The recipe is the same. Only the ingredients change. Best. Christmas. Ever! could have been on Hallmark, Lifetime, any of the other streamers. Doesn’t matter. But the movie got lucky: Brandy, Heather Graham, and Jason Biggs are a notch better than your normal washed up starts of yesteryear. That’s probably why the movie got Netflix distribution, since they’re rolling in the Benjamins.
Best. Christmas. Ever!’s frustrated mom is Charlotte Sanders (Heather Graham). For what reason is she so wound up? Her estranged best friend Jackie Jennings (Brandy) just dropped her annual Jennings Christmas letter, where Jackie brags about her genius daughter (Madison Skye Validum), her marble sculpted husband Valentino (Matt Cedeño), and her away from home son Daniel (Laswell Panaflex). Seething, Charlotte tells her husband Rob (Jason Biggs) to prepare to go to her sister’s house this Christmas. But Charlotte’s son Grant (Wyatt Hunt) inputs Jackie’s address into the phone. Uh oh, WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
The first hour of this movie is a copy paste from stuff we’ve seen a zillion times by now. Charlotte’s family is sweet but normal, while Jackie’s is perfect in every way, leading to broad, basic comedic stuff like Charlotte turned on by the smoking hot Valentino, or someone trapped outside in the snow forced to scale the house. There’s constant overacting from Heather Graham to try to sell this story, but that only makes her actions dumber and more eye rollingly irritating, as everyone else is, you know, happy to be in a beautiful house on Christmas. It’s almost like Netflix challenged everyone here to get all the worst parts of a Christmas script out in the first 45 minutes, where Charlotte’s “big reveal” is easily debunked and she’s humiliated.
And then a minor Christmas miracle happens. No the movie isn’t going to win awards, but its characters suddenly get smarter and more fun. Charlotte figures out the most telegraphed plot twist in human history by herself. A kid gets lost, and the families actually divide and conquer to find him pretty quickly. Ergo, we finally get some fun adventures through the sets the movie paid for, including a really wacky climax at the Christmas play, a new Christmas movie wrinkle I hadn’t seen before. And if that’s not enough for you, Brandy takes us home with a couple of Bradified Christmas songs. 80 minutes and we’re out.
That’s right. Best. Christmas. Ever! is a perfect Christmas prep movie. While you’re making the ham, or baking cookies, throw this thing on in the background, and perk up when you see a new awesome HGTV tour of a new part of Jackie’s house, when Brandy says something or when you really see the crazy CGI kick in. Don’t worry either, no pies were harmed in the making of Best. Christmas. Ever!