Champagne Problems Critique – The Streaming Giant’s Newest Holiday Romantic Comedy Misses the Sparkle.

Without wanting to sound like a holiday cynic, one must lament the premature release of holiday movies before Thanksgiving. While the weather cools, it feels too soon to fully indulge in the platform’s yearly feast of cheap festive entertainment.

Similar to US candy that no longer include genuine cocoa, the service’s holiday movies are relied upon for their brand of mediocrity. They provide rote familiarity – familiar actors, modest spending, fake snow, and unbelievable plots. In the worst cases, these films are unmemorable disasters; at best, they are forgettable fun.

The new Netflix film, the newest Christmas offering, disappears into the broad center of unremarkable territory. Helmed by the filmmaker, who previously previous romantic comedy was utterly forgettable, this film feels like low-quality champagne – appropriately flat and situational.

It begins with what appears to be a computer-made commercial for drug store brand champagne. This ad is actually the proposal of Sydney Price, played by Minka Kelly, to her colleagues at a financial firm. Sydney is the construction paper cut-out of a career woman – underestimated, constantly on her device, and ambitious to the harm of her personal life. After her boss dispatches her to Paris to finalize an acquisition over Christmas, her sibling insists she spend an evening in the city to enjoy life.

Naturally, Paris is the perfect place to pull someone from Google Maps, even when the city is draped with below-grade CGI snow. In an absurdly cutesy bookshop, Sydney has a charming encounter with Henri Cassell, and he pulls her away from her device. As demanded by the genre, she at first rejects this ideal guy for frivolous excuses.

Equally as expected are the movie mechanics that proceed at abrupt quarter turns, reflecting the rotation of old sparkling wine in the cellars of the family vineyard. The catch? The love interest is the heir to the estate, reluctant to manage it and bitter toward his father for selling it. Maybe the movie’s most salient contribution to romantic comedies, he is highly critical of corporate buyouts. The conflict? The heroine sincerely believes she’s not dismantling this family-owned company for parts, vying against three stereotypical rivals: a severe French grand dame, a severe blonde German man, and an out-of-touch wealthy man.

The development? Her skeevy coworker the office rival shows up unannounced. The core? The two leads look yearningly at one another in holiday pajamas, despite a vast chasm in economic worldview.

The upside and downside is that nothing here sticks beyond a short-lived thrill on an unfilled belly. There’s a lack of real absorbent filler – Minka Kelly, most famous for her role in Friday Night Lights, delivers a strictly serviceable performance, superficially pleasant and gestures of care, almost motherly than romantic lead. Tom Wozniczka provides just the right amount of French charm with mild self-torture and little else. The gimmicks are unfunny, the romance is harmless, and the happy-ever-after is straightforward.

For all its philosophizing on the luxury of sparkling wine, nobody claims this is anything other than a mass market item. The flaws are the very reasons some enjoy it. It’s fair to say a critic’s feelings about the film a champagne problem.

• Champagne Problems can be streamed on the platform.