Netflix Summary:
Widow Cathy magically brings a snowman to life. His innocence helps her heal and find love again. They bond before the holidays, but he’s doomed to melt.
FYA Summary:
Movies will have us falling in love with all kinds of objects turned sentient, so what’s a man made of ice crystals? (Apparently an excellent chef, that’s what.) Diner owner Kathy has foregone taking care of herself after losing her husband to cancer two years ago, so when her friends at the Reclaimed Rags store (side note: what was with that death-metal-band font they used for the store name?!? All three of us watching sat there stumped until the characters said it aloud) tell her about their chance meeting at a bar on Christmas and give her a seemingly-magical scarf…well, Kathy does what any sane person would do and rolls her eyes but appreciates their earnestness. But she also decides to deposit the scarf on the very anatomically correct snowman out in the square, because reasons, and somehow this act brings him to life. (I was very salty that at the end of the movie it was not revealed that the store owner’s husband was ALSO a snowman-turned-human. Chekov’s scarf!)
Familiar Faces:
Lacey Chabert as Kathy and Dustin Milligan as Jack
There’s something earnest and sweet about Lacey, and I’ve liked her since Mean Girls and Lost in Space. Hopefully Netflix is treating her more nicely than Hallmark. Dustin was sweet and goofy-hot on Schitt’s Creek, but that’s basically all I know him in. He was certainly easy on the eyes, but sometimes—I assume during the shirtless days when he probably didn’t drink much to make sure he had no water weight and all the muscles really stood out—I really wanted to give him a bottle of water and make sure he was okay.
Craig Robinson as Sheriff Hunter and Joe Lo Truglio as Deputy Schatz
Robinson’s humor doesn’t always land for me, but more often than not he does make me laugh with the little songs he’ll do on his keyboard—he was a bit trying as the joyless, one-track-mind sheriff, but mostly because the character was written to be very annoying. As a B99 fan, it tickled me to see Boyle and Doug Judy hanging out as coworkers (Truglio was basically playing Boyle) and I have to believe Deputy Schatz was a nod to Dustin’s time on Schitt’s Creek.
Plus a lot of other familiar faces you’ve seen in many tv and movie roles.
Couch-Sharing Capability: Rock Around The Christmas Tree With Your Besties
Unless you’re watching with a pure and untainted heart, I live to both soak up the kitschy-ness and also roast the eff out of these cheesy movies, and this is always more fun with a partner. My husband made it halfway through before giving up, but my friend and I had fun making cold-related sex jokes throughout the entire run.
Recommended Level of Inebriation: Spiked Eggnog
This movie is not as insufferable as some of the Netflix holiday romance releases—it’s actually fairly self-aware most of the time, and there were some gags that actually had me laughing along instead of at it. My favorite moment was Jack looking over in horror as Kathy casually bites the head off of a snowman-shaped sugar cookie—so you don’t need to drink to forget.
Use of Your Streaming Subscription: Kick Off The Season!
If I went by everything around me, Christmas began on November 1st, but this was my first foray into the holiday season. After some real Hallmark duds over the years, I’d consider this a pretty successful movie; it was cute without being too saccharine, and while it required a LOT of suspension of disbelief (he’s MADE OF SNOW, FFS), the leads were charming enough to keep me from getting too caught up in the minutiae.
