When there are so many largely forgettable Christmas movies this time of year (almost all of them romances), how can you top the parapet?
Casting Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds is one way to do it, as in the case of animatedor be Lindsay Lohan’s comeback vehicle (Fall for Christmas – I’ts horrible).
But what if you can’t compete at that level of stardom and glitz, and you’re British?
You’ve cast two very likable young actors who are sure to charm and melt the most jealous of hearts, not with saccharine warmth, but with their awkwardness and verve.
Asa Butterfield (Sexual Education) and relative newcomer Cora Kirk crackle as two young college students during Christmas break. They’re fun and lively, the kind of performances that make you want to invest in their characters’ stories, even if the plot itself is prosaic.
James (Butterfield) and Hayley (Kirk) are caught up in the flow of a new relationship. The two drama school students have only been dating for a few months, but they want to spend every moment together.
Which makes going back home for Christmas a little difficult, until they both come up with the same idea for a grand romantic gesture. James and Hayley decide to skip the trains and surprise each other at their lover’s house.
So Hayley goes to James’ house in Gloucester, while James is on his way to Hayley’s in Macclesfield. Of course, neither of them knows the other’s plans, and it’s not exactly the Christmas surprise they were hoping for.
Unwittingly swapping families for Christmas, James and Hayley discover much more about each other than they knew: James is heir to an earl, and Hayley has a fiance (or does she?).
And their families couldn’t be more different with one a warm and bustling hub of activities and excursions, while the other is a cold and imperious environment without a single decoration.
Your Christmas or mine In many ways, it’s a typical comedy of errors with a festive bent, but the entire ensemble casting is dead on, and even if the supporting characters are familiar tropes, they’re appealing.
On the one hand, you have Alex Jennings (The Crown) as James’s pompous aristocratic father, cared for by Harriet Walter’s housekeeper and fighting with David Bradley’s armed neighbor.
And then at Hayley’s house, it’s chaos with Daniel Mays, Angela Griffin, Ram John Holder and Natalie Gumede talking to each other, but lovingly.
Your Christmas or mine It may not be much in terms of doing anything particularly new or fresh in a well-worn genre, but it creates vivid worlds.
More importantly, Butterfield and Kirk bring to life two characters you want to root for and establish enough chemistry in the brief opening scene that you’re interested in watching the young lovers make it through the holidays.
Director Jim O’Hanlon is an experienced TV director and it is clear that his work in British relationship comedies. trying i catastrophe brought up to Your Christmas or minewhere it sets the right tone and atmosphere for a jovial festive time.
Evaluation: 3/5
Your Christmas or Mine is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video