The Jinglebell Jubilee (2023) -
This one was all very basic and a tad nauseating with how sweet it was but it was at least a bit of a different tack with the fact that the relationship was a sort of Love "Square" to start with. Even if it was incredibly obvious how that would fall out in the end.
It was very cheesey and that wasn't helped by Andy's (Kristian Jordan) awkwardness, which was too much.
Leading man Marshall Williams as Nate was the more natural of them all, but still a tad too exaggerated.
And I wasn't sure that leading lady Erin Agostino as Hope was the right person for the role. I did like Allison played by Samantha Kendrick however, although I could see why she didn't get the starring role - she lacked a bit of presence here.
As for "The Jubilee" itself, it wasn't as amazing as I had expected. I thought it would have been a carnival or a one day special with a ball or something instead of just some booths at City Hall.
And they certainly didn't hire enough extras for the dance that did happen. They could have at least shot it differently to make it look busier.
The script was a bit jumbled and clumsy too. I couldn't tell what they were thinking a lot of the time because of it. And the climactic conversation was so bleurgh and saccharin.
With all that said, it definitely wasn't the worst of these films that I've seen. In his position of City Manager trying to fix the Jubilee, Marshall's Nate character was charming in general, even if he made some terrible choices regarding his love life. And Hope's regifting idea, which saved the event, bringing them together, was nice. I did feel that Allison and Andy's connection might have made a cuter story though.
It probably won't be one that I'll revisit in a hurry, but mostly because there are so many more to see and the list of good ones that I definitely want to watch again is getting longer every year. As it was it did the standard job you'd expect.
6.12/10.
