A Merry Christmas Wish — Review
A career in the big city. A boyfriend that even a blind person can see doesn’t suit you. An urgent matter that calls you back to your hometown. After some adjustment problems, find out what life is really about. That old childhood sweetheart turns out to suit you better than that boyfriend in the big city. There you have it, the standard recipe for many Christmas films. Writers often manage to experiment with this. Not with the Netflix dragon A Merry Christmas Wish , a fill-in-the-blank exercise on an extremely hackneyed Christmas theme.
The career tiger is called Janie, who works for a large marketing agency in New York. Her mismatch is called Charles. The pressing matter is a deceased great uncle who leaves Janie his entire farm. The old childhood sweetheart — well, there is some variation — is hunk Dylan, the brother of Janie’s old best friend Nicole. Not only does Janie have to figure out what to do with the farm, she is also encouraged to organize the hamlet of Woodland Falls’ annual Christmas festival.
Of course, no one is interested in a Christmas film where the plot is barely comprehensible and many directors or screenwriters are forgiven for some form of predictability. Even with this in mind, A Merry Christmas Wish is one big disappointing exercise, made up of poor acting and highly awkward flirtatious glances. Janie ends up in a world that she has left behind for a long time, but is welcomed back into a warm nest by the community.
The advertising lady tries to teach local entrepreneurs some sense of commerce. Because isn’t it a smart plan for the village beekeeper to increase the production of his irresistible honey and also sell it in the health food stores in the area? And why doesn’t the Christmas tree seller think a little bigger and expand his sales locations? Nice try, the writers’ attempt to transfer city wisdom to village values, but the result is extremely sought after.
Christmas films like this often have to have a high feel-good factor and appealing supporting characters, but here too the viewer is disappointed. The forced cozy appearance and community spirit do not really evoke a warm Christmas feeling. It should come as no surprise where it all ends, because right up until the end, Walsh sticks to the oppressive mold of the genre. Because the director does not allow himself any form of creativityA Very Merry Christmas is even too bad to appear on the American Hallmark channel. And that says something. The only thing you as a viewer wish for this Christmas accident is for it to pass as quickly as possible.
