My Lifetime Christmas film viewings over-time have been a very mixed bag. With some surprisingly good hits, where regardless of how predictable they are succeed in being full of charm, warmth and heart so succeeding in being light-hearted and undemanding fun. But also some quite big misses, where the characters are not likeable, everything is forced and shallow with implausibility too in some of the worst cases, the acting and writing being weak and basically with just nothing to them.
'A Merry Holiday' (another title is also listed but this one is much better) is a strong example of the former and left me very surprised, as something who was in all honesty not expecting to like it that much as the concept on paper didn't wow me. As far as the Lifetime films go, 'A Merry Christmas' definitely struck me as one of the best and certainly one of their best from their 2019 output. Am judging it by the way on how it fares on its own terms instead of comparing it to anything or implying that it is on par, worse than or better than anything better known and better regarded.
Production values are slick and never drab or garish, while the story is poignant and brought a lot of warmth to my heart. Enough of the music is also very pleasant and fits quite well, the songs don't feel too many and don't intrude. What's more, they made me smile, they had some emotion at least and a couple stuck in my mind for a while after.
There are a fair share of amusing moments that never felt overdone and an equal amount of never too over-sentimental serious ones. The writing is a long way from perfect, but for Lifetime it's acceptable. Enough of the story is very charming and heart-warming and even if the characters are not meaty they were characters to me that were worth caring for. Kelly Jackle is immensely appealing and she is matched by Jake Epstein, their chemistry is never awkward and is quite adorable. The supporting cast do well.
It is not a perfect or great film though. There is no doubt, with it being the case with all Lifetime Christmas films and being a long way from being a novel premise, that the story is very predictable and quite safe throughout, so there are major plot points and developments that can be seen from a long way away.
Did think that the writing did lack subtlety and some parts did make the toes curl a bit. A little more could have been done with the Hanukkah theme, which could have been delved into more and handled in a more balanced way.
Concluding, not great but a pleasant surprise actually. 7/10
