Name: Christmas with You
Director: Gabriela Tagliavini
Released: 2022-11-17T18:36:56

In ‘Christmas with You’ Angelina, a pop star, struggles with keeping up with the trends and seeks inspiration. She finds it in an unlikely source. The romantic-comedy film is now streaming on Netflix.

Story

Angelina Costa (Aimee Garcia) is a pop star very much on the decline. She is being overtaken by younger artists and her label is considering firing her if she doesn’t give more hits.

Cristina Torres (Deja Monique Cruz) is Angelina’s biggest fan. She lives with her father, Miguel (Freddie Prinze Jr), who is a music teacher at her school.

Angelina comes across a video made by Cristina where she states that her dream is to meet Angelina. She decided to make this wish come true. At her house, Angelina figures out Miguel’s musical connection and a Christmas song he is working on.

Angelina reveals her need to come up with a hit Christmas song to save her career. Miguel agrees to her request and they start working on together.

Sparks fly as Angelina gets both her inspiration and a shot at true love. But will she take the leap?

Performances

Aimee Garcia and Freddie Prinze Jr are adequate as Angelina and Miguel, however, not much is asked of them and they’re never challenged enough. These are extremely generic rom-com characters.

Deja Monique Cruz is the one who impresses the most and gives an earnest performance as Cristina.

Positives

The addition of Mexican culture to the narrative is a plus point. Moments such as Cristina’s invite for Cristina to show up at her quinceañera at least add some freshness to the plot.

Negatives

The cliché is strong with this one. Girl meets boy, they fall for each other, the girl is unsure and later realises she wants to be with him. How many times have you seen this same story?

The whole plot point of her career being under threat if she does not give a hit Christmas song feels extremely forced and far-fetched. It often flirts with the territory of actually caricaturing the music industry.

The character of Ricardo, who is only with Angelina in the public eye, is just another forced, exaggerated attempt at bringing the conflict to the storyline. He doesn’t even feel like a real person.

Verdict

‘Christmas with You’ is another run-of-the-mill Christmas rom-com created by Netflix that just rehashes the age-old formula. Give it a watch only if you don’t mind watching the same narrative once again with different faces.