Source: PopSugar
It seems like everyone is obsessed with Netflix Original Christmas movies. A Christmas Prince quickly became everyone's favourite holiday movie, so when Netflix announced Christmas Inheritance, you can bet that everyone, including myself, was getting ready for another shoddy attempt at a Hallmark movie.
Christmas Inheritance follows Ellen, the daughter of a CEO of a major US gift company (side note: What exactly is a gift company?) who's nicknamed the 'party heiress' after an unfortunate incident at a party. Not wanting his daughter to be just an heiress, Ellen's father sends her to his hometown, Snow Falls, to deliver a Christmas letter to his former business partner and hopefully learn there's more to life than an AMEX. There's quirky townspeople, a mysterious business partner and of course, a touch of romance.
I watched the movie last Saturday night, after a busy day and a full-on Christmas dinner. Much to my surprise, I actually enjoyed the movie, despite the cliches. The next day, I decided to scroll through the mountain of articles about the movie to see if I was the only person who was ecstatic for Netflix, who proved they're capable of creating a decent Christmas movie.
As it turns out, I was.
A majority of entertainment writers thought that A Christmas Prince was far better than Christmas Inheritance, so I questioned whether it was the exhaustion that made me like the movie. Naturally, there was only one thing left to do - watch the movie again. After the second screening at a more decent hour, I still found myself liking the movie.
To me, Christmas Inheritance was just far superior to A Christmas Prince in so many ways.
Firstly, the cast could actually act. A Christmas Prince featured almost robotic performances by actors who looked like they belonged in a soap opera more than a Christmas movie. In contrast, Christmas Inheritance featured Jake Lacey and Eliza Taylor, both of whom are common faces in TV shows and movies (The 100, How To Be Single etc.). Not to mention, it also had Andie MacDowell. How do people prefer something that doesn't have Andie MacDowell to something that does have Andie MacDowell?
The plot was also more enjoyable. A lot of people found the plot of A Christmas Prince to be extremely cliched, but it was that along with the fast pace that made them love it. However, it also had a tonne of plot holes and inconsistencies that made the writer in me scream. Yes, Christmas Inheritance is cliche and I did call the ending before watching it, but the plot itself was sweet and far more believable than it's counterpart.
It also looks like Christmas Inheritance had a bigger budget. The sets looked realistic, the actor's wardrobes looked half decent and the aforementioned actors weren't complete no-names. A Christmas Prince was edited with stock footage, featured minimal extras and generally looked bleh. Not to mention, the Prince wasn't exactly eye-candy.
It really perplexes me how people can prefer A Christmas Prince to Christmas Inheritance. Perhaps it's because it was so bad and everyone loves to make fun of it, whereas Christmas Inheritance is cliched and an okay attempt at a Christmas movie, making it fall in the middle of the spectrum. It's not bad enough to love, but it's not good enough to consider a classic.
I've never been one to go with the flow, so it looks like I'm going to be one of the few voices that speak in defence of Christmas Inheritance and I'm completely fine with that.
Sorry entertainment industry and general public, but you're mistaken. Christmas Inheritance is better than A Christmas Prince.