We’re almost halfway through January, but there are still more Christmas movies to watch! Lesbian Christmas movies, at that. And no, not that lesbian Christmas movie. There are other ones, you know. Ones that aren’t mean to Kristen Stewart. For instance, Looking for Her.
Taylor (Olivia Buckle) hasn’t been home for Christmas in years. Not since she came out to her parents and they didn’t take it very well. But now her parents want to make amends, and they invite her home for the holidays. And just to show how much they want to welcome Taylor back into their lives, they invite her to bring her girlfriend as well. There’s only one problem. Taylor and her girlfriend aren’t together anymore. Rather than admit it didn’t work out, Taylor finds the perfect solution: she puts out an ad for an actor to play her girlfriend over the holidays. Turns out this is the perfect gig for struggling actor Olive (Alexandra Swarens). But what happens when fake dating turns into… not so fake dating?
Let’s put this one through the Christmas movie rating scale and see how it does.
Romance: 10/10. Okay so. I am a sucker for fake dating. I talk about this all the time, so sorry if you’ve heard this before, but I love a fake dating story. It makes no sense. It never happens in real life. And yet it gets me every time. I love that feeling of “we’re together, but how together are we?” And when the chemistry is right, it’s the perfect kind of romantic tension. This movie had that. And Swarens and Buckle clearly have chemistry (they’ve done multiple movies together).
Morality: 4/10. I don’t really understand what the moral of this story is. I wish we got more of a sense of what Taylor’s relationship with her family was before this Christmas. The parents we see in this movie are very accepting and kind. Even Olive remarks on this (multiple times) but Taylor just brushes it off. We have to assume that Taylor’s relationship with her parents has been fraught. After all, Taylor is afraid of telling her parents she’s single because she’s worried they won’t take her sexuality seriously if she doesn’t have a girlfriend. We don’t see those parents. So then I wonder where the growth is and what we’re supposed to learn from this. Except maybe Taylor was wrong about her parents this whole time, I guess?
And then there’s Olive. She seems delightful, but she doesn’t like that Taylor is lying about their relationship, so she goes home to let Taylor deal with her parents on her own. Olive doesn’t seem upset with Taylor, and when they meet up later, Olive seems so excited to see her. But she makes no efforts to reach out to Taylor. Why? Because her phone got cut off? What is the moral here? I have no clue.
I’m giving this a 4 out of 10 because nothing bad happens in this movie. But nothing good happens either.
Music: 4/10. There were some generic Christmas songs in this movie, but nothing remarkable. Womp.
Christmas Spirit: 10/10. This one was teeming with Christmas spirit. The whole movie is built around the idea of ideal Christmas dates. At the end of the movie, Taylor realizes that she and Olive did every single perfect Christmas date during their time together. And I guess this makes her realize they’re perfect for each other. I’m not sure how that worked out. But, let’s see… they found a Christmas tree together. They made snow angels. They went to an ugly sweater party. They had fireside chats with warm beverages. I feel like there’s another one, but you get the idea. Christmas thangs.
The Christmas sweaters!
Warmth: 8/10. No kids or animals in this one (WHAT THE HECK?). The family was unsettlingly nice for a family that was supposed to be homophobic, and I’m not quite sure how to feel about that. And as I mentioned, Olive and Taylor were really sweet together. So, yeah… this was warm, but also… what?
I guess that’s it! This was a pretty okay lesbian Christmas movie. It didn’t make me super angry like Happiest Season, anyway. But how did it go, score-wise?
36/50 = 72% C-. Not bad. Can’t complain. Probably won’t watch it again.
Two more to go, friends! The Christmas season is almost officially over.