We haven’t seen Asa Butterfield in a train station since Hugo, but Your Christmas or Mine? (now on Amazon Prime Video) quickly corrects that. He and Cora Kirk (Prey for the Devil) headline this mildly wacky comedy about young lovers forced to be apart for the holidays until they decide they need to be together but find themselves in a goofy circumstance that keeps them apart. The premise sounds more Hallmark than high-budget, but here’s hoping the execution transcends its made-for-TV-isms.
YOUR CHRISTMAS OR MINE?: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Subtitle: “CHRISTMAS EVE… EVE.” A train platform. Hayley (Kirk) and James (Butterfield) can barely bear to part. They’re a couple months into their relationship and are just about to the point where they use the big L-word. James very nearly stutters it out, but the whistle blows and she has to vamoose. They both board their own trains and then they both make the impulsive decision to hop on the other’s train and surprise! They end up at each other’s homes, unsuccessfully trying to get a word in edgewise with the other’s families, who they’ve never met – still a bit early; and they’ve been away at college – which might be OK, since secrets have been and are being and hopefully will continue to be kept. And Hayley’s lost cell phone makes this situation more complicated.
Out in the country, Hayley learns that James is actually Hubert James, and also grossly rich with very old money, since his father (Alex Jennings) is the Earl of Glumfertster or wherever. Of course, the old man initially believes Hayley is The Help. He also doesn’t take kindly to people barging into his solemn empty giant buzzkilling house, occasionally smiling and enjoying Christmastime and not being serially glum. Meanwhile, in the city, James learns that Hayley’s family is loud and boisterous: Her two younger brothers comically attempt to mug him outside, her father (Daniel Mays) drives an obnoxious ice cream truck, her grandparents grump around, her aunt is randy and can’t wait to sidle up next to him on the couch with a cup of nog. CHAOS REIGNS.
A winter storm prevents our principals from further travel. They eventually communicate with each other with an assist from a landline. Hayley’s mad that she didn’t know her boyfriend was a Royal, and she’s beginning to piece together that James is supposed to be at a military academy instead of performing-arts school, and his father doesn’t know that yet. James is overwhelmed by her family and their nutty holiday traditions; she begs him not to reveal that they’re dating, so he says he’s gay, which helps with the handsy auntie. She somberly sups soup with the Earl and his grimace. He endures a spa day with the ladies. Will this maddening mix-up ever be straightened out? NO SPOILERS, but give it about 95 minutes and it probably will.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: File this one next to the last British Christmas rom-com I saw that charmed me despite its silliness: Emilia Clarke named-after-a-Wham!-song-com Last Christmas.
Performance Worth Watching: Kirk and Butterfield might be fun to hang out with if they were together more often instead of at disparate ends of a contrived plot.
Memorable Dialogue: Hayley gets a brief tour of the manse via the housekeeper:
Hayley: I’m going to get killed with a lead pipe in the drawing room, aren’t I?
Housekeeper: I sincerely hope not. The drawing room is strictly out of bounds.
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Relative to other high-concept convolution-coms, Your Christmas or Mine? isn’t as maddening in its idiot-plotting. Yes, that’s a compliment. Most of these endeavors position our protagonists on the verge of a simple solution to their increasingly complex problems and then tease us for 90 percent of the run time because the screenwriter gods won’t let their characters proceed. This one offers a more satisfying – relatively, remember – unraveling of the plot knot. Not everyone in this movie is a moron. Maybe they don’t always make the best decisions, but their errors in judgment are understandable. Relatively.
And so the movie sits comfortably within the confines of its genre. It creates a festively snowy atmosphere for its characters to get down to the business of not being as annoying as other characters in other similar movies are. The comedy – dog hijinks, the ol’ slobs/snobs dynamic, elderly people saying the darndest things, etc. – borders on desperate, but the dog doesn’t die and nobody really turns up their nose at a different socioeconomic group and Grandma bashes Coldplay, so nothing is truly mean-spirited here, unless you’re in Coldplay. Butterfield and Kirk survive the outing with their modestly charming chemistry intact, and the movie doesn’t make you actively loathe the existence of the holiday season for inspiring dopey films like this. Like anything else in this life, if you keep this movie in perspective, you just might enjoy it a little.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Your Christmas or Mine? doesn’t reinvent the holiday rom-com. Not even close, actually. But it’s a perfectly amiable outing that generates enough warmth to warrant a watch, and it’s probably a touch less annoying than your average Hallmark Xmas slop.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.