The Holiday Exchange

I watched this Christmas movie in the beginning of July and loved every second of it. It's not trying to do or be anything other than what it is. The story is typical RomCom kind of stuff with the Christmas cheer thrown in for good measure. The actors all play their parts well , no exaggeration, no campy or crude jokes. This is genuinely a sweet movie , in the very best way possible. I loved it. It's beautifully filmed and the music is pleasant and unintrusive unlike a lot of it's gay themed predecessors. Anybody who doesn't have a problem with the idea of male couples should enjoy this movie as much as I did. Ten Stars.

Let's just say I'm glad that my hands had better things to do while watching this--baked some cookies and par-baked a pie crust, and started a raspberry cheesecake.

Not long ago a friend of mine made an astute never-to-be-forgotten "snobservation" which is so applicable to this movie: "It seems utterly incredible that so few control so much wealth and possess a vocabulary of nothing more than a few monosyllabic grunts." (Where's the Gong Show when you need it?)

Why would his words come to mind while assessing this film? Let me guess: "Well, I sort of like, well basically.... didn't get the plot--basically too many people to follow, but like the men were, well basically like eye candy and at least there was like at least one new Xmas LGBTQ movie this year."

I rest my zero-star rating.

I am a firm believer that Gay themed movies are either really good or really bad. There is never a middle ground when it comes to these types of movies. This one happens to be really bad and the lead actor Taylor Frey has to be the absolute worse. He happens to be very stiff and fake. There is also nothing original about this story. Let's travel across the world and meet your love. Maybe this story could have been good if they would have only hired a lead actor that could act. I have seen a few of his painful attempts at acting before and each one only gets worse. The rest of the cast was easier to watch. Save your time and skip this movie.

This movie is an absolute utter abomination. That said, my two favourite things in this 'English' themed American movie is how a Mocha coffee is referred to as Coco Coffee. And also the conversation that goes something like 'he doesn't have a coffee machine he only has a kettle' 'omg how does he live without coffee?' .... WTF!!! You can make coffee using a kettle you know? Did you know?

Acting is like watching a B Movie. What makes it worst is that this isn't a B movie. This is meant to be taken seriously. As an added bonus the story is basically a rip off of the holiday which I only just re watched recently. Where The Holiday is absolutely and utterly gorgeous and cute. This is a cringe fest of badly written scenes. The only way to enjoy this is if you take the piss out of it at the same time.

Admittedly I only started this movie because it's a gay Christmas movie. In the end I really enjoyed it. The beginning was rough and the cheesiest part, but I got into it after the first act. I liked all the main characters and their diversity (the actors and their storylines). The secondary characters were all somewhat forgettable. I'm surprised Kyle Richards is at the center of the poster as she's barely in it. Overall it was predictable, but pretty good acting and a little more depth than the average Hallmark-type movie. I'm not a big movie person and tend to only watch around the holidays (mostly classics like Home Alone, A Christmas Story, etc) but this was a worthy watch.