It’s quite obvious at this point that Netflix has firmed up their annual Christmas lineup formula by tugging at millennials’ soft spots via a mix of throwback nostalgia, cozy seasonal sentiment, and the casting of cherished teen icons of yesteryear. Over the past few holidays, we’ve seen Lindsay Lohan’s fairly enjoyable Falling for Christmas and Our Little Secret, Heather Graham’s unfortunate misfire Best. Christmas. Ever!, and even Brooke Shields’ forgettable A Castle for Christmas. But this year, in this regard, Netflix may have outdone itself. With A Merry Little Ex-Mas, not only does the streamer serve up a star vehicle for Alicia Silverstone — pure ’90s royalty thanks to her roles as Cher Horowitz in Clueless and as Aerosmith’s rebellious music-video muse in a trilogy of music videos — but the film also features the ever-charming Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clarissa Explains It All, and the underrated high school rom-com Drive Me Crazy) in what is a half-complementary, half-cameo “best friend” role. Given the recent success of the formula, there are few surer ways to reignite the sparks of family-friendly festivities than this tandem.
No reason to beat around the bush, then: A Merry Little Ex-Mas is one of the better — or at least, one of the less overtly rich in Hallmark clichés — Yuletide offerings that viewers have been given in recent years. A primary reason for this is that instead of merely recycling the overfamiliar holiday narrative of a big-city career woman who rediscovers small-town charm and romance, Steve Carr’s A Merry Little Ex-Mas — after a short and zippy animated intro set to Silverstone’s playful voiceover — establishes the relatively more settled story of Kate (Silverstone), who years ago fell in love with and married Everett (Oliver Hudson), abandoning her dreams in order to move to his idyllic and fairytale-coded hometown of Winterlight. While Everett, a dedicated doctor, is often absent, Kate shoulders the domestic load, raising their children Sienna (Emily Hall) and Gabriel (Wilder Hudson). We then quickly fast forward to the present-day, landing us a week before Christmas, at which point we discover that Kate and Everett are in the amicable final stages of their divorce — or, as they describe it to both themselves and others, their act of consciously uncoupling. But, perhaps predictably, as they tentatively attempt to reenter the dating world, the film playfully morphs into a re-marriage rom-com archetype, leaving the holidays to work their magic just in time for unexpected familial gatherings and heartful reconciliation. But as there must be, romantic complications arise along the way: Everett finds himself drawn to the elegant, posh, and British Tess (Jameela Jamil) — whose presence in her chic dark attire mark her not as a villainous ice queen, but more functionally as a high-maintenance contrast to Winterlight’s colorful aesthetic and its down-to-earth denizens — while Kate crosses paths during her tree-shopping with the young, hunky, but slightly silly Chet (Pierson Fodé).
If that all makes A Merry Little Ex-Mas sound like it still holds the patented Hallmark DNA, it does: the film still features unelaborate storytelling, stock character arcs and emotional dilemmas, and familiar comic flavor. But A Merry Little Ex-Mas also feels more palpably spirited and genuine than most of its peers, nodding more toward a late-’90s/early-aughts brand of holiday comedy than the Countdown to Christmas streamers that are assembly-lined every year. A crucial reason for this cut-above quality is that the film manages to give supporting characters more breathing room than usual, folding them into the film’s essential intimacy rather than leaving them mere tertiary window dressing (though one still admittedly wishes they — most importantly, Hart’s April — were even more developed). Carr’s film also embraces a peculiar, somewhat off-kilter rhythm with regard to both its performances and dialogue, injecting a little idiosyncrasy into the well-worn. But the bow on the box? How delightful it is to see Silverstone seem so reinvigorated, reconnecting with and redefining the warmth and wit that first made her a star three decades ago.
And all of this is helped immensely by the film’s alluring production design and colorful wardrobe choices (avoiding only the constant reds, golds, and greens), which work to establish the cozy, eye-candy atmosphere of an old J.Crew holiday spread and make the imaginary and whimsical world of Winterlight feel more authentically lived in and less artificially ornamented. That’s not to say that A Merry Little Ex-Mas ascends to the ranks of timeless Christmas classics by any means, but it is a effortlessly soulful and comforting watch amidst the ever-growing deluge of holiday junk — these calories may still be empty, but they at least go down easy. Perhaps the movie industry will someday will begin to again take these seasonal products more seriously and not merely as some sort of cookie-cutter holiday escapism that’s hastily wrapped and kicked under the tree. But until that time, films like A Merry Little Ex-Mas at least offer viewers some pleasant stocking-stuffer entertainment rather than the usual coal.
DIRECTOR: Steve Carr; CAST: Alicia Silverstone, Oliver Hudson, Melissa Joan Hart, Jameela Jamil; DISTRIBUTOR: Netflix; STREAMING: November 12; RUNTIME: 1 hr. 31 min.
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