Where I Watched It: Amazon

English Audio Description Provided By: The Media Access Group

Narrated By: Sylvia Zamora

Not to be outdone by rival streamers, Amazon is very much all about creating its own Christmas romcoms. Honestly, with the way that Hallmark and Lifetime have been doing this for years, these streamers are really going to need to step up their game if they want to beat those two in this business. But, this film also reminds me of movies that actually used to make theatrical runs in this genre, and i wonder if they ever will again. People look to something like love Actually, but nowadays, that would have gone straight to a streamer, where it would be quickly forgotten.

Poor Zoey Deutch, who I thought had a bright career ahead of her, is stuck anchoring this straight to Amazon feature that puts her between two men who both got… something from Tiffany’s. The plot is simple enough. One man is quite literally just looking for something from the titular store, while another man is looking for a ring to propose to his girlfriend when she finally comes home for the holidays. The first guy is in an accident, and the second guy goes to help, but the bags get swapped, and suddenly the wrong guy has the engagement ring, which ends up being a thing because it’s the boyfriend for Zoey’s character, and she’s now believing her boyfriend who has some memory loss from the accident, intended on proposing. Meanwhile, the other guy doesn’t check his stuff right away, but because this is a romcom, he does also end up meeting Zoey, and maybe he didn’t need to propose to his girlfriend after all.

Zoey is delightful in this film, her second solid work to be sent straight to streaming this year after Not OK wound up on Hulu. She’s charming here, and feels like the girl who gets offered things after Anna Kendrick says no. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but the fact that Hollywood has zero faith in her ability to charm an audience in theatres at any point in her career is the sad part. This could have been something lovely that couples might have enjoyed on a date night during the winter. Avatar doesn’t quite strike me as date night, nor do most of the films in release. who knows what people go to the theatres to see anymore for date night. Romcoms seems to happen less and less theatrically, and more on streaming services. But you can’t always get the first date to Netflix and chill, and sometimes you need to go to a public place. So, something like this might have served its purpose.

It’s charming, and it’s also somewhat family friendly, as the potential new boyfriend also has a kid, which reminded me a bit of some of those other “I have a kid” romcoms, like Sleepless In Seattle, or One Fine Day. Sure, it’s a formula, and it does feel like an amalgamation of previous comedies, but formulas work. This works.

The audio description here is fine, and honestly, if we didn’t have it, you wouldn’t know he picks up the wrong bag. Sighted people would notice, but we wouldn’t pick up on that until much later. The film would seem like something totally different if this didn’t have audio description, because he definitely does not have an immediate reaction to his mistake.

I’ve reviewed a lot of random Christmas romantic comedies this year, and this is one I was pleasantly surprised by. Get swept up by this.

Final Grade: B