The recipe for a successful Netflix Christmas Movie isn't hard. In fact, it's been quite successful in The Princess Switch, Knight Before Christmas, and others. All we the people want and need from these movies are an escape from our reality, smothered in lights, sweaters, egg nog and more. The blueprint is there - even with Melissa Joan Hart producing this movie - and it completely and utterly failed. Why? Because these characters - with the exception of Jameela and Nigel - are completely unlikable. I'll never understand why MJH passed this off to Alicia when she could have easily sold this movie with her effortless charm and delivered us an escape from reality. The script doesn't do them any favors - the nicknames "Betty and Al" are so stupid, and has nothing to do with the opposite gender. Nicknames should be not actual names! "I call her Mistle because we kissed under the mistletoe" - there, that alone that I just wrote was better than this entire script.
Alicia and Oliver have no chemistry. Now I'm a pro-environment voter through and through, but what's the last thing I want in a Netflix movie?! Alicia throwing out terrible dialogue about how everything Christmas is terrible for the environment!!! Again, we want an ESCAPE with these movies. Don't give me the harsh realities that I know! This is clearly why Alicia was an EP - but her activism doesn't belong in a movie like this.
It's also hard to believe a parent who is downright rude to both of her kids when she's so vulnerable at the holidays. She immediately hates the boyfriend and is non stop nagging the son for college essays - over Christmas break! Oliver is also dull and lame.
The two stars are solely for Jameela and Nigel, and the dads. These four were the only saving grace of this disastrous film. MJH should know better!