Netflix has opened the New Year’s holiday season and released the Christmas comedy Best. Christmas. Ever!” starring Heather Graham and Jason Biggs, the star of the unforgettable American Pie. In the review below, we share our impressions of whether the authors managed to brighten up the harsh reality with a fairy-tale holiday atmosphere.
Charlotte Sanders has a wonderful family – two little mischievous boys, son Grant, daughter Dora, a fan of Marvel action movies, and a caring husband Rob. However, the woman seems overly concerned about her old friend Jackie Jennings, who, judging by her Christmas cards, lives a perfect fairy-tale life.
One Christmas Eve, a close-knit family decides to visit relatives, but because of Grant’s mischief (don’t ask), they arrive at Jackie’s luxurious home. The latter is happy to receive the uninvited guests, so Charlotte takes the opportunity to make sure that everything is really so perfect in her friend’s life. Adding to the spice is the casual flirtation between the hostess and Rob, who have a romantic past together.
We know what kind of past Jason Biggs had. Surprisingly, the actor from the cult youth comedy hasn’t changed much in all these decades, so at certain moments in the film you see Jim Levenstein kissing some adult aunt. This time, fortunately, he is almost indifferent to the fresh pastries, because the movie is still a Christmas movie.
Although, to be honest, it’s hard to call this pseudo-holiday travesty a movie. Director Mary Lambert has made a name for herself in many fields over the course of her long career, from directing Madonna and Mötley Crüe music videos to Stephen King adaptations (Pet Sematary: Bloodlines).
As long as the plot offers at least some imitation of a conflict between the main characters, the film deserves to be played in the background to make it more fun to cut salads for the holiday table. But somewhere around the equator of the running time, the script finally loses the slightest hint of structure and becomes a continuous mush of loosely connected scenes.
Neither the all-plastic, Netflix-esque glossy sets, nor the attempts to joke, nor the notes of drama intended to add depth to the plot save the sad situation. Especially annoying are the tossing and turning of the children’s characters, who are trying to find out if Santa Claus really exists. The climax of the demonstrative cringe is the balloon flight, when the balloon simply won’t enter the frame and seems to make the children believe in a real miracle.
The movie is a vivid example of assembly-line filmmaking for streaming services (in this case, Netflix), where the availability of content is more important than its quality. This is especially true during holiday or pre-holiday segments. That is, if it is, for example, Halloween, you need to dedicate the necessary amount of content to it. The same goes for the New Year holidays. The views are sure to accumulate, but the viewers are often the last thing on your mind.
Last year’s one-dayers with Lindsay Lohan looked more interesting. And it’s hard to get into a comedy where the funniest (one of the few) moments is Heather Graham’s kick under her breath, which magically made its way here somewhere from Home Alone.
As a result, this otherwise sterile film, in addition to an adequate script, witty jokes, or at least a warm Christmas atmosphere, probably still lacks a Kevin McCallister-like rogue or a fragrant pie, if it goes completely overboard. And even then, it could be a good family movie. It’s just from a different era.
Verdict
Streaming services should take note: it’s better not to shoot anything than to release something like this.
