Netflix’s latest holiday movie, Best. Christmas. Ever!, is a festive and fun holiday flick. The film sparkles with heartwarming moments that reflect genuine emotion. Despite some candy cane-sized plot holes, Heather Graham and Brandy Norwood’s endearing performances and Best Christmas Evers’s lively pace keep the yuletide spirit alive and keep us believing in St. Nick and St. Jackie for another year.
The story of Best Christmas Ever
[Editor’s note: There are extremely light spoilers ahead for Best. Christmas. Ever!]
The movie starts with a tale of two Christmas newsletters. One family, the Jennings, with matriarch Jackie (Brandy Norwood) and husband Valentino (Matt Cedeño), has a Christmas newsletter where everything is wonderful and seems too good to be true. There are lavish vacations, early retirement, a 10-year-old daughter at Harvard, and more. The other family, the Sanders, with Charlotte (Heather Graham) and Rob (Jason Biggs), not so much. They’re struggling with unrealized dreams, and Charlotte doesn’t see the need to brag, so she’s anti-newsletter.
Things go awry when Charlotte’s stray sarcastic comment about Jackie to her son Grant (Wyatt Hunt) leads him to put Jackie’s address into the GPS for their planned Christmas holiday trek. Having read the newsletter, Grant thinks Jackie’s life is awesome – what kid wouldn’t want to go around the world in a hot-air balloon? The family ends up at Jackie and Valentino’s home (instead of Charlotte’s sisters), and because of a late night, a snowstorm, and their genuine niceness, the Sanders are invited to stay through Christmas.
In Best Christmas Ever, Charlotte struggles with just how perfect things seem for her long-ago friend and bah-humbugs her way into snooping in Jackie’s life. Suspicious of her friend’s seemingly perfect life, Charlotte embarks on a comical investigation, employing some questionable tactics that would surely land her on Santa’s naughty list. In her quest to prove that Jackie’s life isn’t perfect, Charlotte gets more than she bargained for. Ultimately, she finds value and pride in her own life and family, all wrapped up in a perfect Jackie-inspired bow.
Like indulging in Christmas cookies
The story is as sweet and predictable as a freshly baked batch of Christmas cookies, requiring a cinnamon-flavored dash of Christmas magic to suspend disbelief and overlook the big plot holes. But just like indulging in those delicious cookies, you can’t help but get swept up in the heartwarming charm of Best Christmas Ever.
The actors commit to their roles, make the story believable, and have such wonderful chemistry together. Heather Graham and Brandy Norwood are both great in their parts. Brandy Norwood makes you believe that the whole town loves Jackie because she plays her with such openness, sincerity, and generosity. (And she even gets to showcase her incredible singing!) Heather Graham plays Charlotte with a relatable touch of crankiness, capturing the stress and strain of juggling family life, financial worries, and the longing for a more meaningful existence that isn’t just a placeholder.
Biggs and Cedeño are somehow believable, outlandish, and hilarious in their roles. The kids, Wyatt Hunt and Abby Villasmil, especially Madison Skye Validum, are delightful every time they’re on screen. Beatrix and Grant’s secondary story through the film is such fun.
And to top it all off, Santa Claus himself makes an appearance at the end of the movie, reminding us that Christmas’s magic is real and that Best Christmas Ever is worth checking out on Netflix.
How to watch Best Christmas Ever
Best. Christmas. Ever! is now streaming on Netflix. Tune in however you like to watch your streaming media.
Your thoughts
What did you think about Best Christmas Ever? Does it deserve the bad reviews or do you agree with Ayla? Join the conversation by commenting below or following us on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MoviesWeTexted.
Looking for more Christmas movie reviews? Check our our holidays tag for all of our thoughts on movies like Dashing Through the Snow, Robbie Amell’s EXmas and so much more.
And here’s where you can read our reviews for Children’s and Family entertainment