christmas all at once (Falling for ChristmasUnited States/2022). Address: Janeen Damian. Script: Jeff Bonnett, Ron Oliver. Photography: Graham Robbins. Edition: Kristi Shimek. Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Chord Overstreet, George Young, Jack Wagner. Duration: 93 minutes. Available in: Netflix. Our opinion: regular.
After a failed intervention in the thriller Among the Shadows, Lindsay Lohan looked for a vehicle to stand out in the genre that suits you best: comedy. The actress, before becoming a media target and making an impasse in her career, had shown that she had impeccable timing as shown in the films Twins game, A crazy Friday Y mean girlsthe Mark Waters film definitively installed in popular culture. After a turn of the helm that involved an incursion into the world of reality shows, and some roles in productions that were not very successful in the medium (including The Canyons, by the great Paul Schrader, did not live up to expectations either), Lohan opted for an alliance with Netflix whose first fruit is christmas all at onceone of the premieres of the platform this month.
The streaming service incorporates into its catalog the debut of janeen damien as a spearhead for what is to come soon: feature films with the Holidays as a context and with certain narratives that have only slight variations and that become indistinguishable in the wide range of proposals feel good where there is no room for villains or too many disruptions. Nevertheless, christmas all at once he has Lohan as his ace up his sleeve, an actress who returns to remind us of her charisma and her ability to lead a comedy with solvency. Despite expectations, christmas all at once it ends up adding to that offer of films that have nothing new to say.
Lohan plays Sierra Belmont, the daughter of a hotel tycoon who is unsure about her professional future. Her father wants to give her a position within his company, but she has not yet defined her vocation. On a personal level, she is engaged to Tad (George Youngthe one in charge of commanding the moments slapstick and thick, with mixed results), an influencer more concerned with living abroad than enjoying his relationship. The most notorious setback of the film occurs precisely in the first act, when the script by Michael Damian and Brad Krevoy does not outline its central character with complexity. Except for a single sequence in which Sierra is ostentatious and superficial, the young woman is an enigma, and that is what ends up harming the second act, when the narrative twist enters the scene.
christmas all at once dialogue inevitably with Outboard from Garry Marshall – the sitcom starring Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell – when Sierra has a skiing accident with her fiancé and loses her memory when they hit a tree. Conveniently, her father goes on a trip and her boyfriend falls in another area, leaving Sierra with a grim picture: no one seems to be looking for her. This is how Jake Russell (the formerglee Chord Overstreet), the owner of a modest resort who finds her and takes her to the hospital. Unlike Outboard, christmas all at once it does not show the contrast between the Sierra before the accident and the current one, who suffers from amnesia and stays with Jake, her little daughter and her mother-in-law. Therefore, Lohan’s character has no narrative progression for us to notice a change in her in that new life.
As for the development of the romantic relationship, the chemistry between Lohan and Overstreet is non-existent, and the little time they spend together on screen does not help either, an inexplicable decision in the conception of a romantic comedy whose pillar is to build the credibility of that bond ( and during the Christmas season). Instead, the film focuses on Jake’s past and the death of his wife, and the impact that grief had on his life and that of his daughter. Damian’s film does not know how to balance the emotional moments -such as the talks between Sierra and the girl- with the romantic vignettes, and even adds an unnecessary subplot about the course of Tad, an expendable character. It is this imbalance that pushes the film to run over its conclusion that clings, in a choking slap, to flashbacks of the sequences between Sierra and Jake to give weight to a story that had already been diluted. As for Lohan, the script doesn’t give her room to show off and gives an overly calculated performance, far from the spontaneity of other times..
christmas all at once It is now available on Netflix.
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