As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.

TODAY’S CRITIC: Arham Khokhar

Arham Khokhar is a freelance content creator who pitched this review to Every Movie Has a Lesson. I’m always happy to give a guest reviewer space to show off their talent and love for movies. Welcome, Arham!

HIS REVIEW: Holidate

Christmas films always bring with them a unique dose of a festive cheer to Hollywood's super cramped slate year after year. This year was no different. With the Netflix original, Holidate, the winters did ring in quite early with a cute romantic tale starring Luke Bracey and Emma Roberts as the key protagonists.

The film starts with the borderline pathetic life of Jackson (Bracey) and Sloane (Roberts) and their continuous effort to survive through the extended period of winter events without feeling bitter about their tough lives. Amidst all this, Sloane feels claustrophobic and isolated, even when she lives in an over-enthusiastic family that comprises a pitying sister, a nagging mother, a feisty aunt who happens to find a date for herself for the year-end festivities, and a younger 'soon to be married' brother.

On the other hand is Aussie Jackson, a handsome dude who is sandwiched in a crisis himself. He lands himself in an uncomfortable situation when his casual date hurls him into daunting territory while meeting her parents. They treat him as their daughter's to be husband and gifts him a green sweater to wear at this formal meeting. Needless to say, the sweater was a bit OTT. When this pressure gets too much for him, he clarifies his intentions and quickly exits the situation.

This is where the 'potential' rom-com takes a new turn, leading to the chance meeting of the two protagonists. They crack a deal to begin dating each other only until the holiday pressure subsides. They lay down strict rules for their 'relationship'; the most important one was to stay platonic with one another. The moment they decide to remain platonic, we could just sense what's coming forth, says Jonita, who offers java homework help for young students and is a romantic movie buff.

Rhea, an online math tutor who found the movie reasonably average, says that the plot seems obvious throughout. Well, we could not agree more. The first date between the two goes pretty well. Their constant one-upmanship sees them through almost every special occasion until the day of love, Valentine's Day.

John Whitesell, the director of Holidate, somewhere just fails to align the movie with the holiday “winterish” charm, points out Mathew, a TFTH executive who recently streamed the movie on Netflix. It is sad to see the movie gradually losing its charm and dipping down to being every other girl meets boy love story. It just fails to come out and shine as a Christmas special. To tell you the truth, the audience has been pre-programmed for such a routine genre with hundreds and thousands of films being made on the subject for reference. As a result, Holidate appears to be predictable all along the way. The movie is so badly written that even the plot twists are predictable, and its climax is pretty dated.

Regardless of how hackneyed the movie, Holidate is, we have to give the credit where it is due. Both Jackson and Sloane's characters live in the realm of not desperately wishing to latch on to someone, regardless of their circumstances. Throughout the movie, their communications with each other are the right mix of inane humor and harmless flirting, which kind of makes them indispensable in each other's world. However, sadly, even though they, with their character's power, try to hold the viewers, it fails at so many levels. Consequently, with every scene, the audience will feel alienated from them.

The movie also honors its genre predecessors, which have been pivotal in their own rights. One such incidence is Jackson and Sloane riffing on Swayze's Dirty Dancing scene from Ryan Gosling's Crazy Stupid Love.

When the two's causal choices get more serious, the two begin to conceal their instincts to prevent the other person from being commitment-phobic. Consequently, there is a lot of confusion, and of course, the emotions are mutually hurt to the point of no return. However, miraculously, things end up falling into place, and that paves the way for their happily-ever-after.

To see Roberts as her edgy self in Holidate is the only highlight of this movie, comments Jiah, an educator who offers the best design thinking courses. Well, the film does get a spirited heroine, courtesy of Sloane's sassy on screen presence. It does complement Bracey's much calmer presence.

Let us conclude by saying that it isa lean playground if the genre is a safe rom-com that has to be Christmas centric, and as we have pointed out before with Holidate, you sure are in for no pleasant surprises. Of course, we see through the two protagonists' sincere efforts, but it can be just another film in the genre with the myriad of Mills and Boon-esque features of romance.

You can watch the movie on Netflix, but we advise otherwise.

Our rating for Holidate will be not more than ** ½

CONCLUSION

Thank you, Arham! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!