Christmas With You starring Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr is a family entertainer and a rom-com in equal measures!
Imagine if your favorite pop star just randomly stopped by your school/college or your workplace just to get to know you and take a picture with you! Wait, the fantasy doesn’t end there! What if they stayed back at your place and became close to your family as well? Sounds like a bizarre Christmas miracle right? Well, Christmas is all about your magical dreams coming true and Netflix’s new movie, Christmas With You brings all of this to life and more!
Angelina(Aimee Garcia), an extremely famous singer who has established a decade-long career is in a place where she has reached a burnout in her work life. She no longer has that inspiration she once had to write new songs and amidst all of this, she is also struggling to stay relevant amongst all the new influencers and Tik Tok stars of this generation. On a rather boring night when she is breaking her head to write a new Christmas song with the hopes of becoming the next Mariah Carey, she stumbles upon a young girl, Christina’s (Deja Monique Cruz) video on Instagram, singing one of her songs and expressing how much she misses her mom who passed away. Something that Angelina relates to deeply as well. So the next thing you know, she’s on her way to meet this fan of hers. While she goes with the intention of just a meet-up and some much-needed good publicity, who she also meets is Christina’s very kind and charming father Miguel(Freddie Prinze Jr.), who offers her a getaway from the hustle and bustle in New York and most importantly, he becomes her source of inspiration for her new song.
Angelina seems pretty tough on the outside, but in her time with Miguel, she softens and realizes every homely thing she has been missing out on all these years. She's lived that celebrity life where she’s constantly surrounded by camera flashes and been in a farce of a relationship with a telenovela star who's just with her for her clout. When she meets Miguel and his family, even something as basic as making tamales together makes her feel loved. Ever since you press play on this movie, you can easily predict what the plot is going to be like. You know Angelina and Miguel are seamlessly going to fall in love in the process of writing a song together but what keeps you interested throughout the film is how the two main characters figure out a way to bring that Christmas magic to their love story. The film might remind you of Notting Hill which had Hugh Grant falling in love with Julia Roberts, who plays an actress in the film. But this stays true to its story in its own ways!
Also, I loved how the entire time Angelina was doubting her worth as an artist, it was in fact women who unexpectedly hyped her up when she really needed it. Be it her manager, Christina, or even her rival Cheri Bibi, who she was constantly pitted against. It's great to see that in 2022, women no longer pull each other down, but we, on the contrary, lift each other up!
But all things said, this movie often feels like a typical Spanish telenovela that Miguel’s mother is obsessed with as well. Maybe it was going for that vibe or it unexpectedly turned out that way. For example, how in the world has Angelina spent 90% of the movie in skin-tight latex pants, fake lashes, and the highest heels possible? I would need a chiropractor immediately! And not to forget, the song that Miguel and Angelina actually write is pretty average and doesn’t really pass the vibe check! But you ignore stuff like this because, in the end, Christmas With You is a good attempt at making all of us lost souls have hope and faith in the beauty of Christmas miracles and probably hope that our ‘soulmate’ will unexpectedly show up at our doorsteps too!
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