The Holiday Calendar | Film Review

Hey Guys x

It's officially Christmas movie season! This is my first Christmas movie of the year (because I'm definitely not counting watching half of Home Alone 2 yesterday!) and I hope that there's many more to come!

Abby Sutton (Kat Graham) is a photographer. But taking pictures of little kids sitting on Santa's lap isn't what she wants to do with her life. She wants to live more like her best friend Josh (Quincy Brown), who has been travelling the world with his own photography, but she doesn't have the courage to take the leap. However, when Abby's grandfather gives her an advent calendar for Christmas, she falls under the spell of religiously checking every single day. But is there something magical about the calendar? And if there is, did it lead her to single doctor Ty?

This movie is the typical movie that we see all year around on the 'Hallmark' channel, but created out of an original premise. The idea of an advent calendar that may or may not be magic is a simple idea, but no one had really done it before, particularly to this extent where it becomes the focal point of the movie.

And with a typical 'Hallmark' movie comes typical love interests. We have the best friend who the protagonist always overlooks, and the mysterious stranger who the protagonist instantly becomes enamoured with. The problem with these love interests were that, with one of them, there was a really obvious instance of self-sabotage. It felt like the character created a partially unrealistic argument out of nothing so that the audience could immediately write him off and put all their eggs in the other love interest's basket. But the problem with this is that, it felt like we as the audience didn't have a lot of time to really know the other love interest. We had to completely trust the chemistry that the actors had for us to believe that they belonged together. And personally, I don't know if I really did believe them.

The other problem that I had with the film was a problem with the fundamental premise. While I really liked the idea of a magic calendar, after the film ended, I realised that the calendar wasn't what I thought it was. Without spoiling anything, the calendar didn't change any event in the story - everything that happened in the film would have happened whether the calendar was present or not, which kind of flaws the whole film when you see that the calendar is what makes the description of the film different from any other romantic Christmas movie.

However, one of the most positive things about the film were the cast. There are a lot of times when the cast of the film feels forced, both in terms of the acting, and the amount of diversity. This film was so effortlessly diverse that you don't even really notice it, and that was particularly refreshing. But in addition to that, you really feel like the cast jelled and got to know each other. The strongest parts of the film were the moments between Abby and Josh - you feel like they really do know each other, even if you don't necessarily believe in their romance.

Overall, this film has just the right amount of magic to get you ready for the festive season. So if you're looking for a Christmas movie that isn't too serious, entertaining enough to keep you interested for an hour and a half, and Christmassy through and through, this is it!

4.5/10 stars!

Lou