With so many new Christmas movies popping up in the schedules and platforms, it is time to sort the wheat from the chaff…
Just about my favourite, Your Christmas or Mine, can be found on Amazon Prime. Asa Butterfield and Cora Kirk play James and Hayley, a couple who have been dating for a few months and have not yet told their families. On 23rd December they take separate trains from London to spend Christmas with their folks, Hayley in Macclesfield and James in Gloucestershire. At the last moment they both decide to switch trains so they can have Christmas together, thus ending up at each other’s homes. The resulting farce provides plenty of laughs without being overdone. The supporting cast is pretty impressive, featuring Daniel Mays and Angela Griffin ad Hayley’s parents, Alex Jennings as James’ Dad and Harriet Walter as the family housekeeper. Mark Heap contributes an amusing cameo as a station employee.
Rating: 8 out of 10
The next best is currently available only on Sky Movies and is the blandly titled This is Christmas. A group of disparate characters take the same London bound commuter train each day without interacting with each other. Adam (Alfred Enoch) decides he wants to change that, so one day, he announces to the rest of the passengers that he is going to hold a Christmas party and they are all invited. Both funny and heart warming, this is a delight. The pick of the cast are Timothy Spall as a down on his luck ex-footballer who wants to reconnect with his estranged family and Kaya Scodelario, who has great chemistry with Enoch.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Also on Sky, the sequel to A Christmas Story, A Christmas Story Christmas is now showing. The original is beloved in America but never made an impression here. I found the follow up very pedestrian as I had no investment in the characters. Prancer: A Christmas Tale is an amiable family film about ten year old Gloria and her widowed grandad befriending a reindeer that may be magical. Darcey Ewart as Gloria manages to avoid being too annoying and James Cromwell adds a touch of class as the old man.
Ratings out of 10:
A Christmas Story Christmas: 3
Prancer: A Christmas Tale: 5
The most surprising movie and the joint pick of the non-British bunch can be found on My5. A Jolly Good Christmas is set in London in the days leading up to Christmas. As it is an American, Hallmark, movie, I was expecting the depiction of the city and its inhabitants to be cringeworthy. Whilst it is definitely a film that the tourist board would approve of…a landmark round every corner of a clean and affluent city filled with friendly people…it really does work its charms!
Will Kemp stars as architect David, who moved from New York for a new job six months previously. Out shopping for his girlfriend’s present, he bumps into, literally, Anji, played by Rishma Shetty. She is a personal shopper who disapproves of the gift card he purchased, and they end up spending a day together looking for the perfect gift. Shetty is completely charming, and she has great chemistry with Kemp. They share some funny scenes, and it is a surprise that David takes so long to fall for her. Heaps of fun but some notes to the American writers and producers: a British person would not call streets blocks or buy cider for their young child, and The Hungry Manchester is a dumb name for a pub!
Rating: 7 out of 10
The next best on My5 is Christmas Movie Magic. This has the unusual premise of a reporter, Alli, going to a small town to write a story about the 65th anniversary of a classic Christmas film, Christmas With You, that was filmed in that location. Whilst there she finds that the films main star, Walter Andrews, had a secret romance during the filming. Helping her unravel the mystery is Brad, the local cinema manager. Obviously the pair fall for each other but otherwise, this was quite original for a Lifetime movie. There are some nice digs about young peoples’ lack of appreciation of old movies and the pair have good chemistry. Holly Deveaux is particularly good as Alli.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Also on My5…
If you enjoy TV shows involving houses being renovated, you might like Designing Christmas as it involves the stars of such a programmer falling in love whilst filming their Christmas special. I don’t. In Christmas Unfiltered, a young girl feels ignored by the rest of her family, but that changes when after making a wish on Christmas Eve, she can only tell the truth. The comic potential is not realised, the acting forced and the on screen animation annoying.
Ratings out of 10:
Designing Christmas: 3
Christmas Unfiltered: 2
Another dud is Christmas in Pine Valley. A woman tries to cover up the fact that her business she advertises as family run is nothing of the sort. It is as flimsy as the plot sounds. Apart from Amie Dasher, all of the actors are unconvincing and the script is horrible. The Great Holiday Bake Off feels like it has arrived a few years too late to capitalise of the similarly named TV show. Rival bakers compete in a TV show and inevitably fall in love. The story drags and the acting is uniformly poor.
Ratings out of 10:
Christmas in Pine Valley: 2
The Great Holiday Bake Off: 2.5
In Christmas on the Slopes, Soma Chhaya, a celebrated chef on vacation is mistaken for a new sous chef at her hotel. There are some script/story issues as it is not convincing at all when Soma fails to explain the misunderstanding and some of her dialogue sounds like she has never cooked, or possibly eaten, before. But there is a certain charm to the film and Sophia Grewal, who plays Soma, pairs well with Olivier Renaud who plays the hotel chef. Christmas Lucky Charm feels like the Christmas element is shoe horned into a mundane romance between a baker (just how many of these films feature cooks or bakers!?) and an art gallery owner. But it is more festive than the maudlin Our Family Christmas Memories, which involves siblings trying to recreate their grandmother’s pasta sauce.
Ratings out of 10:
Christmas on the Slopes: 5.5
Christmas Lucky Charm: 3.5
Our Family Christmas Memories: 1.5
If you are looking for every Scottish cliché, you can check out Saving Christmas Spirit. An American archaeologist goes on a work trip to Scotland over the festive period and falls for the local pub landlord. Definitely one for the US market. Country Roads Christmas is a meandering story of a woman losing her record company job but finding love. The story stops for tedious musical interludes way too often. A Gingerbread Christmas is a ploddingly straightforward romance between a contractor and the daughter of his customer.
Ratings out of 10:
Saving Christmas Spirit: 4
Country Roads Christmas: 3
A Gingerbread Christmas: 3.5
In Christmas Plus One (Paramount Plus), Emily Alatalo stars as Cara, who, makes a Christmas wish with her sister Amy (Vanessa Smythe). They wish to find their soulmates. One year later, Amy is getting married but Cara is still single. She has a chance meeting with Chase (Andrew Bushell) and they click immediately and they have so much in common, so she takes his number, but she loses her phone. When trying to find him before the wedding, she meets Michael (Corey Sevier) who seems to be her opposite. Whilst Alatalo is a little bit annoying, both Bushell and Sevier have enough charm to carry the film. Predictable but quite satisfying.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
The other offerings on Paramount Plus are pretty ordinary. In A Mistletoe Match, a journalist played by Elena Juatco goes undercover at a Christmas dating event where she meets a man. All very flat. Six Degrees of Santa has a weird premise of a woman running a company that gives out presents that five other people should pass on with the sixth person keeping the gift. Never takes off and there is an unbearably ‘cute’ kid. A Christmas in Switzerland starts with some really clumsy exposition and the script never recovers from that.
Ratings out of 10:
A Mistletoe Match: 3
Six Degrees of Santa: 2
A Christmas in Switzerland: 2.5
The other main recommendation is doing the rounds on Christmas 24. From its title, you can tell Three Wise Men and a Baby does not hide from its inspiration. However, this festive story of three single brothers having to look after an abandoned baby in the lead up to Christmas feels pretty fresh, by avoiding any of the standard Hallmark plotlines. There is some unexpectedly acerbic humour and a good performance from Hallmark’s king of Christmas movies, Andrew W Walker.
Rating: 7 out of 10
The next best on that channel is A Cozy Christmas Inn. For the umpteenth time, Hallmark re-uses the plot of a big city corporate employee going to a small town to buy a festive themed small hotel, only to fall in love with the owner. Despite the unoriginal concept, Jodie Sweetin as the executive is a charming presence.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10
Other new Christmas moves in rotation on Christmas 24 …. Ghosts of Christmas Always, is another take, although a loose one, of A Christmas Carol. It feels quite messy, strangely jumping straight into some haunting action and never really settles down. Alison Sweeney can elevate almost anything but cannot save the ponderous romantic drama Magical Christmas Village. Sweeney’s character’s Mum is played by Marlo Thomas and I found that her disastrous facelift, that I initially mistook for some sort of disfiguring disease, extremely off putting.
Ratings out of 10:
Ghosts of Christmas Always: 3
Magical Christmas Village: 4
Christmas Bedtime Stories is a horribly treacly tale of a Mum telling her precocious daughter stories about her husband, who is in the army and is missing in action. Andrew Walker is back in A Maple Valley Christmas. He plays a businessman who works for his father’s company – as they always do in these movies – and is sent to buy a plot of land that is also coveted by the neighbouring maple farmer, Erica (Peyton List). You can guess the rest but Walker and List are able to do this stuff in their sleep.
My Southern Family Christmas has a more original plot as a journalist tries to make connection with her father who abandoned her as a child whilst covering a Louisianan Christmas tradition. It also features a great lead performance by Jaicy Elliot and Bruce Campbell as her Dad. The romance sub plot felt unnecessary though. In #Xmas, Jen (Clare Bowen) pretends to be a family influencer for a design contest. She is very unlikeable and I did not care whether she would own up to her deception.
We Wish You a Married Christmas unusually features an already married couple that need to re-connect over the festive period. It also has the benefit of having Kristoffer Polaha play the husband. However, it is never as funny as it could have been. In A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe, Annie Cooper takes over her grandmother’s cookie company only for the secret recipe to be stolen. Annie is an unlikable character and Rachel Boston has zero charisma in the role. Lacey Chabert can make the most mundane material watchable, so she elevates the routine Haul out the Holly as Emily, who splits with her boyfriend just before Christmas, goes to stay with her parents, only to find that they have gone to Florida. The pressure from locals to get Emily to take part in festive activities had comic potential that is never fully realised.
Ratings out of 10:
Christmas Bedtime Stories: 2
A Maple Valley Christmas: 5
My Southern Family Christmas: 5
#Xmas: 2.5
We Wish You a Married Christmas: 4.5
A Christmas Cookie Catastrophe: 2
Haul out the Holly: 4.5
On the BBC iPlayer, you can catch Christmas in Toyland. A Data Analyst played by Vanessa Lengies tries to stop her company closing down a toy store after she starts a romance with the manager played by Jesse Hutch. This plot has been used many times before but the pair make a nice couple. Also on the same platform is Baking all the Way. This story about a cookbook author trying to find the perfect gingerbread recipe is as cloyingly sweet as the biscuits.
Ratings out of 10:
Christmas in Toyland: 4.5
Baking all the Way: 2.5
Netflix offerings are also a bit meagre. The pick of them is Delivery by Christmas. In this gentle Polish comic drama, a courier, with the help of a customer, has to race against the clock to re-deliver Christmas presents after a spiteful co-worker sabotages things. A decent premise and a nice central performance from Monika Frajczyk though it does flag a bit in the subplots when Frajczyk is off scree.
British comedy Christmas on Mistletoe Farm has a couple of laughs early on and features Ashley Jensen and Celia Imrie in small roles. But this story of a harassed city dwelling widower with six kids inheriting a farm soon lulls into cliché. Scott Paige as an annoying farm worker gives one of the worst performances of the year on his screen acting debut.
The Noel Diary is a sickly sweet tale of a man who discovers his Mum’s diary after her death. Way too sentimental but it is still more watchable than Christmas Full of Grace. The tired story of a man persuading a woman to pose as his girlfriend when he goes home for Christmas is turned into a frantic farce with no laughs and over the top performances. In I Believe in Santa, a single mother falls for a guy but has second thoughts when she finds out that he still believes in Santa Claus. He is meant to be charming but the performance of John Ducey makes him come across as creepy and someone you would definitely not leave your kid with.
Ratings out of 10:
Christmas on Mistletoe Farm: 4
The Noel Diary: 3.5
Christmas Full of Grace: 2
Delivery by Christmas: 6
I Believe in Santa: 2