Stars: 2/5
Even this star-studded cast couldn’t shine bright enough to make this underwhelming film bright and worth the watch this holiday season.
A movie with Spiderman’s best friend, the iconic Jenna from “Lady Bird” and Sabrina Spellman herself all jam packed in one film. It has to be great right?
I had hoped it would be, but not all Christmas wishes are granted.
This adaptation of the John Green’s “Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances” shows the day of multiple teenagers in Laurel, Illinois.
First, we meet Angie (Kiernan Shipka) and Tobin (Mitchell Hope) who has been best friends with Angie since they were five and is hopelessly in love with her. They meet at Keon’s house (Jacob Batalon) who needs help planning a party to help boost his DJ career.
Then we meet Addie (Odeya Rush) who thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her, and her best friend Dorrie (Liv Hewson) who has a secret romance with another girl.
We also meet Isabela (Julie Reyes) who recently finds out she got into Columbia University, but doesn’t know if she should go or stay home and take care of her sick mother. On the way to meet her mother she runs into Stuart Bale (Shameik Moore) who’s a huge popstar.
Starting this movie it seemed like a typical teen movie, and it was but even weirder than expected. Between an odd tin foil woman that never really is explained, to the wanna be hip dialogue, so many things are off with this film.
Pretty predictably, Angie starts hanging out with another cute boy posing as a threat to Tobin and Isabela is obsessed with hating Stuart Bale but begins to fall for him, again pretty predictably.
This movie has multiples story lines between different relationships like every other movie ever, and I could easily tell everything that was going to happen before the middle of the film. You could tell the party would be great and the pretty girl will realize she doesn’t need her boyfriend while the two best friends fall in love.
Not to spoil anything but again, it was pretty predictable. Sometimes corny can be good, especially in a Christmas movie, but I feel like they missed out on opportunities to bring the key points and message to life.
It seems like the writers tried to make a typical holiday story unique and original, but it just didn’t work. I wished the movie would have focused more on its themes of independence, friendships and self-identity.
I tried to go into watching this movie optimistic, but it lacked the Christmas magic that a holiday film should have, making me let go of “Let It Snow” on my Netflix list.