Directed by: Gabriela Tagliavini
Written by: Paco Farias, Jennifer C. Stetson, Michael Varrati
Starring: Aimee Garcia, Freddie Prinze Jr., Grace Dumdaw, Gabriel Sloyer, Deja Monique Cruz
Rating: [3/5]
Famous individuals learning what it means to be normal and be in a relationship with some normie serves as the foundation for many cheesy Christmas movies. That famous or rich person gets to learn about the true meaning of life where they do not have to drive their Ferrari but perhaps a Toyota Camry around. They often carry the same plot points, which genuinely do not stand out narratively typically leaving it to the actors at the center of it all to make the difference in quality stand out. On most occasions the talent cannot save the day, but in Christmas with You, we get a charming duo at the center that make it worthwhile.
Struggling with the current expectations to release a Christmas song for the season, pop star Angelina Costa (Aimee Garcia) decides she needs a bit of a break and decides to surprise visit a fan who said it would be her Christmas wish to meet the pop star. After meeting the fan, Cristina (Deja Monique Cruz), Angelina then meets her single father Miguel (Freddie Prinze Jr.). Stuck in by the snow, Angelina spends time with Miguel and Cristina and begins to get feelings for the former.
Christmas with You has all the makings of a completely forgettable Christmas film with it carrying many of the characteristics of those one would watch on Hallmark. This one saw its release on Netflix as they try and create their own slate of these types of films. Luckily, they struck something genuinely heartwarming with this film, which mostly has to do with the actors at the forefront. It carries quite the generic plot that does not necessarily invoke any type of excitement in bringing anything new, but when you have Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr. acting opposite of each other here, it allows plenty of flaws to be forgiven.
The crux at the center of the film comes the creation of a song that Angelina needs to craft in order to save her career. She has found herself in a perilous situation most pop stars do where they reach an age where they get seen as replaceable for the bright and new figure entering the field. Angelina has worked in the industry for a while now, and she needs to present something that will bring her back in favor with the record label. It makes the relationship she builds with Miguel and Cristina all the more important, seeing as they provide a level of inspiration she no longer has with the individuals she surrounds herself with in the big city. Everything about her celebrity life contains this artifice that all melts away when she spends time with these two normal people, which makes her crave this relationship with Miguel.
Instead of attending all of these events with fake conversations, she spends genuine time with others who care about her, and these moments allow the general sweetness of this story to come through that allows it to stand out in ways others in this genre cannot capture. Yes, it has this general approach we can laugh about where the big city lady learns to be more humble and live a simpler life by experiencing what it means to live something a bit more fulfilling. When with these two Angeline gets to re-experience what it means to perform and create simply for the purposes of doing so and not for the purposes of remaining in the public consciousness and continuing to prove her marketability to others looking to turn a profit off of her. It makes such as vast difference in how she views things and ultimately this film does not spend too much time delving into this but rather uses this foundation to inform what makes her want to fall away into this life rather than returning to the one waiting for her in the big city.
For as many issues as Christmas with You contains, it only further proves that even if carrying a fairly basic plot for a Christmas movie, as long as you have two charming leads it can make up for most of the other nonsense. Luckily, this film has that with Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr. who play off the big-city girl and smaller-town single dad dynamic quite well to make me actually want to root for them to get together. It allows their cutesy moments to matter and make the entire viewing experience much better as a whole.
Films with Josh 
