With an overbearing mother-in-law to be taking all of the fun away from wedding planning, with her unwanted decision making and bad choice of date, Jennifer has to take a minute and have a breather to think over her life plans. Unbeknownst to her a cyclist she happens to help; having been in a collision, could be her guiding light and the person to walk her through her future plans. Or the problems of her past. This movie covers the journey of a bride-to-be who isn't 100% happy with the way her life has panned out, with an exciting opportunity when a guardian angel offers her an alternate reality, where everything that went wrong could have gone right!
One of the first Christmas movies of 2020 for me, A New York Christmas Wedding was an unexpected release on Netflix. A bisexual lead character in a Christmas movie is not something I've found in any of my previous watches, and as such I'm now hopeful that this could help to pave the way to LGBTQ+ plot inclusivity! Netflix are really on point with covering all types of relationship, different cultures and different ethnicities. We see Jennifer transported to an alternate reality, where she didn't fall out with her best friend as we see at the start of the movie, and her father didn't pass away either. There are a lot of shoulda coulda would a's in this story, and the movie glides through the different problems Jennifer has had, and could have had, should this have been the fork in the river she had taken.
I found the story itself to be intriguing, and there was definitely an element of Christmas, but I'm not 100% certain that I can see this as a Christmas movie. There was a religious theme in the movie, but it was not really associated with the story of Christmas per se. We see the female leads approach their priest with the prospect of being the first same gender couple to be wed in the church. This is a very hot topic, and I can imagine that it may stir the religious pot a little. The priest must consider whether or not this is something he wishes to have in the church, whilst also being supportive of two girls who have grown up as part of the congregation, with Gabi coaching the choir. He has guided them both through hard times, and knows them both so well, but can he make the right decision?
Whilst Jennifer was a character with depth I just didn't feel like this came across. The only time I felt engaged, with the emotions we expect being expressed, was the wedding day itself. I think it was a nice story with a lot of potential but sadly I don't think the end product was a great representation. I found the acting to be average at best, with no real draw to connect me to the characters. The name leaves something to be desired as well, with the only thing Christmas about the movie being the wedding date. A very informal event, with a distinct lack of snow and decoration and all of the glorious things I've come to love about a Christmas Wedding. I would be happy to watch more movies by the same writer, as perhaps it was the direction that led it astray, but I didn't think it really fit into the theme it was going for.
A review by CB
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