Worth: $10.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Zoey Deutch, Kendrick Sampson, Ray Nicholson
Intro:
… the stakes are low; everyone is very attractive and there’s enough festive cheer peppered in to make this an ideal pick to stream during Christmas romcom marathons.
While out shopping for the women in their lives, Ethan (Kendrick Sampson) and Gary’s (Ray Nicholson) worlds literally collide when Gary is hit by a car in front of the famous Tiffany’s store. Good Samaritan Ethan rushes in to help, only to find his own life veering off course when his newly purchased engagement ring gets swapped for the far less sentimental pair of earrings Gary bought as an apology gift for his long-suffering girlfriend, Rachel (Zoey Deutch).
The first fifteen minutes of the film are enough to make it clear where the plot is headed. Encouraged by his eight-year-old daughter Daisy to check in on Gary’s well-being after the accident, Ethan meets Rachel and the inevitable sparks fly, only for things to become more complicated once Ethan’s intended engagement ring winds up on Rachel’s finger.
It’s the Cinderella slipper of true love, and even though we see it coming a mile away that doesn’t mean the journey is a joyless one.
Zoey Deutch’s Rachel is a harried but endearing New York City baker, heroically throwing her whole heart into spouting dialogue written by someone who has never managed a bakery. There are a lot of pastry-as-metaphor moments, and yet both Deutch and Kendrick Sampson have an innate chemistry that makes their clichéd courtship not just watchable but enjoyable.
This is not Sampson’s first romcom rodeo, he has a string of made for TV romances (Ghosting: The Spirit of Christmas, Fashionably Yours) to his name and he embodies the role of charismatic love interest with ease.
Based on the novel of the same name by Melissa Hill, After screenwriter Tamara Chestna delivers a romcom that leans heavily into the tropes of the genre. Misunderstandings and contrived coincidences abound, and no one gets out of this with a three-dimensional character intact.
With a comfortably familiar plot wrapped up in a neat package — or signature blue box — the stakes are low; everyone is very attractive and there’s enough festive cheer peppered in to make this an ideal pick to stream during Christmas romcom marathons.
