In my constant conquest to endure everything that Netflix suggests on the home page I was presented with this movie 3 days in a row. A long time ago I promised that I would at least give a shot to anything that Netflix decides is their "flavor of the week." It is Christmas themed and focuses on fairly innocent notions of teenage love in completely absurd scenarios devoid of police oversight that definitely couldn't happen in real life.
This review is intentionally vague in an attempt to avoid spoilers. However, if you like to go into dumb-as-dirt Christmas specials that you could probably guess the plot of simply by looking at the picture below, you may want to skip this article
Let it Snow presents us with a number of intertwined stories that takes place in a smallish town outside Chicago with a group of mostly teens in high-school and their completely impractical situations they find themselves in on Christmas Eve that eventually ties all of their "love knots" together.
I don't know if i am just detached from entertainment but I don't actually know who any of the cast members are. I don't know if i am supposed to be starstruck by anyone's presence in this film but as far as I can tell they are all newcomers to acting. This is not to suggest that the acting is bad in Let it Snow because it isn't. The stories are bad though... really bad.
The overall theme is just kind of a tired mish-mash of the sort of holiday season programming that I find trite and is definitely expected this time of year. Of course some"progressive" themes are forced upon us as well but this is Netflix after-all and that is kind of what they do now. I don't have a problem with these things in real life at all, but Netflix just can't seem to make anything these days without some sort of social agenda.
It is filled with endearing stories that fall in place so wonderfully and impractically and each one of them is more ridiculous than the one before. There is very little in the way of adult supervision in any of these teens' lives, and they seem to kind of do just whatever they feel like it all the time and this is including the fact that they just take over a restaurant and bring a bunch of booze into the situation without any sort of problems thrown their way by anyone at all. Because that is definitely how real life works in the west.
Basically, everyone is having love-interest issues that kind of work themselves out because Christmas magic!... you know, just like real life :P
The scenarios, unlike the ones in Love, Actually (which is still one of my favorite holiday movies ever made) are extremely dumb in comparison and lack any sort of real depth, as do a vast majority of the characters portrayed in Let it Snow.
They do take a stab at how today has an 'over-dependence on technology" to get anything done and even how people's emotions are negatively influenced by trivial things such as how many "likes" a person gets and this was one of the few things about this film that I liked. Perhaps this is because I am likely significantly older than most of the folks in this film (or their target audience) and remember a time when such technology didn't exist.
from the official Netflix channel
I wouldn't say the acting is bad, because I can't really point the finger at any one particular "bad" actor in the lineup except for perhaps these two bully brothers who seem to feel the need to pick on everyone but again, this might not be the actors' fault, it's just a really bad script.
This type of film happens every year and I think most people expect them in droves. A vast majority of holiday movies are just horrible crap and while Let it Snow definitely has a decent budget behind it this film is one of those passable productions that will never be talked about ever again after December 2019.
Basically, it's a turd and I can't really recommend it for anyone over the age of 12, or really even to anyone below that age either.