Friday, November 29, 2024

#31DaysOfChristmas: The Merry Gentlemen

 

Watched On: Netflix
Duration: 1 hour 27 minutes
Originally Aired: November 20, 2024
Directed By: Peter Sullivan
Starring: Britt Robertson, Chad Michael Murray & Marla Sokoloff
Please see IMDb for full cast and crew information. 

Synopsis

To save her parents' small-town performing venue, a former big-city dancer decides to stage an all-male, Christmas-themed revue.

Review

After being fired from The Jingle Belles, a dance group in the big city, Ashley returns home for the holidays, just to find that The Rhythm Room, her parents small town performance venue, is in dire straights. It doesn't have the same draw for up and coming acts that it used to, which means the customers aren't coming in either, and the rent just keeps getting more expensive. And naturally, they have some serious debt to the landlord, and if it's not resolved by Christmas, The Rhythm Room will be no more. What is a big city dancer to do to help that? Obviously convincing a few of the local hunks to dance half naked is the answer. 

Before I get into my assessment of whether or not this is a Christmas movie, I've got to say that this is a movie I'm going to have to watch again because I was watching it while preparing Thanksgiving dinner for my family, and I'm pretty sure I missed some of the plot. 

The Plot

So is this a Christmas movie? Let's look at the facts. Ashley is in a group called The Jingle Belles, they dress like sexy Santas. She's going home to visit her family for the holidays, and there's a Christmas deadline to save the business. There's even a famous Rhythm Room recipe they make every Christmas, at least when business is good. These are all common elements for a holiday movie. But this just doesn't quite pass muster for me. The dance group could just as easily be called The Liberty Belles putting on a patriotic Independence Day show dressed as sexy Uncle Sam, and the arbitrary debt deadline could literally fall at any time of the year. The Christmas cooking scene does push it towards holiday movie status, but it's just not enough to put it over the line. It was a good movie and I enjoyed watching it (and will enjoy watching it again later for the "plot"), but it's just not a Christmas movie. 

Rating


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