Holidate Review : Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey put up a game
Holidate Movie Review : Whitesell Fails to Grab Audiences
Holidate is a movie that teaches you how easily you should slip into the character of actors. However, the Holidate review gives an insight into the lead pair Emma and Luke
Cast and crew Holidate
- Emma Roberts: Sloane
- Luke Bracey: Jackson
- Jessica Capshaw: Abby
- Manish Dayal: Farooq
- Frances Fisher: Elaine
- Kristin Chenoweth: Aunt Susan
- Andrew Bachelor: Neil
- Alex Moffat: Peter
- Julien Marlon: Luc
- Jake Manley: York
- Aimee Carrero: Carly
- Dan Lauria: Wally
- Director: John Whitesell
- Writer: Tiffany Paulsen
- Cinematography: Shane Hurlbut
- Editing: Emma E. Hickox
- Costumes: Helen Huang
- Music: Dan the Automator
Holidate Movie Review
The story begins with two people looking for partners who are managing their lives on a singledom. On one side, the boy Jackson is trying to hit connections with random girls on holidays like Christmas, whereas the female protagonist Sloane has to spend it on a table watching her brother proposing to a lady.
But that's not the whole point of the movie. The supposedly Rom-Com flick from Netflix does not have enough moments to capture romance in it. However, Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey strike some chemistry, which is withered away by a weak and repetitive script.
There are a few dialogues in the movie that suggests it would be different from stereotypical romantic dramas that unfold on the screen like mushrooms intermittently. But here follows the biggest surprise of the movie; it practices what it ceased to preach. There is an exact similar storyline that we've heard since Adam-Eve's time.
Both boy and the girl have sparks of love for each other. However, they do not express it out of vows of maintaining celibacy with each other while meeting on Holiday aka Holidate.
The things continue from New Year parties, where they cease to kiss each other and feel horrible. They keep on meeting and dating on weekend or Holiday occasions.
On one of the occasions they end up intimating, but Sloane remains in a denial mode. On the other, she cannot see her ex Luc moving on with a young teenage girl and later on impregnating her.
However, her candy munching scenes and self-loathe acts make for some good laughs here and there. But the same cannot be said for Jackson. He's more on the intense and sincere side, who once even proposes Sloane. Though, she denies him because she's an independent, strong woman, a feminist by all means. However, she gets objectified and finds it absolutely fine on her first Holidate. That's clumsy and seems hypocritical, but that is how life's, right? So, maybe the director and the writer made the equivalence of society and put that in forcefully. But then they make someone of the clichéd rom-com flicks and end up making the secondary version of them.
The director and actors try their best to pull over a trippy and outdated script, but they could only try. Based in Chicago, the movie does not try to capture the feel of surrounding of the film that could have worked as a character. We see that in the TV show "Shameless".
Holidate - Some Laughter
Her sister elder Abby and her story add some charm to the film in bits and pieces. She talks about her encounters with a person other than her homemaker husband that evokes some laughs.
In another scene, when Abby ends up offering laxative tablets to Sloane instead of another medicine looks funny on screen. Embarrassingly, Sloane runs a helter-skelter for the restroom supported by Jackson. She asks her to fill her tight corset on her way that creates laughable and uncanny moments, while other people see that in a shock.
There are some jokes over genitals, a woman finding a seat in a man's lap, Susan wearing an inappropriate bunny dress, and romancing a person of her son's age.
However, the film amuses with its consistent hypocrisy and lackadaisical dialogues in the film that do not evoke laughter but cringe.
Beautiful moments in the film
In one of the scenes, Sloane trades her dress with a woman who ruins the engagement dress. For rescuing her from the embarrassment, the protagonist initiates the step. It was an emotional and unique point of the film.
Sloane and Jackson become better persons when together. The former quits smoking and starts taking care of her health, while the latter stops meandering around girls and sleep with them for fun. Also, later in the film, he realizes how misogynistic he was. That's a positive graph that seems to impart some lessons to viewers.
In another scene, Sloane's sister confesses her sin of getting along with another man because her husband didn't give her much time. The cheating episode breaks his heart, and he elopes. The film describes that he chose to stay indoors and took care of their four kids. It goes to show what if the outgoing woman does it with a house husband. However, the movie didn't delve deeper.
- Direction:- The director seems to have done a decent job, but the script faltered him a big time. Some scenes like the climax one could have been worked out better. In bits and pieces, it appears that John Whitesell is not trying much.
- Background music: It is mesmerizing and goes with scenes and the theme.
- Screenplay: It is fine in patches, but again, let down by the script. They are way too many types of filler in the name of storytelling, which bores people.
- Script: - Phew!! It's a dud.
- Acting: It is all about the lead pair. They are shouldering the film on their heads, and arms. Both have slipped into their characters superbly. Besides, everyone in the cast did a wonderful job.
- Cinematography: It captures all moments brilliantly. The camera work is the best part of the film besides acting. It's graceful and mesmerizing.
- Verdict: If you have nothing to look after this Christmas, then give this film a try, but do not try and compare it with other flicks. Watch it without any biases. You may like it.