Christmas Perfection – Film Review
As a kid, Darcy (Caitlin Thompson) had no control over her family’s holidays and thus, has grown up to be a Christmas control freak — so much so that she loses sight of what the holidays actually mean. Suddenly, she finds herself magically transported into her idea of the perfect Christmas Village and learns that ‘perfection’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Yes, I’m fully aware that it is only September and we haven’t even gotten to Halloween yet, but sometimes, you just feel like watching a Christmas-related movie to get you in a happy, feel-good mood. I was scrolling around a list of Lifetime Christmas movies because I have surprisingly never seen one from beginning to end. Almost all of them have incredibly poor reputations for being extremely bad, corny, and flat.
While I was looking for a film to watch, I stumbled upon Christmas Perfection and figured I would see what it was all about. Funny enough, it’s essentially exactly what I had a feeling it was going to be – it’s extremely cheesy, doesn’t have an entertaining story, and boasts flat characters.
We all know that Christmas is almost universally considered to be “the most wonderful time of the year”. Andy Williams even made a song about that and it is one of the most iconic and beloved Christmas songs ever made. But why do all of these Christmas movies have to make all these characters out to be so perfect? Everything feels a little too good to be true in Christmas Perfection, even when Darcy isn’t transported to her magical Christmas Village where everybody is extraordinarily friendly and inviting.
Courtesy of Lifetime Television
Also something that the film boasts is a wide variety of generic and severely underdeveloped characters. We don’t really get to learn anything else about our lead protagonist Darcy except for the fact that she adores Christmas and also craves burgers every once in a while.
A man named Brandon (James Henri-Thomas) has a humongous crush on Darcy and tries to be the cool guy every time he is around her but often ends up acting incredibly awkward. But, at the end of the day, he is still a sweet guy with a big heart and good intentions. He seems like he can’t do any wrong, really.
On the other hand, there is a man named Tom (Robbie Silverman) who she ends up dating in the first little bit of the movie, and the version of him in the magical Christmas Village is even better. But, seeing as how this is a Lifetime Christmas movie, we all know who she is going to end up with don’t we?
The film is so goofy and ridiculous but not in a fun or endearing way. It uses so many tropes that it can be hard to keep count of how many clichés are used throughout. Not to mention the fact that the editing on display is some of the worst I have seen in years. One moment we will be watching Darcy doing something such as going outside for a stroll with cheery music playing in the background, and then the screen abruptly cuts to black along with the music.
It’s genuinely baffling how these kinds of problems didn’t get fixed before the official release. In all honesty, there was nothing that I liked about Christmas Perfection. This was my first ever Lifetime Christmas movie viewing experience, and even though it’s just one movie, now I understand why everybody laughs at them so much.
Christmas Perfection is an incredibly cheesy and trope-filled holiday disaster with weak acting, a poor and familiar screenplay, and awful editing.
Overall Grade: F
MPAA Rating: TV-PG
Cast: Caitlin Thompson, James Henri-Thomas, Robbie Silverman, Rachel-Mae Brady, Norma Sheahan, Gary Hetzler, Caoilfhionn McDonnell, Ella Boyd, Ely Solan
Directed by: David Jackson
Distributed by: Lifetime Television
Release Date: November 25, 2018
Running Time: 90 minutes