Summary
- The chemistry between Malin Akerman and Ryan Hansen is a shining highlight in The Christmas Classic, making their scenes a delight to watch.
- Unfortunately, the film is filled with predictable rom-com clichés and one-dimensional side characters, which hinder its overall appeal.
- The concept of the Christmas competition in the film has potential but falls short of delivering the entertaining and whimsical experience it could have been.
The Christmas Classic is a perfectly regular holiday rom-com that fans of Hallmark Christmas films will eat up. It’s predictable, familiar, boasts some questionable dialogue, and has humor that more often than not falls flat. However, thanks to some compelling chemistry between Malin Akerman (Watchmen, The Final Girls) and Ryan Hansen (Party Down, Superhero Movie), as well as a sweetly entertaining story, there is plenty of charm and festive spirit to be found in this early-in-the-season holiday flick. Besides, would it really be Christmas without a good ol’ fashioned festive rom-com?
Kicking off with a surprising and out of place animated intro, audiences are quickly introduced to Elizabeth, a career driven “city girl” who works for her fiancé’s father. At the risk of losing her job, Elizabeth’s future father-in-law forces her to return to her hometown to persuade her ex-boyfriend, Randy (Ryan Hansen), to sell his ski resort to her. After Elizabeth tries with aplomb to persuade Randy to sell his ski resort, he rightfully denies, but teases his consideration of the idea of selling his run-down ski resort, under one condition. Elizabeth must beat her sister Lynn (Amy Smart) in The Christmas Classic, a collection of Christmas related competitions, such as a light show, as well as a marathon dressed in Christmas onesies. Lynn has been the Christmas Classic champion for nine consecutive years, so Elizabeth must give it her all if she wants to beat her perfectionist sister.
After already spending much more time in her hometown than she originally planned, Elizabeth soon reunites with her oddball family who she hasn’t seen since she started her new life in the big city. Elizabeth soon starts to question her life path after spending plenty of time with her family, and her charming ex-boyfriend Randy. Should she return to her rich, controlling, trust fund-obsessed fiancé? Or should she stay in her hometown, surrounded by love and family?
Great Romantic Leads Play Characters We’ve Already Seen
At the heart of every rom-com is the chemistry between its lead stars. And thankfully both Malin Akerman and Ryan Hansen share some very engaging and believable chemistry, something not a lot of Christmas rom-coms can say proudly. Every second of screen time the two spend together is a delight. Whether it’s their first initial reunion, or their final moment together consumed by love for one another, Akerman and Ryan Hansen are both shining highlights in the film.
There’s not really too much to say about their characters. Both Elizabeth and Randy are two stereotypical rom-com characters we have seen numerous times before. Elizabeth is the exact same character we see in most Hallmark and Lifetime rom-coms, along with characters like Reese Witherspoon’s Melanie Smooter from the 2002 film Sweet Home Alabama. Randy feels like every male lead from predominantly any Hallmark Christmas film ever — a down-to-earth country boy who loves his town and the people in it. However, while these stereotypical character types make for predictable arcs, they do offer a sense of familiarity, which is probably what most fans of holiday rom-coms want, after all.
Related: Why Are Christmas Rom-Coms Still So Popular?
A Hodge-Podge of Christmas Clichés
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The Christmas Classic is packed full of some of the best and worst rom-com clichés. As previously mentioned it boasts familiar lead character types and a predictable narrative; audiences can guess beat for beat on how the film will play out, creating either monotonous déjà vu or a sense of warmth and familiarity that allows audiences to switch their minds off, depending on the viewer’s sensibility. But when audiences begin to meet irritating, one-dimensional side characters followed by some flat comedy and unnatural dialogue, The Christmas Classic sadly loses a lot of mileage.
Featured as nothing more than stereotype placeholders, many of the film’s side characters are quite painful to endure, but they do serve the benefit of the story. None of the side characters get any interesting or impactful arcs besides Lynn, making for side characters we just don’t care about. Elizabeth’s boyfriend is perhaps the worst offender of this and will constantly force audiences to question “what’s his problem?” After we first meet him, audiences will develop a seething hatred for this snob, which is the point of course, but his character wasn’t written with any cleverness or subtlety, making him merely a story-serving antagonist we never wanted to meet. It also makes us question Elizabeth’s basic morality and human decency that she would be engaged to this person.
Related: Exclusive: Malin Akerman and Lorenza Izzo on Escaping The Aviary
The movie’s half-jokey dialogue, like so many festive rom-coms, is one of the film’s weakest elements. The film’s humor is predominantly shallow and unfunny. Lines like a young girl asking her mom, “Mom, will six inches make you happy?” is surprising but worthy of numerous eye rolls. However, the character Dick Mountain is kind of funny in a raunchy and silly way, making for way too many on-the-nose innuendos, but somehow one in every five worked. The film’s dialogue has characters saying some of the most unrealistic things. The majority of the time, rom-coms are written with zero nuance. We always know what the character is thinking. Not by performance, subtle facial expression, or a small but impactful editing choice, but instead through the most obvious and unrealistic scriptwriting.
Perhaps the most egregious part of this Christmas flick, though, is a dance scene that audiences have to endure about five times. It serves the plot by allowing Elizabeth to reconnect with her family, but we didn’t need this scene five times; each iteration never really comes together. The editing, music, and overall direction results in a large, awkward chunk of the film we could’ve done without.
An Entertaining Festive Competition
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Other than Akerman and Hansen, arguably the best (albeit teasing) part of the film relates to the competition in the title. The titular Christmas Classic should be a real thing; different families competing in numerous Christmas related competitions would make a fantastic TV show. Imagine seeing devoted families compete in awe-inspiring Christmas light displays, as well as tension-filled rat-races with parents lumbering their other half up a snowy mountain while dressed as reindeer. It’s a fantastic premise that we’re sure would garner mass viewing figures.
Sadly, while the film does tease ever so slightly at how fun this competition would really be, The Christmas Classic never really demonstrates full potential of its featured competition. This festive competition could have been whimsical, exhilarating, and most of all, entertaining. It could’ve lasted 30 minutes and we’d have been happy, but the film drops the ball and only plants the seeds of a brilliant game show idea. We could have seen Christmas tree decorating, Great British Bake Off style cookie-making, as well as gift-wrapping competition and eggnog-chugging, not to mention more winter sports. Considering the film’s name, the Christmas Classic is a secondary element that isn’t even in the movie’s official synopsis.
Ultimately, if you’re yearning for a very basic, made-for-TV type holiday romance, you could do worse than The Christmas Classic, but it’s unfortunately destined to be anything but a classic. The film is now available in theaters and video on demand, such as Prime Video here.
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