Netflix
It’s a bit presumptuous (and maybe even intentionally ironic) to title a movie Best. Christmas. Ever! (Nov. 16) when the film itself falls below the standard of even the most mediocre of the streamer’s original holiday movies. But unfortunately for fans of this kind of bizarre and hackneyed holiday fare, that’s exactly what the folks behind the new Netflix film have done—and there is nothing we can do to stop them.
The movie’s title is, of course, a play on the kind of holiday that Jackie Jennings (the legendary Brandy Norwood) plans on having when her old friend Charlotte (Heather Graham) turns up at Jackie’s door unexpectedly just a few days before Christmas. Jackie’s over-the-top Christmas newsletters—which have been enraging Charlotte for years with their affected family updates—have always ended with Jackie encouraging her friends to “stop by anytime.” So, when Charlotte arrives at her house, her whole family in tow, Jackie simply assumes that someone finally took her up on her offer.
But Charlotte is just as surprised to see Jackie open the door, thinking that she is arriving at her sister’s new house for Christmas. This meet-cute is the result of a prank by Charlotte’s son, who put the incorrect address into the GPS. Before she knows it, Charlotte is roped into both Christmas with Jackie and an inescapable series of implausible plot points. (She drove across states for an entire day but never realized she wasn’t going to the right place… sure.)