For many people, a familiar pastime in the weeks leading up to major winter holidays is gathering with family members and watching holiday movies, be they in a theater or on television. During the month of December, as has become tradition, the Falls Free Press will reprise “The 12 Films of Christmas,” focusing on new holiday movies for the year 2022—a year that can still do with plenty of peace and joy. We will review each film, whether naughty or nice, and let you know where to watch.
After three years of covering Christmas movies for the Falls Free Press, there have been a multitude of different types of films reviewed. Some are cheesy romantic comedies, while others are darker, more ponderous works. There are animated family shorts, Hallmark & Lifetime cutout cookies, remakes of classic literature adapted to the season, and of course, Dolly Parton. However, there has not been a movie so bizarre as to make one believe they’re actually living in a parallel universe from one of DC Comics’ canceled film projects, until now, after witnessing the 90 minutes of constant insanity in Netflix’s I Believe in Santa.
I Believe in Santa features Christina Moore as Lisa, a single mother who works as a journalist writing puff pieces on the same level as a high school newspaper. After six months of dating Tom (John Ducey), a lawyer whom she met at an Independence Day carnival, she discovers his intense love of Christmas. Even more, he still believes in Santa Claus and insists the only way for Christmas to be merry and for Santa to deliver gifts to children is to celebrate in every way possible, filling his December calendar with multiple activities each night. For Lisa, whose Christmas spirit was crushed by her parents as a child, this ideology is a few steps too far; however for her daughter Ella, it’s perfect.
On the surface, the plot of the movie is absurd and could easily have been written by a Hallmark executive. The additional insanity comes with the actors though, possibly having made even the card company take a step back. Given the preposterous idea of a grown man still believing in Santa, everybody’s acting is at 300%, ensuring there is no shortage of enthusiasm about flocked trees, making nightly mistletoe paper chains, or simply staring into each others’ eyes like serial killers in love. Unfortunately, the overacting is necessary at times when Moore and Ducey seem like they’ve never been in the same room together and reading two completely different scripts–a fact made only more insane when you realize the actors are actually married to each other in real life.
No official statement is ever said by any character about whether or not Santa Claus is real, always circled by one theory or another about how he accomplishes everything, all told earnestly by Tom, a man whose career is entirely based on facts. While it doesn’t dispute the Santa myth though, even children may have a hard time following how this movie got made. Apparently Netflix, which purchased the film for the platform, has disavowed any knowledge of I Believe in Santa on their press page, hoping reporters will review anything else.
I Believe in Santa is available to stream on Netflix.
