‘EXmas’ Review
Stars: Robbie Amell, Leighton Meester, Michael Hitchcock, Kathryn Greenwood, Veronika Slowikowska, Steven Huy | Written by Dan Steele | Directed by Jonah Feingold
Continuing my new Christmas movie watching for Nerdly, EXmas features on the Amazon-linked app Freevee, and sees Graham (Robbie Amell) surprise his family at Christmas only to discover that his ex-fiancée, Ali (Leighton Meester) had been invited, and is already there celebrating the holiday with his family. And with neither wanting to leave, they will have to put up with each other, all while keeping the family happy.
Christmas is the only time you will catch me watching this kind of rom-com, as I usually find the stories too repetitive and uninteresting. I, and most audiences watching, know exactly what is going to happen in this type of movie, even before I’ve watched it but that really doesn’t make any difference in my enjoyment of it.
Perhaps the biggest thing that EXmas has going for it is that it is actually funny. There are some genuinely funny moments, and scenes, from start to finish. There’s a slow-motion ‘leave-the-house-in-a-rush’ scene that is so much funnier than it should be. Mainly because of the punchline. The script has some great dialogue and the cast is excellent at delivering the funniest lines.
Speaking of which, the cast – and characters – are entirely likeable, pretty much each and every one of them. Meester and Amell show some nice chemistry and that is obviously key to a film like this. Amell is best known to me personally from his surprisingly hilarious performances in the excellent The Babysitter horror movies from Netflix. But he’s probably known to more people for his role in The Flash TV series. In EXmas, his character could have easily come across as smug, and not somebody you’d want to be happy by the time the credits roll. But that’s exactly what he brings and I thought he was great. The rest of the cast, including Meester, Michael Hitchcock, Kathryn Greenwood, Veronika Slowikowska and Steven Huy, are all just really enjoyable as this close-knit family.
This is very much a Hallmark-style Christmas movie, and as with these movies, it does feel the most Christmassy. You have that small town location that is covered in snow, and every corner has a brightly decorated tree, Christmas lights run along every street and Christmas music is played at every opportunity. And this is not me complaining about this. Quite the opposite. This is exactly how I want my Christmas movies to be!
Although everyone watching EXmas will know how it ends (I really don’t think I’m giving anything away here), it does at least throw in the occasional twist and turn. Almost making you believe they might go with a slightly different ending. I even quite liked the very end, which set up the sequel that will probably happen next year.
As far as Christmas romcoms go, I’m not bored of them yet and EXmas is definitely one of the better ones. So if you’re a film fan that watches these Hallmark movies every Christmas, or someone that thinks they’ll give them a go for the first time, then you could do much worse than EXmas.
