Roku
Rating: 🎄🎄🎄
Description: Perpetually single firefighter Dean (Graziadei) enlists children’s book illustrator Laura (Chung) to help plan his firehouse’s most unforgettable holiday party yet. Throughout the planning process, they both begin to question their views on romance and the possibility of love at first spark.
Overall Review: There are good Christmas movies. There are bad Christmas movies. And then there are Christmas movies that are so close to being bad that they somehow become entertaining again. The Holiday Spark is flirting dangerously with that third category.
Let’s start with the positives. The plot is fun, and the leading lady is a capable actress who does a respectable job carrying the movie. The production value is adequate, and the whole thing has enough going for it that I didn’t completely check out.
Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the leading man that acting was part of his job. The chemistry between the two leads is stilted, awkward, and occasionally downright weird. She’s doing her best to sell the romance, while he seems to be participating in a televised social experiment to determine whether two people can fall in love without displaying any believable romantic chemistry.
Which, considering his background on The Bachelorette and her history on The Real World: San Diego, might not be that far from the truth. I realize reality television has launched plenty of entertainment careers, but appearing on a reality show and convincingly portraying a fictional human being are two very different skill sets.
And yet, here’s the strange thing: I’m not hating it.
This is not necessarily the kind of enjoyment the filmmakers intended, mind you. I’ve laughed several times, and I’m fairly certain none of those moments were supposed to be funny. There is something genuinely entertaining about watching a movie wobble so precariously between competent holiday romance and accidental comedy.
It’s not quite a train wreck. More like a Christmas parade float that lost a wheel but somehow keeps making its way down Main Street. And entertainment is entertainment, even when you’re laughing at the movie instead of with it.
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