good leads. I think it helps that Alfred Enoch has a charming presence and his performance is understated but also compelling. Adam and Emma have the best chemistry of all the holiday films I’ve seen in 2022, and the film leans into the longing aspect of romance. I think the writing could have been stronger because This is Christmas feels more expositional at many points.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed This
is Christmas, especially the sweet and emotional climatic dénouement. Watching
this film is a soothing experience, which is exactly what you need during the
holidays.
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| Image courtesy Hallmark Channel |
The Holiday Sitter
One
of the major reasons why holiday films have appeared on my radar is because of
the hullabaloo surrounding the fact that these films now include queer
protagonists. In 2020, there was plenty of talk about Jonathan Bennett playing
a gay character in a Hallmark Channel film, but his role in The
Christmas House was far too curtailed. Now in 2022, Bennett is the lead
in The Holiday Sitter, a cutes-y
Hallmark Channel film where jet-setting, career-oriented Sam (Bennett) suddenly
finds his Christmas plans scuppered when his new niece is born too early. Sam
finds himself house-sitting in his old hometown, in charge of his other niece
and nephew. Sam is at a loss about domestic duties, but thankfully his sister’s
neighbour Jason (George Krissa) is at hand to help. What starts off as a
transaction to save Sam’s hide and help Jason with a financial commitment,
turns into something more. But are these two disparate human beings compatible
with one another?
Once
you get over the Hallmark nature of the performances and production values, it’s
easy to get swept up in the story of The
Holiday Sitter. Bennett is genuinely hilarious as Sam, a
man who is larger than life but completely at sea with his situation. Krissa as
Jason is a little too restrained, but his character is so sweet. I like that
the film is absent histrionics, instead allowing the characters to interact
with each other and learn more about each other.
I did wonder at one point if the child-averse protagonist
would continue to be that way, but this is unfortunately a Christmas rom-com,
so there was no way the protagonist would maintain that line of thinking. The
themes of adoption are prevalent in The Holiday Sitter, and I’m glad
that the writers alluded to the fact that many systems and dreams aren’t (or
weren’t) always possible for everyone. The other upside to films like The
Holiday Sitter is that they don’t rely on age-old coming-out storylines,
instead dealing with navigating life as an adult, who just happens to be gay.
Top off your holiday film-watching experience with
this fun, silly and adorable queer romantic comedy.
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