FALLING FOR CHRISTMAS

Falling for Christmas is everything you would expect from a Netflix Christmas movie: cheesy, predictable, loaded with holiday decorations, but the first leading role for Lindsay Lohan in over three years is reason enough to check it out.

I won’t lie, but I watch a few cheesy holiday films each year. Sure, I know exactly what I am going to get for them and they are never incredible, but there is something fun about them that gets you in the holiday spirit. So when it was announced that Lindsay Lohan would be leading the big Netflix holiday film this year, I knew this was one I could not miss. Lohan stars as Sierra Belmont, the daughter of a hotel tycoon, who after a freak ski accident loses her memory and ends up staying with Jake, a young and handsome lodge owner, leading up to Christmas Eve. While Sierra tries to recover her memories, she begins to develop feelings for Jake as she gets swept up in the holiday spirit.

If you’ve seen one cheesy holiday film, you already know the ending of this film and the route it will take to get there. The story itself is stuffed with all the stereotypes that fans of this genre have come to expect, including but not limited to a rich individual falling for a small business owner, a widowed father and a young child looking to fill the void in their family, and even a campaign to save a charming local business that has meant so much to the community. Sure, watching Lohan’s Sierra attempting to and miserably failing at doing basic household chores such as making a bed, doing the laundry and washing a toilet is enough to make your headshake, the fact that she learns how to by the end of the film is a prime example of the writing quality of the film’s story. It may not be original, but if you are looking for something new or inventive from this film, you have picked the wrong genre for that.

The sets are stuffed with an exuberant amount of holiday decorations just in case you forgot the film was set during the holiday season with all the snow and the excessive amount of Christmas songs filling up the film’s soundtrack. And don’t you worry Mean Girls fans, Lohan performs “Jingle Bell Rock” during the film’s closing credits which is easily one of the most fetch moments of the film. It strives from start to finish to create comfort viewing, and even with a few shots of the most atrocious CGI of the year, the film brings all the cheesy holiday cheer you could want.

Though, it is Lohan’s performances that makes this film worth checking out. Having grown up with Lohan in such films as The Parent Trap, Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, seeing her back in a leading role was a lot of fun. She still looks great and has not lost her charm that made her a star in the early 2000s. Sure, she was never a phenomenal actress, but she has a good screen presence and a natural warmth to her  that easily allows her to carry this film. Unfortunately, her romantic chemistry with her male co-lead Chord Overstreet is slightly lacking. Both her and Overstreet are charming enough, but there is not necessarily a spark between them that sells the romance at the centre of the film’s story. They both go through the motions as required by the screenplay, but it feels like they are delivering lines rather than developing a romantic connection.

Overstreet himself is fine in his role, and being a fan of his from his time on Glee, I enjoyed seeing him on screen again but wish he had a more interesting role to play. And then there was George Young as Sierra’s boyfriend. I know his character was meant to be obnoxiously annoying, and he is exactly that, but I can’t tell if he gave such a good performance that he nailed his absurd character, or if he isn’t that great of an actor. It’s exactly the type of performance that you expect from such a Christmas film, so it’s hard to fault Young as he is doing what audiences are expecting for such a film.

Sure there is nothing incredible about Falling for Christmas, and while I have personally preferred the multiple Vanessa Hudgens starring Netflix Christmas movies that we normally get one a year of, there is a charm and entertainment value to this film that you can’t help but get swept up by. While it is predictable to a fault, Falling for Christmas is a great return for Lindsay Lohan to a mainstream leading role, even if the film itself is simultaneously both the best and worst of the romantic holiday sub genre.