The New Holiday Film Review – The Streaming Giant’s Latest Christmas Romcom Lacks Fizz.

At the risk of come across as the Grinch, one must lament the premature release of holiday films prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. While temperatures drop, it seems premature to completely immerse in the platform’s yearly feast of cheap holiday entertainment.

Similar to US candy that no longer include real chocolate, Netflix’s Christmas movies are counted on for their style of mediocrity. They offer predictable elements – nostalgic casting, low budgets, artificial winter scenes, and absurd premises. In the worst cases, these films are forgettable train wrecks; in the best scenarios, they are lighthearted distractions.

Champagne Problems, the latest Christmas concoction, disappears into the vast middle of the forgettable spectrum. Directed by Mark Steven Johnson, whose previous romantic comedy was so disposable, this movie feels like low-quality champagne – fittingly lackluster and situational.

It begins with what appears to be a computer-made commercial for drug store brand champagne. This commercial is actually the proposal of Sydney Price, portrayed by the actress, to her colleagues at a financial firm. The protagonist is the construction paper cut-out of a professional female – overlooked, constantly on her device, and driven to the harm of her private world. After her boss dispatches her to France to close a deal over Christmas, her sister makes her promise take one night in the city to enjoy life.

Naturally, Paris is the perfect place to wrest one away from digital navigation, despite Paris is covered in unconvincing digital snowfall. In an absurdly cutesy bookshop, the lead meet-cutes with Henri Cassell, and he distracts her from her phone. As demanded by rom-com conventions, she at first rejects this perfect man for silly reasons.

Just as predictable are the film elements that proceed at abrupt quarter turns, reflecting the rotation of aging champagne bottles in the cellars of Chateau Cassel. The twist? The love interest is the successor to the estate, hesitant to run it and bitter toward his dad for selling it. In perhaps the film’s biggest addition to romantic comedies, Henri is extremely judgmental of private equity. The problem? The heroine truly thinks she’s not stripping the ancestral business for profit, vying against three caricatures: a stern Frenchwoman, a severe blonde German man, and an out-of-touch wealthy man.

The development? Her skeevy coworker Ryan appears without warning. The core? Henri and Sydney look yearningly at each other in holiday pajamas, across a vast chasm in economic worldview.

The gift and the curse is that none of this lingers beyond a bubbly buzz on an unfilled belly. There’s a lack of substantial content – Minka Kelly, still best known for her part in Friday Night Lights, delivers a strictly serviceable performance, superficially pleasant and acts of kindness, more maternal than love interest material. The male star offers just the right amount of French charm with mild self-torture and nothing more. The tricks are not amusing, the romance is harmless, and the happy-ever-after is predictable.

Despite its waxing poetic on the luxury of champagne, no one is pretending this is anything other than a mainstream product. The flaws are also the things to like. It’s fair to say a critic’s feelings about the film a champagne problem.

• The Holiday Film is now available on Netflix.