The Christmas Setup

Leas cheesy dialogue than your average TV movie. The story feels fresh but perhaps because (finally) it's a gay couple. I'd take even the worst film to get some better representation on screen but this film is worth the watch. Obviously it's predictable but what Christmas film isn't?

While Lifetime in recent years have put many LGBTQ characters in their movies, The Christmas Setup is their first attempt to put a gay couple front and centre. Although the title of the movie is as forgettable as any Hallmark/Lifetime Christmas movies that get churned out faster than superhero reboots, the movie itself is anything but.

Meticulously written, directed, well acted with pleasing visuals and incredible chemistry between the two leads, The Christmas Setup allows its viewers to take a peek into the lives of two people who in most parts of world are still not legally allowed to marry. This movie manages to normalise their relationship so beautifully while at the same time show the world just how loving a relationship between any two people can be, regardless of their orientation or whichever gender they identify with.

Ben Lewis and Blake Lee lit up the screen with every interaction, and Fran Drescher is as adorable as ever. Every gay guy should be so lucky to have a mom like Fran/Kate, much like Sharon Gless as the supermom for Mikey in QAF. Ellen Wong provided the much needed best friend / confidant without being overbearing, and Chad Connell played the straight brother who every gay person out there could only dream of having.

Although this movie was never intended to redefine any particular genre, it didn't need to. The fact that it got greenlit and produced to such high standards indicates a slow but positive steady shift of the world's point-of-view of what love is. Hopefully, more of the same will be made in the future.

In the newest sub-genre - the gay Christmas movie - this one is the best so far. Within the strict confines of the genre, the solid writing and directing and the strong performances manage to breathe some fresh life and vitality into the predictable plot and Christmas movie tropes.

It helps a lot that there's real romantic chemistry between the two leads - who are married in real life - and their acting is considerably stronger than the typically C-List actors who are plugged into these cookie-cutter holiday romcoms.

Fran Drescher does her familiar shtick as a loving and meddling mama. Whether or not you buy her ultra-Jewish persona as a Christmas obsessed woman is another story. As a matter of fact, all three of the leads seem kinda Jewish. Fine. They should live and be well.

Suddenly everyone is all for making the yuletide gay. Earlier this month it was The Christmas House, Hallmark's first attempt at including a gay couple in their kitsch Americana; now it's Lifetime's The Christmas Set-up, which mostly revolves around a will-they-won't-they gay romance. While Hallmark's gay story was rather tentative, extremely shaky and reeked of tokenism, Lifetime's effort is surprisingly sweet and engaging, and not at all apologetic. As is to be expected, it's also very vanilla; yet the story manages to make that a plus, rather than an obvious avoidance of male-on-male action (which it absolutely is!). The leads (real life couple Ben Lewis and Blake Lee) are appealing and the story around Hugo's career/life balance crisis is likely to resonate with many. And then there's Fran Drescher as Hugo's mother. If nothing else, The Christmas Set-up is an opportunity to marvel at that weirdly mesmerising voice - somewhere between a screech and whine, and now with added raspiness. It's as if he's been gargling with razor blades. The Christmas Set-up is worth a look for Fran alone.

I find "The Christmas Setup" sweet and romantic. The two characters are likable, and I really feel for them. Even though the plot is predictable, I enjoyed watching it.