Let’s get one thing straight: your opinion of Lindsay Lohan’s level of acting is unlikely to change after watching “christmas all at once”, his most recent movie on Netflix. We say it for better or for worse. The one and a half hour long tape is one of the streaming network’s bets to close a complex year in which it felt its competitors (Disney and its subsidiaries, fundamentally) breathe very closely in the war to win subscribers in all the world.
One of the weapons to compete in this multimillion-dollar fight is, without a doubt, presenting a completely well-known face, capable of attracting an audience in different latitudes. This move, however, entails a series of risks, such as –for example– placing the protagonist above a good script, or at least a fairly convincing one. This could well be the case of the tape that we will try to comment on below.
Directed by Janeen Damian, “christmas all at once” presents the story of Sierra (Lindsay Lohan), the spoiled daughter of the hotel tycoon Beauregard Belmont (Jack Wagner) shortly after assuming the position of Vice President of Atmosphere, something that –by her own admission— is a strategy of her father to keep her close, aware perhaps that his only heir has not yet been able to overcome the early loss of his mother.
While getting ready for this ‘turn’ (the single quotes are not in vain) in her life, Sierra has a strange sentimental relationship with Tad Fairchild (George Young), a famous influencer who tries to capture in his social media accounts even what have breakfast Although superficial to gush, this character believes he is deeply in love with our protagonist, so he decides to propose to her in a special way. Here occurs the accident that causes Sierra to completely forget who she is, but, above all, to meet the third party: Jake Russell (Chord Overstreet), a boy with blond hair and light eyes who, while managing a humble but emblematic located in Summit Springs, seeks to support her daughter, the orphan Avy (Olivia Pérez) and her mother-in-law, Alejandra (A. Flores).
So far we have described the main characters of “Christmas at once”. The film is clearly divided into two parts. Before and after the accident (20 and 70 minutes, respectively). If something is clear, it is that this first section is – beyond the presentation of the three main characters – dispensable. No concern to delve into the relationship between Sierra and Tad, nor to show, from the other end of the story, the weaknesses of Jake being ‘father and mother’ to his youngest daughter.
Welcomed in the humble Estrella del Norte inn, Sierra realizes step by step that she knows little or nothing about life. It’s when the protagonist tries to make her bed, clean a toilet, or wash clothes and fails that Lindsay Lohan displays her natural knack for humor. These kinds of sketches may become very brief, but they allow air to be given to an incipient love story between a hard-working widower and a clueless girl who doesn’t even remember her name.
For those who have followed Lindsay Lohan’s career more or less closely (and felt the slowdown almost a decade ago after various personal problems), finding coincidences between the Saw of “Christmas Sudden” and the roles that the 36-year-old actress of age was in tapes like “Confessions of a typical teenager”, “Foolish Fridays”, “Mean Girls” and – much further back – “Game of Twins” will be something relatively easy.
One of the obvious weaknesses in this Netflix movie is the role of Tad, who after the accident ends up “surviving” for four days thanks to the help of a humble inhabitant of the area. Thus, while we see how Sierra and Jake begin to ‘click’ to the delight of Avy and Alejandra, the film intersperses small moments of the influencer suffering as he discovers life beyond the luxuries he shares on Instagram. Far from making us laugh, this resource of repeatedly exposing him to hardship becomes a colossal stumble.
There is another detail that affects “Christmas all of a sudden” in terms of the credibility that is expected not from a masterpiece of cinema, but from a proposal that at least meets the minimum. Sierra and Tad go missing for 96 hours and nobody’s looking for them! In this line, when the tycoon Beauregard Belmont returns from his trip and asks to see his daughter, his reaction when he finds out that she has disappeared seems to mock the viewers’ intelligence.
Beyond everything mentioned in the last lines, Lindsay Lohan’s new movie also has strengths. Strengths in its genre, of course: a romantic comedy with a Christmas spirit. The chosen location (snow in the background, an inn as old as it is charming), the external additions, such as the beautiful horse named Baltazar pulling a sled, is all one needs if you want to have a good time for 90 minutes.
On the love story between Sierra and Jack the balance is also correct. A few years from turning 40, Lindsay Lohan retains the gift of transmitting the noblest feelings on the screen. It happens, for example, when she teaches Avy (Jack’s daughter) to comb her hair correctly (“My mom always said that the worst knots unravel themselves if you give them a little help.”), or when he is able to remember (as if by magic) his mother just by looking closely at a musical crystal ball. “Christmas all of a sudden” is full of moments of this type and in no case do these seem to be too many.
From Jake’s side, although at times overshadowed by the strength of a co-star like Lohan, Chord Overstreet successfully passes the test assumed. The 33-year-old actor shows an evident evolution if we take into account his work as Sam Evans in the last seasons of the acclaimed “Glee”. Better diction and economy in gestures make his role as a distrustful widower before the appearance of a new love convincing.
On the bottom line, “christmas all at once” is a typical holiday season blockbuster. His plot is weak, but denying him his ability to move at key moments in the plot would be unfair. Just one day after its premiere, the film was already leading the ranking of the most watched on Netflix. Under that parameter, the goal is met. Now, if the film will become one of the great Christmas products ‘Made in Hollywood’, the answer goes the other way.
HIT CHRISTMAS/ NETFLIX
Director: Janeen Damian
Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Chord Overstreet, George Young
Synopsis: After losing her memory skiing, a spoiled heiress ends up in the care of an unlucky widower and his daughter in the days leading up to Christmas.
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“Christmas hit” on Netflix: the magic of Lindsay Lohan to the rescue of a mediocre script | REVIEW