Review of Best. Christmas. Ever!, directed by Mary Lambert

You know, I watched this movie the very first day it came out. I had no idea what to expect at the time, as I didn’t know this movie existed or was coming out until suddenly I was pressing play on the little Netflix icon. I had no idea that it was going to get so many negative reviews when I started watching the movie, and, before we get into the thick of things in the review, I quite frankly agreed with those negative reviews.

Sometimes things just aren’t worth watching, that’s for sure. I was hardcore cringing throughout this movie. Generally I also wouldn’t be the target audience for this movie, as I don’t watch Christmas nor family movies in general But here we are! I sat through the entire movie, which I have to say: you should be proud of me for that one.

Anyways, let’s get into the review before I ramble too much.

Two families come together for Christmas, much to one mother’s chagrin.

Our main character in this movie is Charlotte, who lives with her husband Rob and their two kids, Dora and Grant, in a small apartment. Charlotte is immensely jealous of her friend Jackie, who is highly successful and living her dream life inside of a mansion.

Every year Jackie sends off a Christmas letter to all of her friends, and Charlotte, just brimming with rage, insists that there’s no way that all of this is legit, that Jackie is lying about her life. There’s no possibility to her that one person could have such a perfect family and life in the world.

This exacerbates her own feelings about her family, as her daughter loves comics (what’s wrong with that, to be honest), and her son carries around a stuffed monkey he treats like a person.

Charlotte’s career is failing, she sucks at inventing things, and her husband, Rob, wants to flip houses. Charlotte makes a joke about Jackie, and when heading off to Christmas, her son puts in Jackie’s address, leaving the family stranded there after a snowstorm.

Jackie, being the kind soul she is, lets them in and says they’ll spend the holidays together. Charlotte already has a sour face when seeing Jackie for the first time in forever, and they meet Jackie’s husband Valentino, who looks like a fitness trainer.

They also meet Jackie’s genius daughter Beatrix, who convinces Grant and Dora to figure out if Santa is real or not. As Jackie comes across as so divine, Charlotte begins snooping around their house.

She also suspects Rob of cheating on her with Jackie, but learns they’ve just been mailing letters. Rob never told her because he knows how Charlotte is.

They then go to a Christmas pageant, and when Charlotte is busted going around the house, Jackie gets emotional. Charlotte then realizes her perfect son is actually dead, and Jackie is a grieving mother. The two have a makeup moment, and they then collaborate on a joint Christmas letter, as Charlotte has learned to get over her insecurity.

Overall Thoughts

This is the nutshell version of the movie. I think the plot is just way too watered down to make this entertaining for me—I can see how someone out there might like this movie, but it lacked any sort of complexity or characterization to me.

Everyone is static and the surprises come out of a very predictable place, making all of this feel even more stale than it already is.

Combined with some cringe dialogue, I found myself snarking like Charlotte at the beginning of the film, except this time it came to both families and the movie as a whole. She was kind of toxic, too, until she had her change of heart.

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