Hotel for the Holidays
Ron Oliver (director), Maggie Lane, Margarita Matthews (writers), Russ Goozee (cinematography), David B. Thompson (editor)
Madelaine Petsch, Mena Massoud, Max Lloyd-Jones, Kayleigh Shikanai, Jami Belushi (cast)
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| Madelaine Petsch and Mena Massoud star in "Hotel for the Holidays." Credit/ Shane Mahood | Amazon Freevee |
Christmas
and holiday films aren’t a phenomenon I grew up with. I don’t think many of
them aired where I lived, and there was never much of a culture of watching
holiday films—there was other stuff to do during that period. I still haven’t
got on to the holiday movie train, though, since the start of the pandemic, and
the emergence of slightly more inclusive holiday films, I have begun dipping my
gingerbread toes in these films from time to time. Cut to 2022 and Amazon
Freevee’s Hotel for the Holidays.
Set in New
York, Hotel for the Holidays takes place during Christmas and follows super-competent
hotel manager Georgia (Madelaine
Petsch) who is not only keeping the decrepit Hotel Fontaine afloat but has
dreams and ambitions that are much bigger than her role at the front desk. She
is friendly with all the staff, especially Chef Luke (Mena Massoud), Georgia’s
long-time friend. The film is really Georgia’s story, but along the way, we
meet a host of other characters, some of whom are the staff like Luke, Kiki (Jami
Belushi), and Milton (Neil Crone), others who are guests of the hotel, including
Raymond (Max Lloyd-Jones), Pandora (Kayleigh Shikanai) and AJ (Morgan David
Jones), and find out how their Christmas stories pan out.
Hotel for
the Holidays is in the Love, Actually style
of storytelling, resplendent with characters whose stories are intertwined and
appear and reappear as needed. It’s a sweet film, and the creators’ love for
New York (or at least the glitzy glamourous downtown core of New York) is quite
obvious. But the film lacks charisma and the characters chemistry. Where is
the longing and yearning and cheering? Where is the Christmas spirit?
For a film
that is chock full of Christmas symbolism in almost every frame, Hotel for
the Holidays doesn’t feel all that Christmas-y. It comes down to the
absolute dearth of Christmas songs (barring the carollers who appear for a few
seconds). The costuming, too, doesn’t capture the Christmas look. No reds or
greens, but a lot of blacks, greys, and whites. Strange choice.
By now I’ve
figured out that most of these holiday films follow a formula that usually
includes a deadline and saving something. We get that Georgia is trying to save
her dream, but the deadline feels less set in stone, hence the sense of urgency
is missing. Some of the other timelines in the film don’t make sense either,
but I’m not getting into that. I also wish that more of the characters played a
role in the central story so that they would have more rounded arcs—instead,
since Georgia’s dream gets a massive amount of screen time, the rest of the cast
is underbaked and unidimensional.
Petsch is
known for her work on Riverdale. I’ve seen very little of that show, but
enough to know that Petsch is very different as Georgia. She brings a lot of eagerness
to her character, but the CW-ness of her performance remains. That’s not
necessarily a detractor, it’s a feature.
Mena
Massoud is completely wasted as Luke. He has no dimension other than to pine
for his love interest. He really deserved a much better arc—Luke is a cog in
the wheel, not a main character like the posters would have you believe. Luke also has a problematic Nice Guy™ moment which annoyed me. He almost sabotages a deal out of jealousy but it backfires. I have to say though, the writers (both of whom are women)
did write in a scene where he apologizes. Progress for romantic tropes, I guess.
I expected since Massoud is literally on the promotional material, that he
would have his own storyline, but he doesn’t. His character’s chefly duties are
relegated to making Georgia lunches. I wanted to see amazing food being made,
why else would you have a chef on the character list?
Characters
like Raymond and Pandora had much more fleshed-out arcs, which is fine, but why
weren’t they on the poster?
The rest of the characters have their moments, but it all boils down to one thing, love is in the air during Christmas. Everyone gets a love story, even the characters you don’t expect, or even recall are in the film (the credits even remind you of every single romantic couple, just in case you forgot). It’s almost too contrived. What if someone doesn’t want a romance? Or care for a romance? I guess it’s a holiday rom-com, so why am I complaining?
My main
complaint is that no one has chemistry, especially not the couples in question. You know who
the players are in each romance but you aren’t invested in the outcome of the relationship
(romantic or otherwise). There is no connection between these people even
though they’re interacting with one another, and there are a few furtive
glances. It completely defeats the purpose of the film, unfortunately.
The one
part of the film that downright irked me was Georgia’s ambitions. Without
going into spoilers, it’s a trope I’ve noticed in holiday films that basically
knocks people down a peg in their career ladder for some misguided sense of
loyalty and belonging. It’s a terrible message to send to anyone, especially
young women trying to achieve their career goals. The film course corrects, but
the message, unfortunately, still stands. It’s so bizarre.
There’s a
lot of talk about Christmas magic in the film, but Hotel for the Holidays doesn’t
feel magical—I guess some of the things that happen are miraculous, but because
the story is told with such predictability, there's no real 'wow' moment by the
end.
Hotel for the Holidays is a bit humdrum, but it’s also comforting with love stories for people of different age groups, and even a queer storyline thrown in the mix. It’s mindless entertainment. Had more of the characters been provided intriguing arcs, perhaps the story would have captured my imagination.
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