The New Holiday Film Review – The Streaming Giant’s Newest Christmas Romantic Comedy Misses the Sparkle.

At the risk of sound like the Grinch, it’s hard not to bemoan the early release of holiday movies before Thanksgiving. Even as temperatures drop, it feels premature to fully indulge in Netflix’s yearly feast of low-cost festive treats.

Similar to American chocolates which don’t include real chocolate, the service’s Christmas movies are counted on for their brand of badness. They offer rote familiarity – nostalgic casting, low budgets, artificial winter scenes, and absurd premises. At worst, these movies are forgettable train wrecks; at best, they are lighthearted distractions.

Champagne Problems, the latest Christmas offering, disappears into the broad center of unremarkable territory. Directed by Mark Steven Johnson, who previously previous romantic comedy was so disposable, this movie feels like cheap bubbly – appropriately flat and situational.

The story starts with what appears to be a computer-made commercial for drug store brand champagne. This commercial is actually the proposal of Sydney Price, played by the actress, to her coworkers at a financial firm. The protagonist is the stereotypical image of a career woman – underestimated, phone-obsessed, and ambitious to the detriment of her private world. When her boss dispatches her to France to close a deal over the holidays, her sister makes her promise spend an evening in Paris to live for herself.

Naturally, the French capital is the ideal location to wrest one away from digital navigation, despite Paris is draped with below-grade CGI snow. At a absurdly cutesy bookshop, the lead has a charming encounter with Henri Cassell, and he distracts her from her device. As demanded by rom-com conventions, Sydney at first rejects this perfect man for frivolous excuses.

Just as predictable are the movie mechanics that unfold at sudden shifts, mirroring the rotation of old sparkling wine in the vaults of Chateau Cassel. The twist? The love interest is the heir to the estate, reluctant to run it and resentful toward his dad for selling it. In perhaps the film’s biggest addition to the genre, Henri is extremely judgmental of private equity. The conflict? Sydney sincerely believes she’s not stripping this family-owned company for profit, competing against three caricatures: a stern Frenchwoman, a severe blonde German man, and a delusional gay billionaire.

The twist? Sydney’s skeevy coworker the office rival appears without warning. The core? The two leads look yearningly at each other in holiday pajamas, across a huge divide in economic worldview.

The gift and the curse is that none of this sticks beyond a bubbly buzz on an empty stomach. There’s a lack of real absorbent filler – Minka Kelly, still best known for her role in Friday Night Lights, delivers a strictly serviceable performance, all sweet surfaces and acts of kindness, almost motherly than romantic lead. Tom Wozniczka provides exactly the dollop of Gallic appeal with light inner conflict and little else. The tricks are not amusing, the romance is inoffensive, and the ending is straightforward.

For all its waxing poetic on the luxury of sparkling wine, no one is pretending this is anything but a mainstream product. The flaws are also the things to like. It’s fair to say a critic’s feelings about the film a minor issue.

• Champagne Problems can be streamed on the platform.