Netflix’s new Christmas film Holidate has a predictable and unoriginal story and a strong(ish) cast to support it – Emma Roberts stars as Sloane alongside Luke Bracey who plays Jackson. Despite it conforming to the typical Christmas movie clichés, this latest addition is still a fun and easy watch for the whole family to enjoy.
Sloane is a girl with a bit of an attitude problem who appears to hate Christmas time, dubbing it “F-ing Christmas.” The story begins with her ‘celebrating’ with the whole family, who make her sit at the ‘singles table’ (essentially just the kid’s table). Her sister, Abby (Jessica Capshaw), appears to have the ideal life with the husband, children and house. Her brother, York (Jake Manley), is younger than Sloane and proposes to his girlfriend on Christmas Eve, leaving her feeling jealous and a little spiteful. Her mother (Frances Fisher) celebrates her sons’ engagement and yells “one more to go…” adding additional pressure to Sloane’s love life.
To deal with these family pressures, Sloane takes it upon herself to get a ‘holidate’ (a holiday date), something her Aunt Susan (Kristen Chenoweth) uses for all occasions. This is the only ‘original’ part of the film. The rest of the plot follows the typical boy-meets-girl story line, where they refuse to admit their feelings for each other, fall out, and then ultimately confess their love.
The main fault with this film is the lack of actual festivity. Marketed as a Christmas film, you would think the story line focused primarily on the single occasion. However, we are taken on a journey from New Year’s Eve to Easter (and the rest). A lot of time is spent at a family summer barbecue, as well as St Patrick’s day parties – both of which really do not add that Christmassy flair.
The comedy throughout the film is slightly weak, with almost child-like jokes, the kind of thing you might expect from a teen movie. Even with the added touch of Vine star King Bach the comedy remains some-what poor throughout.
One slightly odd aspect to the film was the continuous referencing to actor Ryan Gosling. He was in fact referenced so much that viewers were convinced that he made a cameo as an actor, which was unsurprisingly debunked by Netflix themselves.
Despite some obvious faults, it can’t be denied that this is a fun and easy-to-watch film with two main characters that clearly share strong chemistry. Although it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, Holidate is certainly better than some of the other Netflix Original Christmas films.
2 stars
