Other than that it was part of my Christmas film completest sake, my main reason for seeing 'Every Day is Christmas' was the concept. Which was a good one and one of Lifetime's better and most potentially meaningful ones, the inspired by 'A Christmas Carol' concept is hardly new and has been done a lot. But the story is so timeless and resonates so much with me, that it has never really mattered to me at how often it's adapted, lampooned or inspired other films etc.
It did however did deserve much better execution that what was shown in one of Lifetime's worst 2018 Christmas films 'Every Day is Christmas'. Just to say, and this has been said quite a few times, Lifetime have done plenty of watchable and more films over the years, as well as a number of stinkers, so am not one of those people who is going to say that all their work is rubbish as that is not true. 'Every Day is Christmas' just didn't work at all for me.
There are two things that save 'Every Day is Christmas' from unwatchability. One is the lovely scenery which is slickly filmed.
Gloria Rueben, giving the only halfway decent performance in the film as she is the only one that seems to be trying without coming over as affected, is the other one.
'Every Day is Christmas' fails everywhere else. What particularly brings the film is a very out of her depth Toni Braxton, who is unbearably wooden and lacks any feeling or nuance with her line delivery throughout the entire film (which contributed towards her reform not being believable). Her character is yet another female lead character that really grated on me, absolutely hate it when character flaws are so overdone you see nothing redeeming about the one in question and hate it just as much when the character doesn't grow that much. Even for a miser Alexis' negative characteristics are over the top with no signs of warmth, and she doesn't really develop that well and any change of heart is rushed and not believable for someone who is so irredeemably horrible in the first third or so. Which is a big problem for a character inspired by a character that grows and changes more than most literary characters.
While the rest of the cast are not as bad, they also don't really register and seem at sea with what to do with their roles. The characters, with the one exception being Lydia, are shallow cipher stereotypes and don't come over as real people, while the chemistry is stiff and disconnected. The script has a lot of cheese and slushy schmaltz and sounds stilted, am not sure whether it was the lines or the delivery but there just wasn't any emotion in it. Although the story that inspired this is a classic, absolutely nothing imaginative or original is done here and there is a complete lack of charm and heart. Actually found the first third quite mean spirited, the pace mostly pedestrian and the ending too hasty. The music is forgettable at best and doesn't really gel and there doesn't seem to be much direction going on, judging by especially the character interaction and Braxton.
All in all, a humbug. 2/10.
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