With Christmas round the corner, here are three holiday films recently added on Netflix to add to your movie marathon list.
Family Switch
This Yuletide body-swap comedy starring Jennifer Garner, Ed Helms, Emma Myers and Brady Noon is a fair choice if you are seeking light-hearted moments and laughter. Directed by Joseph McGinty Nichol, the film is loosely based on Amy Krouse Rosenthal’s best-selling children’s book, Bedtime for Mommy.
Family Switch explores the fascinating journey of the Walker family — dad, mom, a school-going son and daughter, and a baby — in resuscitating their bond. Caught up in their careers, Jess (Jennifer Garner) and Wyatt’s (Ed Helms) marriage has fallen into a rut and they undermine one another at the slightest opportunity.
Following a chance encounter with a fortune-teller and a fiasco in the planetarium, Wyatt’s body is swapped with their son’s, and Jess’s with their daughter’s. However, their interests and opinions remain unchanged, and so begins the struggle of each of them to fit into the shoes of the one they are presently in.
Employing the standard tropes of slapstick comedy like misunderstanding and dramatic irony, McGinty Nichol takes the characters beyond their self-interests in Yuletide spirit and makes the Walkers work their way towards reviving their lost bond.
Fall into Winter
Starring Lori Loughlin and James Tupper, this holiday romcom is a perfect Christmas watch, especially because it’s a lesson on forgiveness. Kerrie’s goes into a spin when her brother Jack shifts to Europe selling his half of the family business to Kerrie’s supposedly obnoxious high school crush, Brooks McLead.
Brooks is an entrepreneur whose views clash with Kerrie’s. Kerrie’s ancestral candy shop is also her abode of childhood memories, and she is reluctant to let business tactics take over the gentler emotions.
As Kerrie and McLead negotiate their conflicting interests, old feelings resurface leading to second chances and newer discoveries. The two of them eventually learn to let go of their rigid ideas, and let love and laughter creep into their lives.
I’m Glad It’s Christmas
This is a feel-good holiday film with peppy Yuletide music, miracles and hope. Chloe Bose (Jessica Lowndes), who works as a clerk at Hollingsworth Gift Shop and dreams of becoming the lead singer in a Broadway musical, runs into Jason Murphy (Paul Greene), a single father, in her neighbourhood’s Holiday Lane.
Their chemistry catches the eye of Miss Cora, a rich businesswoman bent on reviving the neighbourhood’s Christmas spirit. Miss Cora emerges as a matchmaker, convincing Chloe and Jason to collaborate for Holiday Lane’s Christmas concert.
This decision puts Chloe in a nerve-wracking dilemma. She has spent five years trying to pursue her goal but not much has happened. Choosing Miss Cora’s concert would mean giving up on bigger opportunities. But staying back might be the key to a potential romance. Watch Ernie Barbarash’s Yuletide drama to find out if Chloe follows romance or her dreams.
