Christmas with You

Angelina (Aimee Garcia) is a popular pop star who is now feeling her age. She needs a new song for an event but is drawing a blank as far as inspiration goes. She sees a video of a young fan, Cristina (Deja Monique Cruz), whose birthday wish is to meet her. Empathizing with Cristina's longing for her departed mother, Angelina decides to grant the girl's wish.

Cristina's father, Miguel (Freddie Prince Jr), is a music teacher who happens to be composing a song that piques Angelina's interest. They develop feelings for each other while collaborating on the song.

This is another tropey, thus predictable, story. But there is something comforting about watching a familiar story unfold. It's like watching different versions of The Nativity, A Christmas Carol, Les Miserables, etc. Each version brings a different take on a classic tale.

This version of the aging-celebrity-finds-inspiration-and-love trope is brought to life by a likeable cast. It was a treat to see Freddie Prince Jr again. The process of composing a song got me engaged as it made me curious about the finished product which did not disappoint.

All in all, it made me feel good, which was what I was hoping for when I watched it.

Look, I get people that didn't like this film. The story is your basic Christmas Rom Com. No character is very nuanced or anything like that. At the same time, it's a Christmas Rom Com, nobody comes in here looking for the next Schindler's List. So by those measures, that being a Halmark-like Christmas film, it's good.

That being said, there are things that give this some unique qualities to it that make it good, and better than most Halmark style Christmas films. A good portion of that is the Latin culture peppered throughout. It's not throwing it in your face, or saying you should like it because it's a cast of Latinos/Latinas. But it's there naturally and because of that alone, this does make it stand out from your typical Halmark; in a similar way that 'The Photograph' did for Rom Com's in 2020(though I will say that film had a better story and more depth to it). And as a Latino it's just nice to see that it can be a part of a film, without it having to be the identity of the film in entirety. The second is the two leads of our cast. Aimee Garcia is charming, mostly know her from Lucifer and a few other things. While not a deep role or anything like that, she's charming and hope she gets more roles that help her spread her wings a bit more. Though in all fairness, this is much like Emilia Clarke doing 'Me Before You' near the end of Game of Thrones, just proving she can do something different other than the role she's most known for.

Freddie Prinze Jr. , hearthrob of the 90's and in the last decade or two mostly more known for his voice-acting if anything. He does a good job though and has equal amounts of charm as Aimee. The whole cast in general does a good job and even some storylines that could be way more cliche or make certain characters unlikable, they either don't do or breeze past them quickly, so that's another thing I will give this film credit for.

In general, it's a charming, harmless film with likable characters, performances, and some really good scoring of holiday classics in the background. And you know what, sometimes, especially these past two years, we all need something nice and warm with likable characters to pass a perfect runtime of an hour and a half. Not every film has to be deep or have characters that are unlikable to be good. Nor does a film have to be amazing or the best of the best. Sometimes it's okay for a film to just be good, and that's enough sometimes.

Christmas With You is a pretty typical feel-good Christmas drama romance. But it's effectively sweet, romantic, and likable. Freddie Prinze Jr. Is still Freddie Prince Charming (Sorry I couldn't resist). But seriously, he seems like such a likable guy in real life, and his character in this movie is definitely likable. He's a good guy and a good dad. Aimee Garcia and Zenzi Williams make a great team and bring some quality acting skills to this simple little movie. All in all, this movie's target audience should definitely enjoy what they're given. The storyline is interesting and it's written well. As a music guy myself, I liked that writing a song was at the center of the story.

This is a completely by-the-numbers Christmas RomCom. Except that someone forgot the comedy. You can easily predict every turn in this movie because you have seen this story many times before, just with different characters. The acting for most of the characters is somewhere between passable and good.

BUT, Aimee Garcia brings a real charm to the role and makes the movie worth watching for her performance. I liked her for the role she played in Lucifer and this proves to me that I should start looking for her in other roles. I really would like to see her in another movie as the lead (or co-lead) that has a much better script to see what she can do with that.

Well acted, sweet, great characters and actually really good acting. As far as a Christmas movie this one is up there. The writing was slick and was very up to date. Sure the town was a bit twee and stock but heck, it's Christmas ! The lead was very sweet and sassy and carried it off great. Freddie Prinze was really good as the dad, as was the daughter. Grandma was a hoot. I felt this was whole adventure just "worked". The frustrations were real and yes, it's a Christmas movie, but the whole thing was performed really well and there was enough " unbelievability" in it to make it believable. Just sit back and enjoy - I know we did.