I Believe in Santa Review: Trying Too Hard To Be Sentimental

Ho Ho Ho, here’s another Christmas release from Netflix, I Believe in Santa, putting you right in the midst of extreme oppositions surrounding beliefs or non-beliefs. With a runtime of 90 minutes, the film was directed by Alex Ranarivelo and written by John Ducey, who even stars in the movie. Alongside Ducey, other cast members include Christina Moore, Violet McGraw, Lateefah Holder, Sachin Bhatt and more.

Netflix describes the movies as follows:

Carols. Cocoa. Cookies galore. Tom’s all-in obsession with Christmas is Lisa’s nightmare. Can their budding romance find a sweet middle ground?

-I Believe in Santa Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-

At this point, it’s understood that one shouldn’t raise any expectations for a Christmas movie coming straight from Netflix. They pack in loads of cliches and push you to believe that it’s all good in the name of holiday spirit to pull whatever antics one wants to because somehow the ‘Christmas magic’ justifies everything.

Although it does feel like the movie was trying to convey the basis of the holiday’s beauty and charm being reliant on gathering with one’s loved ones, but it does so through an unconventional path of putting in a character who believes in Santa a bit too much, which eventually endangers his relationships with others. The movie’s writing gives its all to compel us to have faith in Tom’s character, but ultimately, you may end up asking it instead, “Aren’t you demanding too much from us?”

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It’s almost hilarious how sometimes films put on such a strong conviction to make the audience believe in a character’s goodness, but if their arc is even slightly titled towards either end, they might as well just pass off as serial killers or maniacal antagonists. Tom specifically exudes that severely detrimental energy at one point that it nearly scares you.

In Lisa’s case on the other hand, right off the bat, you think that you’re meeting your typical Hallmark female lead – a writer who completely shuns the idea of something and is then greeted with the task to overcome the same by writing an article about it. The same track is followed in Lisa’s case as well with her vehement dislike for the festival and being assigned a write-up on it.

You witness the ultimate clash when both opposite extremes meet as soon as Tom enters her life with his ‘magical’ talks. And of course, they set out to accomplish a Christmas checklist, crossing off every other holiday activity on the agenda to make her fall for the festivities and galore, but hey, at least it’s all fun for the kid.

On moving ahead, your next thought pushes you to believe that there has to be some kind of familial trauma attached to this, and it’s proved right, but in the most underwhelming manner possible. All these tedious interventions adopted by the plot hope for the audience to sympathise with its characters. However, the problem is that the writing lacks to such an extent that you’re never able to accept their quirks, and the side characters are left off as mere by-standing best friends, who somehow always have the time to back up the main leads.

I Believe in Santa: Worth the Watch?

Call it unfortunate or not; this isn’t the kind of movie I would recommend to anyone. Despite some experienced and notable faces joining the cast, at the end of the movie, you’re only left with the feeling that you could’ve watched something else during this hour and a half. It’s not the worst thing you’ll see because, ultimately, it wants to hand down family love to us all and even tries to spark up our intrigue with what Tom’s best and possibly the only friend, Assan, has to say, thus making you ponder over the notion of faith.

Nonetheless, you see the ending coming from a mile away and know everything that’s going to happen as soon as you start getting the gist of the storyline. If you want to give a formulaic family track a chance, then go for it; you may even end up enjoying some bits of it.

I Believe in Santa is now streaming on Netflix.

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