As the holiday season approaches, it is not surprising that Netflix came out with a Netflix Original holiday movie. This year, they came up with a movie called “Holidate,” starring Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey, both of whom are single and looking for someone to go out with on the holidays so to avoid judgement from their families and friends. The movie was directed by John Whitesell and came out on October 28th of this year, just in time for the holiday season,
The movie is about Roberts’ character, Sloane, who is the only single one in her family. She wants to find someone to spend the holidays with, as she is surrounded by couples in her family. Frustrated on Christmas, she goes to the mall to return an article of clothing, a gift, that did not fit her. There she runs into Jackson, another depressed single on Christmas. Both Sloane and Jackson met returning Christmas items at a store, and BAM, there is the classic, cheesy meet-cute of a Rom-Com. They hang out for a bit after walking out of the store, and Sloane brings up the idea of wanting a “holidate,” who is someone she could just bring to family gatherings for the holidays and never have to see on any other day.
Jackson, despite straight-up calling her unattractive, agrees. The duo is then shown in a series of clips during different holidays: New Years, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, 4th of July, Labor Day and Halloween. Within these holidays, Sloane’s mom, who sees Jackson as a joke, keeps trying to set Sloane up with their neighbor. Sloane adamantly insists she is not interested, yet she does not divulge her feelings for Jackson. Despite constant flirting and taking shots together, the couple continue to dance around their feelings for each other, firmly reinstating that they are just holidates, who can still see other people outside of their holidays.
At some point, though, reality has to kick in, like every good Rom-Com. In this extremely trite, light-hearted movie, at this point it was Thanksgiving. The pair had gotten into a fight a little before, since Sloane brought up how Jackson wanted to be her holidate yet did not find her attractive. Sloane stopped talking to Jackson, so he was not meant to be her date for Thanksgiving. At Thanksgiving, Jackson accompanies Sloane to the supermarket to buy food because Sloane’s mom burned most of the food in the oven and obnoxiously declares his feelings for her in the middle of a supermarket. They continue to fight and do not talk until Christmas since Sloane is still offended that Jackson said she was not her type upon first meeting. Come Christmas time, Sloane is still lonely and without a significant other.
She meets her ex’s new girlfriend, who is pregnant with his child. Sloane realizes she misses Jackson, but she is too stubborn to admit it to him. She finally musters up the confidence to go to his apartment building. As she is standing by the doorbell, she sees him walk out of the building. She then creepily follows him to the mall because she wants to finally admit her feelings for him. The mall is fully Christmas themed; it has a Christmas tree, Santa Claus, and a ton of frantic, last minute shoppers. My personal favorite touch was the chorus singing Christmas songs by the tree, with a group of people watching it. After a flood of emotions, including love and happiness, the movie ends on a very Rom-Com-esque note, a happy ending.
Overall, we would rate this movie a 3.5 out of 5 stars. It is a very comical movie because of the exaggerated acting, and a light-hearted movie, since we knew it was going to have a happy ending, as most Rom-Coms do. One aspect of the movie we enjoyed was predicting what holiday the holidates, meaning Sloane and Jackson, would attend together next! We would recommend this movie to anyone who wants a good laugh and that warm fuzzy feeling. The holiday movies are always a good choice, so when you’re looking for a new cliché, predictable, and fun movie, definitely check this one out!
