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

Without wanting to sound like the Grinch, it’s hard not to lament the premature release of holiday films before Thanksgiving. Even as the weather cools, it feels too soon to completely immerse in Netflix’s annual feast of cheap holiday treats.

Like American chocolates which don’t include genuine cocoa, the service’s holiday films are counted on for their style of badness. They offer predictable elements – nostalgic casting, low budgets, fake snow, and unbelievable plots. At worst, these films are forgettable train wrecks; at best, they are forgettable fun.

The new Netflix film, the newest holiday concoction, blends into the vast middle of unremarkable territory. Helmed by Mark Steven Johnson, whose previous romantic comedy was so disposable, this film feels like low-quality champagne – fittingly lackluster and situational.

It begins with what looks like a computer-made commercial for supermarket sparkling wine. This ad is actually the proposal of Sydney Price, portrayed by Minka Kelly, to her colleagues at a financial firm. The protagonist is the stereotypical image of a professional female – underestimated, phone-obsessed, and ambitious to the harm of her private world. When her boss sends her to Paris to finalize an acquisition over Christmas, her sibling makes her promise take one night in the city to enjoy life.

Of course, the French capital is the ideal location to pull someone from Google Maps, even when the city is draped with unconvincing digital snowfall. At a absurdly cutesy bookstore, Sydney has a charming encounter with the male lead, who pulls her away from her device. As demanded by rom-com conventions, she at first rejects this perfect man for silly reasons.

Equally as expected are the movie mechanics that proceed at sudden shifts, mirroring the turning of old sparkling wine in the cellars of Chateau Cassel. The catch? The love interest is the successor to the estate, reluctant to manage it and resentful toward his father for selling it. Maybe the film’s biggest addition to romantic comedies, he is highly critical of private equity. The conflict? The heroine truly thinks she’s not stripping the ancestral business for parts, vying against three caricatures: a severe French grand dame, a rigid German, and an out-of-touch wealthy man.

The development? Sydney’s shady colleague Ryan appears unannounced. The core? Henri and Sydney gaze longingly at each other in holiday pajamas, despite a huge divide in economic worldview.

The gift and the curse is that none of this sticks longer than a bubbly buzz on an unfilled belly. There’s a lack of substantial content – the lead actress, still best known for her part in the TV series, gives a strictly serviceable portrayal, all sweet surfaces and acts of kindness, almost motherly than romantic lead. Tom Wozniczka provides just the right amount of French charm with light inner conflict and nothing more. The gimmicks are unfunny, the romance is inoffensive, and the happy-ever-after is predictable.

Despite its waxing poetic on the luxury of sparkling wine, nobody claims it is anything other than a mass market item. The things to hate are the very reasons some enjoy it. One might call an expert’s opinion about it a champagne problem.

• Champagne Problems can be streamed on the platform.