I am still not feeling all that well, but I will attempt to make this review at least slightly less half-arsed than yesterday. How lucky am I then that the film I am talking about is The Knight Before Christmas (2019). After watching all three The Princess Switch films last year, I thought I had come to the end of the Vanessa Hudgens/Netflix Christmas films but lo and behold there was still this one remaining. For the people who read the three reviews on The Princess Switch films, you will know how much disdain I had towards them, so I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy at the prospect of this one. The film tells the story of Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse), a medieval knight who has been sent to the future by an old crone to accomplish a mysterious quest, with a deadline of Christmas eve to complete it or be trapped in the future forever. While there he meets Brooke (Vanessa Hudgens) who helps him acclimatise to his new surroundings and also helps him to figure out what his quest might be, and while doing so the two begin to fall for each other.
If you thought that the plot of this film was a little odd you would be right, and I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch to say that it is likely that the film’s title came first and then the plot was developed around that. However, the ridiculousness of the plot ends up working in the film's favour. I will get into that a bit later, but first I will break down the film on its technical merits. In terms of direction and cinematography, it is sufficient. It does feel more like a ‘real’ film than one of the thousands of made-for-TV Christmas films that many of Netflix's other Christmas films tend to emulate. It looks very clean and warm, which is an obvious choice to match the sappy and wholesome tone the film is going for. This works better for the film when it is set in the modern day, as when it is set in medieval times it feels more like we are watching people at a medieval recreation rather than a real medieval time period, but this a film where a medieval knight time travels so historical accuracy isn’t exactly at the forefront of my worries. In terms of performance, everyone does their job well enough. I don’t expect there were any awards handed out to the actors in this film, but they match the tone and mood of the film and so succeed in the job they are expected to do.
Now back to the very silly narrative of the film. The film is your classic fish-out-of-water film with the majority of the runtime being devoted to Sir Cole being confused by modern-day technologies or etiquette and it makes for some humorous scenarios, especially as the film decides to have the character of Sir Cole play it very straight. He isn’t ever panicked or worried about his new surroundings, instead he just takes it in stride, and this makes the film more entertaining because it clearly doesn’t take itself very seriously. And this is the main thing that made me not really dislike this film. It really isn’t my thing, and it isn’t going to go down as a classic of cinema, but was it ever trying to be? It is clearly a silly film, and it matches that silliness with its tone while managing to hit all the emotional notes of a rom-com that will please fans of the genre. I may have even gone so far as to say I quite enjoyed this film if it went a bit further with the scenarios it put Sir Cole in. It mostly keeps it pretty safe, and I think it could have dipped its toe into some more comedic scenarios for the character.
I think if I had seen this film for one of my Christmas reviews a few years ago I would have been much harsher on it. However, I feel I have become a much softer critic and I have also seen so much genuine crap that I understand that films like this, which are decently acted and competently shot and directed, are just a bit of fun and have an audience. It fits into the Christmas tradition of being a super easy, wholesome watch and if you are into sappy rom-coms it will definitely do the job. Am I ever going to watch it again? No. But for what it is it was perfectly fine, and I wouldn’t be opposed to recommending it.
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