Review of Meet Me Next Christmas, directed by Rusty Cundieff

Lately, I’ve been in a period where I’ve been watching a lot of romance movies. I usually don’t go for romance or romantic comedies because they feel a bit mindless, but I think I’ve been needing something I don’t think too hard about. As someone who runs this blog part-time, it does get a tad numbing when one is over consuming content and forcing myself to think too hard about it.

A lot of what I watch lately comes from vibes alone. I open up my Netflix sometimes and endlessly doom scroll, waiting for something to pick me, not me picking it, but this time was different. Right at the top of the Netflix movies for the day was Meet Me Next Christmas.

At first I kind of assumed it was a Christian movie, which isn’t my vibe at all. I tend not to go for overtly religious movies, let alone Christmas movies in general. No shade, it’s just not my type of film. But then I read the synopsis, remembered how miffed I’ve been getting that the Christmas decor was out in stores before Halloween was over, and pressed play.

I had no expectations for this movie, nor had I even heard of it before this moment. But still I watched all of it, even when I wanted to give up and watch something else.

Let’s get into the review! I feel like I’m starting to ramble.

On the hunt for Pentatonix tickets, a woman falls in love with the man hired to help her.

Our main character in this movie is Layla, who just got broken up with right before the holidays began. Naturally she’s a little more than bummed out about it, but when she meets a man named James while in an unexpected situation, she falls in love with him immediately.

One could say this is love at first sight, especially when Layla goes home and sees his face on the site for Pentatonix tickets. She declares that this is the man of her dreams, and the fact his face was on the site means they are meant to be together. The concert is going to be the stage for this fair love story, but there’s a major problem: there are no tickets left.

Layla is determined though, and she hires a company to help her try and get the tickets, despite them technically being sold out wherever they go. She’s assigned to the concierge Teddy, who, after showing up to work that day, is told he is going to be fired if he’s not successful.

Layla is doubtful that he can help, and he doesn’t seem too confident himself. But these are desperate times for them both and they’re going to make it work no matter what.

So the two of them go out into the world on a hunt for tickets. A lot of this movie is random side quests in an attempt to secure the tickets. First they try to find his ticket guy, who has closed, and then Teddy gets into a bar fight with a guy who claims he’ll help them get tickets.

There’s also a weird rich couple in NYC that promises them a ticket if they get a Chanel bag, which they fail, but Teddy starts falling for Layla in that saga because he sees she’s kind and lets the guy with his son behind them have the last bag instead of her.

While all of this is going on, Teddy is direct messaging the Pentatonix Instagram, and they’re all gathering around a table to debate about these two’s love lives. After a while they suspect that the two like each other, but aren’t acting on their impulse

The next mission is a lip sync competition, but that’s a bust as well. There’s a random scene in an apartment where Teddy reveals he worked at a Michelin restaurant (which was such an awkward scene, let’s be real), and Layla begins acknowledging her feelings.

The ticket is eventually secured through Pentatonix, and everything seems to work out for Layla. However, at the concert, Teddy goes dressed as Santa and replaces the concert’s Santa, as the group is giving him the chance to confess his love in front of everyone.

Layla runs into James, tells him they’re not meant to be together, and then runs off looking for Teddy. It helps that right after she left, James’ actual girlfriend shows up and he kisses her. But as Teddy gets cold feet confessing, Layla isn’t even in the room, and when she hears him on stage confessing, she bursts past the usher (who declares he’s not paid enough for this) and accepts Teddy’s confession.

Overall Thoughts

It’s a cute Christmas movie, but I felt like I lost a braincell or two watching it. It was just cute and that was it. The plot was all over the place and fairly generic, nor did I care for either Layla or Teddy.

And because I didn’t care for them, I technically had no motivation to keep watching, but I did. I commit hard sometimes to watching these movies, even when I should just give up with what I am watching. A lot of scenes felt really awkward and out of place, especially when it came to Pentatonix themselves.

At the end of the day, I didn’t like the film, and that’s okay. Someone else out there might like it a lot more than I did, which is okay too. Neither of us are wrong, as taste is so subjective!

So if you wanted to watch this, don’t let a bad review stop you. Form your own opinions and watch it because taste is subjective.

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