My Dad's Christmas Date | Blogmas Day 19

-

 Hey Guys x

This film only came out on Amazon Prime Video this month, right when I was looking for some Blogmas additions. So of course I had to review it.

Jules (Olivia-Mai Barrett) tries to find her widowed father (Jeremy Piven) a date for Christmas.

This film was average. It definitely isn't a bad movie, but it's also nothing to write home about.

The premise of the film was interesting, and if done well, could have been really poignant. For example, there are the beginnings of a really interesting portrayal of grief that could have been explored more. 

The lack of dialogue at the beginning of the film is really effective in terms of allowing the audience to understand the relationship between these two characters.

Speaking of characters, all of the characters are really likeable, and it's nice to watch them. It's also really nice to see the intricacies of these relationships.

Even though the relationship between Jules and her father is strained, you can always see the love, trust and respect between the characters, which is a testament to the actors who play them. 

The film itself isn't that interesting to watch, and for me this stems from the fact that I couldn't work out what the movie was supposed to be. Are we watching a comedy? A drama? Is it aimed at children? Teens? Adults? It felt like no one had decided what the film would be, so it wasn't really anything.

There are characters who have conflicts, but these conflicts seem to come out of nowhere. And because we're never particularly interested in these characters, we're not interested in their conflicts.

As I mentioned, there was an interesting portrayal of grief. It was done well in some parts, but this topic wasn't delved into as much as I wanted it to be. 

And then there's the Christmas element. This isn't really a Christmas movie, and probably shouldn't be marketed as such.

Overall, this is a nice story with a sweet ending, but it's nothing special compared to other similar films.


Originality - 6/10

Christmas Spirit - 2/10

Christmas Music - 3/10


It's 6 days until Christmas!

Come back tomorrow for Blogmas day 20!

Lou    

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for your comment xx

Popular Posts

Star Wars Episodes IV, V, VI | 100 Movies Bucket List

-
Image
Technically the '100 Movies' in the Bucket List are really 106, because there are a couple of squares that contain trilogies that only count as one movie. This is one of them. I watched all the Star Wars movies a few years ago, and while I've re-watched the sequel trilogy quite a few times, I only watched the original trilogy once, so I was really glad I got to watch them again for this. I also watched them all in one day, back-to-back, so some of them definitely run into each other in my mind! I absolutely love these movies. Each one brings something different (but equally iconic) to the world of sci-fi, they're all classics in their own right, and they're genuinely really fun movies. The cast are amazing - Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill became household names off the back of these movies and with good reason, because they played these roles amazingly, and the characters are some of the most well-known and popular in the world. The way these films hav
Read more

Airplane! | 100 Movies Bucket List

-
Image
  This was a first-time watch, and I had no idea what it was about. It was a bit surprising to me that there weren't a lot of comedies on the Bucket List, but then thinking about it more, comedies, romances and horrors are probably the least-valued genres in terms of critical acclaim, which is really unfortunate because there are some incredible movies in those categories. But because of that, I was really happy to see a comedy on the list, especially one that's widely known as being 'one of the 10 funniest movies ever made' according to the Paramount Plus description. So I had somewhat high hopes for it! I enjoyed the movie a lot.  The film was released in 1980, and while the humour works for that time period, I really believe it works for a modern audience too. The writing was great, but the acting is what makes the film stand out. You can tell the actors didn't take themselves too seriously, went in to have fun and all delivered such great performances. It's
Read more

Suncoast | Film Review

-
Image
Doris (Nico Parker) spends her time helping her mother (Laura Linney) take care of her brother (Cree Kawa). Growing resentful, she begins to rebel, and strikes up a friendship with an activist (Woody Harrelson) protesting a landmark medical case. I didn't know anything about this film before watching it. All I knew was that it was new, and I like all three of the main actors, and that was enough for me to watch it! I really really liked this movie. The audience is able to take an instant liking to Doris because we take an almost instant disliking to her mother. Or at least, I did!  The actors are the strongest thing about the movie, and they are all amazing in their roles. Linney and Harrelson are great in everything, so that wasn't really a surprise, but Nico Parker absolutely carried the film and did such a good job with it. Before this I had only seen her in 'The Last of Us', so now I'm a huge fan! Doris is such a sweet, interesting character. One of the reasons
Read more

Drive-Away Dolls | Film Review

-
Image
Looking for a fresh start, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) take a road trip, unaware that their rented car contains an important package that a group of criminals will do anything to find. I remember seeing the trailer for this film a couple of months ago at the cinema, and while I wasn't itching to see it, it looked light and fun, so it was definitely on my radar. I loved this movie! It was so much better than I was expecting it to be! For a start, I loved the characters from their first seconds on screen. The main actresses have great chemistry and it's so fun watching them together. Not only did I enjoy the acting and the way the characters were written, but the dialogue was brilliant. You really enjoy just watching these people interact regardless of the situation they're in. A lot of the cast was unexpected, and I loved that. Other than the main characters (and one who's in the trailer), I didn't really know who was in the film, so t
Read more

Where Rainbows End vs. Love, Rosie | Film and Book Review

-
Image
I've just finished reading 'Where Rainbows End' by Cecelia Ahern, and immediately had to watch the movie version, 'Love, Rosie'. The reason that I've decided to talk about them together, as opposed to only reviewing the book, is mainly because I didn't have enough to say about the book on its own to justify reviewing it. Alex (Sam Claflin) and Rosie (Lily Collins) have been best friends since childhood. But when they turn 18 and their paths start to diverge, they realise how much they need each other. I love the idea of this story. Whether in book or movie form, the idea of childhood best friends realising that they were always meant for each other is something that I'm really into. The book version of this story is written entirely of notes, emails, letters, instant messages and any other type of written media, and I loved this. Not only did it make the book really quick to read, but it's almost like you're invading someone's most private th
Read more