Falling for Christmas (2022)

November 18, 2022 7:15 AM

A newly engaged, spoiled hotel heiress (Lindsay Lohan) gets into a skiing accident, suffers from total amnesia and finds herself in the care of a handsome, blue-collar lodge owner and his precocious daughter in the days leading up to Christmas.

Also starring Chord Overstreet, George Young, Jack Wagner, Olivia Perez, Aliana Lohan.

Directed by Like It Matters. Written by Someone Who Got Paid And Isn't That Nice for Them?

56% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

Currently streaming in the US as a Netflix original. JustWatch listing.

The spectrum of reviews in just two examples:

This is a rom-com in which both rom and com are in short supply, with zero chemistry between Lohan and Overstreet and a decidedly half-hearted attitude to the pratfalls.

--Ed Potton, Times (UK)

This healthy dollop of Christmas camp, which is a little batty by even Netflix holiday movie standards, is eager to give Lohan something to do. That’s the point, and that’s what the movie pleasingly accomplishes.

--K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone

posted by DirtyOldTown (13 comments total)

Is Chord Overstreet a real person's actual name? It seems to have been generated by an indifferent AI.

Lindsay Lohan is someone who I've never knowingly seen perform, but am aware of largely from watching people in cheap newspapers and online be quite beastly to. I have no idea whether she in any way deserves this beastliness, but I find that it did cause me to root for her somewhat nonetheless.

I have a vague memory that she was rude about Kettering once, but she did apologise to Kettering, and were I in a position to make a film of Kettering's own J.L. Carr's The Harpole Report would definitely have mis-cast her as Emma Foxberrow, no matter how inappropriate it might have been.

I shall not watch this film, however. It seems more like a thread inviting free-form rambling. Apologies if I've misread the room.
posted by Grangousier at 3:13 PM on November 18, 2022 [2 favorites]

Every year, we pick the cheesiest looking new Christmas romcom and watch it while we wrap gifts. This one is in the lead early.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:18 PM on November 18, 2022

I feel this film would be better if one (or all!) of the leads were possessed by murderous ghosts. But I guess that would get in the way of the “XMas Rom-Com” thing….
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:21 PM on November 18, 2022

A game we’ve been playing with our streaming services is trying to infer the Hallmark Xmas (or equivalent) movie’s plot from the title and thumbnail. Highly recommend!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:14 PM on November 18, 2022

'Tis the season to be snarky, I see..

And I say: let it snark, let it snark, let it snark..

This year there is no travel in the cards for me that would put me in proximity to my otherwise-sane sister who is for some reason completely unable to resist cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies, so there is approximately zero chance I will ever see this (and I am 100% okay with that!) but I am mildly curious whether it makes any nod, even a minor one, to the Betty Grable subplot of "How to Marry a Millionaire" (in which Grable's character, Loco, winds up having to make an unexpectedly long stay in a ski lodge to convalesce from an illness, during which time she falls in love with the handsome caretaker played by Rory Calhoun).

If it doesn't reference "How to Marry a Millionaire" does it at least reference "Overboard"? (for the amnesiac obnoxious heiress factor)
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:33 PM on November 18, 2022

As far as Lindsay Lohan goes - I hope she's gotten past her problems and that the industry treats her better this time around. She certainly wasn't helped by the relentless attention of the celebrity press during the low points of her life.
posted by Nerd of the North at 10:36 PM on November 18, 2022 [3 favorites]

Yeah, there's a definite child star-to-willing tabloid fodder-to-mental health crisis-to-sincere regret about all of that scrutiny pipeline that used to seem funny but now just seems sad.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:53 AM on November 19, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Most Colorful Time of the Year (comin 12/9 on Hallmark) is a real contender for my silly Christmas wrapping movie, too.

It's got the actress who played Cerie on 30 Rock as "an optometrist who helps a color blind man enjoy the colors of Christmas." Which honestly, sounds like a 30 Rock bit.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:54 AM on November 19, 2022 [3 favorites]

Aw, I thought this one was fun! We were trying to find a Christmas movie to watch as a family on Saturday night, and somehow this one won (our daughter picked it). I thought it was cute and funny-enough, and for once the leads are actually attractive (like, no offense to Hallmark and Lifetime, but the absolute levels of pancake makeup and flat lighting on their actors make them look terrible) and the jerk-boyfriend is played for comedy rather than as someone a person would actually want to date.

Lindsay Lohan is a credible actor, it turns out, and her physical comedy here is actually funny! If you didn't guffaw when she got wrapped up in the fitted sheet, I'm sorry, but you have no soul.

Also I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the bisexual twist at the end; it's played for laughs, because the terrible-boyfriend is played for laughs all throughout, but it doesn't seem mean-spirited, so I think I can give it a pass? In any case, our 8-year-old was just like, "well, I guess they're in love now!" so I guess it hit alright for her.

Honestly, though, anyone slamming this movie has obviously not spent enough time watching Hallmark and Lifetime. Everything about this film is so far beyond what the other networks are doing that they're not even in the same neighborhood. It's chalk and cheese.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:01 AM on November 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

It was pretty cheesy, but I was really happy to see Lohan acting again, if that's what she wants to do. The movie was nothing more and nothing less than what it held itself out to be, and thats okay. It was cute and Lohan was charming. I hope she gets another role, she is certainly capable of something more challenging.
posted by gatorae at 7:36 PM on November 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Is Chord Overstreet a real person's actual name? It seems to have been generated by an indifferent AI.

Much like the script.

Enjoyed the send-up to Mean Girls.
posted by solotoro at 5:44 PM on November 24, 2022

Is Chord Overstreet a real person's actual name? It seems to have been generated by an indifferent AI.

Wasn't he in Space Mutiny?
posted by ActingTheGoat at 9:21 PM on November 24, 2022

We got enough snow today to close our karate school so the whole family was at home (which is a rarity on a weeknight) and we watched this on a lark. We really enjoyed it. It's every bit as cheesy as we expected plus a little more for good measure. We watched it without reading the synopsis or hearing anything about it other than the title. That was the correct way to do it I think.

We made a game of predicting the next line and got more than we should have right. One of my kids called a line that was a longshot weird one-off and was almost exactly the next line. We also kept saying "Those people are STILL in that hot tub! They're all prune-y by now!"

I understand why people are down on this movie but it is exactly what it claims to be and is actually done pretty well for this kind of movie. We were all entertained here and don't feel at all like we wasted our time.

I was really happy to see Lindsay Lohan looking and acting well again. She had a rough couple of years and had to have them in public.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 7:25 PM on November 29, 2022 [1 favorite]