Falling for Christmas
Director: Janeen Damian
Writer: Jeff Bonnett, Ron Oliver
Cast: Lindsay Lohan, Chord Overstreet, George Young, Jack Wagner, Olivia Perez, Alejandra Flores, Sean Dillingham
Seen on: 23.12.2022

Plot:
Sierra (Lindsay Lohan) is the heir to a hotel empire run by her father Beauregard (Jack Wagner). Her boyfriend Tad (George Young) is a successful influencer. Sierra really doesn’t have a care in the world, but she would like to be more than just her father’s heir and the Vice-President of Atmosphere at his ski chalet. As she gears up to tell her father just that, Tad prepares to propose to her, but the romantic scene is disrupted when Sierra loses control of her skis, loses sight of Tad and hits her head. When she comes to again, she is in the hospital and can’t remember a thing about her life before Jack (Chord Overstreet), owner of a struggling ski lodge, brought her to the hospital. Jack takes pity on her and invites her to stay with him, his daughter Avy (Olivia Perez) who he raises together with his mother-in-law (Alejandra Flores). This invitation shakes all of their lives up permanently.

Falling for Christmas is pretty standard holiday movie fare that gets elevated a bit by Lohan’s campy and committed performance. Otherwise it is rather forgettable.

If you’re looking for a holiday movie, you could do worse than choose Falling for Christmas, but that’s really not saying much. The movie knows what it’s doing and dutifully passes all the required stops of its genre, but it is woefully lacking in chemistry. That is never the fault of Lohan who is there for this film in more ways than it probably deserves. Her pre-accident Sierra is every horrible clichée about rich children rolled into one and she still manages to make it sing. And her post-accident Sierra (now called Sarah) grows in all the expected ways, but she makes it believable.

But what an absolutely lifeless cardboard cut-out is her love interest?! Jack is barely there as a person, and simply no match for Lohan’s charm. I have rarely been as bored with a romantic lead than with Jack, despite the fact that I’m pretty susceptible to the single father trope. But dammit, Jack – and Overstreet’s performance – are way too bland. I almost wanted Sierra to end up with Tad. As self-absorbed as Tad was, at least he was a whole entire person (and Young is hilarious).

That is a problem that the film never manages to move past, and how could it? A romance without chemistry just cannot work, and it doesn’t. Despite putting in a good effort, with just the right amount of warmth, a sense of humor that often works, especially when it isn’t trying too hard, and way too much sugar as is only right for a Holiday treat.

But unless you think that Overstreet is the hottest dude alive or you’re the world’s biggest holiday movie fan, even if you’re a Lohan fan, you might want to sidestep this one.

Summarizing: oh well.