Moving on, I realise I’ve now gone through every single ‘original’ Christmas movie Netflix has to offer. However, with a few days of my planned full month to go, I decide it should be absolutely fine to squeeze in a few of the other holiday movies that the streaming giant has on there. There sure are plenty of them to choose from and I start with 2016’s I’ll Be Home For Christmas, another predictable Hallmark effort. This 2016 effort is some perfectly serviceable cheese but leaves me somewhat disappointed as it promises so much that it doesn't follow through on. James Brolin is a notable, award-winning cinematic badass. So, when you have him playing a grizzled, seventy-something ex-cop returning to his old town in a rusty, beat-up old motorhome to attend the funeral of an old cop buddy, you might expect this to turn into a rip-roaring rampage of revenge. Not here, though. Nope. This one's just another film about family, forgiveness and bonding through the magic of Christmas and so on.
It’s just all mind-numbingly fine. Mena Suvari is Jackie, an assistant district attorney in a small town and also a struggling single mom. She's doing her best to stay on top of her massive workload but Christmas sure does have a habit of getting in the way.
Jackie is so darn busy she forgets that her personal car parking space got moved months ago, leading to a super-obvious meet-cute with John Reardon's handsome detective. They argue aggressively over the space right before discovering that - uh oh! - they're going to be working together. What are the odds? There's obvious heat, complicated by the fact that Jackie already has a boyfriend, the decent but so-obviously-a-weenie, Rand (Jacob Blair).
Then Jackie's estranged father Jack (Brolin) rolls back into town to turn her life upside down. Grumpy Jack doesn’t get along with his daughter and says he's only back in town for a day or two but it's an absolute given that the moment he meets delightful granddaughter Gracie (Giselle Eisenberg), he'll be smitten, will hang around for Christmas and most likely forever and that Jackie will start calling him "daddy" again and all that other good stuff, with a big fat bow on top.
All the main players are cool enough and easy to root for, while we also get an amusing little subplot about a decrepit ex-police dog who becomes part of the family. Jack even does some very minor supercop stuff where he apprehends a sneaky pickpocket. Brolin, who also directs, likely put this bit in to make himself look cool, though it's pretty funny to watch this grey-haired septuagenarian chasing down a crook who's a quarter his age, but somehow keeping up all the way.
Little crazy bits like that add just enough flavour to help this one stand out, ever-so-slightly, from the dime-a-dozen Christmas romance crowd, though it's still incredibly predictable. I get it - these films are like comfort food, like going to a restaurant and just ordering a cheeseburger. You know what you're going to get, so it's unlikely to disappoint and there's something reassuring about that. But, you don't want to eat cheeseburgers every single day for a year. That wouldn't be good for you, as I've discovered.
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