The New Holiday Film Critique – Netflix’s Newest Holiday Romantic Comedy Falls Flat.
At the risk of come across as a holiday cynic, one must bemoan the early arrival of holiday films before Thanksgiving. While the weather cools, it feels premature to completely immerse in Netflix’s annual feast of cheap festive treats.
Similar to American chocolates which don’t include genuine cocoa, Netflix’s holiday movies are relied upon for their style of badness. They offer rote familiarity – familiar actors, low budgets, fake snow, and absurd premises. At worst, these movies are forgettable train wrecks; at best, they are forgettable fun.
Champagne Problems, the newest holiday concoction, blends into the broad center of the forgettable spectrum. Helmed by the filmmaker, whose last Netflix romcom was so disposable, this movie goes down like low-quality champagne – fittingly lackluster and situational.
The story starts with what appears to be an AI-generated ad for drug store brand champagne. This commercial is actually the proposal of the main character, portrayed by Minka Kelly, to her coworkers at the Roth Group. Sydney is the construction paper cut-out of a professional female – overlooked, phone-obsessed, and driven to the detriment of her personal life. After her superior dispatches her to France to close a deal over the holidays, her sister insists she take one night in Paris to enjoy life.
Naturally, Paris is the ideal location to wrest one away from Google Maps, despite the city is draped with below-grade CGI snow. At a overly quaint bookstore, the lead meet-cutes with the male lead, who distracts her from her device. Following the genre, she initially resists this perfect man for frivolous excuses.
Just as predictable are the film elements that unfold at abrupt quarter turns, mirroring the rotation of old sparkling wine in the cellars of the family vineyard. The twist? Henri is the successor to the estate, hesitant to manage it and bitter toward his dad for selling it. In perhaps the film’s biggest addition to the genre, he is extremely judgmental of private equity. The problem? The heroine sincerely believes she’s not dismantling this family-owned company for parts, competing against three caricatures: a severe French grand dame, a rigid German, and a delusional gay billionaire.
The development? Her skeevy coworker Ryan shows up without warning. The grist? The two leads gaze longingly at one another in holiday pajamas, despite a huge divide in economic worldview.
The upside and downside is that none of this sticks longer than a short-lived thrill on an empty stomach. There’s a lack of substantial content – Minka Kelly, still best known for her part in the TV series, gives a strictly serviceable portrayal, superficially pleasant and gestures of care, almost motherly than love interest material. Tom Wozniczka offers exactly the dollop of Gallic appeal with light inner conflict and nothing more. The tricks are not amusing, the love story is inoffensive, and the happy-ever-after is predictable.
Despite its waxing poetic on the luxury of sparkling wine, nobody claims it is anything but a mass market item. The flaws are also the things to like. It’s fair to say a critic’s feelings about the film a champagne problem.
- The Holiday Film is now available on Netflix.
