“Holidate” opens with some promise. The opening scene shows Sloane (Roberts) smoking a cigarette on her mother’s front porch as she laments going inside for Christmas dinner. “Fucking holidays.” She utters – the opening words of the film. No, this one isn’t suitable for children.
We quickly get the picture that Sloane is the only single person in her family and therefore hates being around her own kin. The character of Sloane is one we get in a lot of movies of this genre. She’s really pretty and single, and surrounded by friends and family members who are in seemingly perfect relationships. Her mother in particular is comically overbearing in wanting Sloane to find a partner, even though her daughter seems content with her life.
Jackson (Bracey) is a single guy who loves hooking up with as many women as he can, and the dialogue from his initial sequence holds no punches – again, this gem isn’t for conservative ears. Jackson is a smarmy looking guy who partners with Sloan for a non-committal relationship. Their chemistry on screen is nothing more than a pair of hired models who have no organic cohesion. We know right from the start that they will fall for each other at some point, but by the end, you won’t even care.
I like the setting of Chicago, and the entire year of “holidates” they attend is unique but it pulls the Christmas feeling away for the most part. One “hysterical” interaction is a July 4th party in which Jackson literally blows one of his fingers off with a firework. It’s not funny at all.
Missed jokes aside, the downfall is the complete hatred of virtually every character involved. From Sloan’s promiscuous Aunt Susan (Kristin Chenoweth) to her sister Abby (Jessica Capshaw) who openly cheats on her husband and in a barrel full of laughs moment smokes a joint from behind the wheel of her SUV (I mean, who doesn’t find DUI’s hilarious). At one point a character (It was so bad I don’t even recall which one) gives advice of “always date down” – meaning never date someone who is equally or more attractive than you are because they will certainly find someone better at some point.
“Holidate” will give you no sense of warmth, joy, or hope. It’s an awful movie that tries to be more funny than sentimental and fails at doing that too.
