A Christmas to Treasure

I seldom write movie reviews but I feel compelled because I think this movie gets a bad rap.

Is is a silly lightweight rom com Christmas movie with ridiculously over decorated set ala Hallmark channel Christmas movies? Yes, but that's OK, it's a real feel good Christmas movie. Even the Christmas greats like Miracle on 34th St. And White Christmas had unbelievable storylines you could see coming from a mile away. This not even close to being a classic like those movies but if you want a warm fuzzy Christmas movie where everything and everyone is cute and everything works out great in the end and has a bit of intrigue along the way then, enjoy this for what it is. I think it's significantly better that ninety percent of modern Christmas movies.

There's a common misconception that the barrage of gay Christmas movies in recent years is an attempt to cater to - or rather cash in on - a gay audience. It's not. In fact, the gay audience isn't even a consideration. These movies are targeted exclusively at a very specific female audience: women who get off on gay romance. Google "M/M romance" and you'll see that this is a booming area of written "gay" fiction too. This of course explains why the gay characters in these movies are barely even recognisable as gay, even if they're often played by out gay actors. The romance is strictly anodyne. It never goes beyond cute looks, a little hand-holding and one or two extremely chaste kisses. There's never any allusion to actual sex. The relationships are always 100% heteronormative, with aspirations of marriage and a suburban life together as responsible consumers. In other words, nothing to challenge anyone, least of all the *nice* women who consume this stuff. Some might say that gay romance as a commodity for straights counts as progress of sorts. But that kind of ignores how cynical, exploitative and borderline offensive this outwardly saccharine, but inwardly nasty little genre actually is.

Oof. Easily the worst of the holiday LGBTQ+ movies I've watched the last couple of years. Storyline was so-so, which can usually be overcome by good chemistry and good characters, but all of the side characters were grating (okay, mostly Tipper and the mom and dad). The main couple has as much chemistry as a rock, and was the straight couple all over each other constantly to make sure the viewers didn't forget straight people exist? It was off-putting.

I think maybe there was just too much going on. Having the six "main" characters spread everyone a little too thin-we really could have used more time with just Everett and Austin. That might have helped develop the relationship and chemistry between them.

Probably not going to be part of my regular holiday rotation.

Although the plot is silly and highly implausible, the film is cute enough to watch and enjoy, but my problem was with the lack of chemistry between the two leads who are apparently married privately, there was just no passion between them.

I think that if the lead role of Austin was given to Roberto Aguire who played Ricky, there would have been more chemistry between Austin and Everett. In all the scenes Aguire and Kyle Dean Massey had together there was an undeniable chemistry between them and I just wanted for them to kiss. Sadly, Aguire just played his friend. The two of them would have made an amazing and very believable couple together on the screens.

Over the last few years, it has been very cheering to see LGBTQ people represented in Christmas movies on TV and elsewhere. While one can cynically say that producers are now seeing another 10% of the market to whom they can advertise, it signals a general acceptance in loving, familial circumstances (well, if you're Christian). The number of these films is getting pretty substantial, and originality is not an expected commodity; some are good, some less so. This one is on the lower end of that scale. While not as saccharine or cloying as it could be, the plot is very contrived and artificial. The gay romance is sweet but the situation that surrounds it is hardly believable and a bit silly. That the lovers are actually a married couple in life certainly adds to the chemistry between them, but the rest of the plot is forgettable.