‘The Knight Before Christmas’ is charmingly Canadian in the best ways
Another Netflix original film starring Vanessa Hudgens dropped recently, though to my surprise, is unrelated to “The Princess Switch” from last year (we watch a lot of less-than-great movies). Written, directed and produced by ladies, “The Knight Before Christmas” has some issues with pacing and believability, but is actually quite a delightful little film.
Hudgens stars as Brooke, an Ohio school teacher with the most amazing wardrobe any school teacher could ask for (and more fabulous coats than any six people should own) who meets a knight from 12th century England named Sir Cole (Josh Whitehouse) who is magically transported through time by a witch in the woods with seemingly good intentions. It’s your classic fish out of water tale as Sir Cole attempts to find his life’s quest in 2019 Ohio (Ontario, Canada), all the while improving the lives of those he meets.
Brooke has just broken up with her boyfriend who was cheating on her and has given up on love. When she hits a strange man dressed as a knight in the middle of the road during a snowstorm, her entire life is turned upside down.
Sounds cute, right? It is! It’s a very cute film in all the right ways to make a better-than-most direct to streaming Christmas movie.
Hudges is great as always, playing the sad but resilient school teacher living in her late parents’ home and doing what she can to get through the holidays, made all the more difficult because her parents were so involved in local festivities. She’s very active in the lives of her niece Claire (Isabelle Franca) and her sister Madison (Emmanuelle Chriqui) and does what she can to make all their Christmases as bright as possible.
Sir Cole’s arrival on the scene starts her on a journey of reflection about what Christmas really means to her and whether or not she’s ready to love again.
So why did I rate this as low as I did after watching it? Well, for one thing, the pacing is pretty bad. There are big chucks of dead air that could have been cut for time or cut-aways to reactions that either don’t match or are unnecessary. There’s a scene at the end of the film where everyone should be very excited and I don’t think the actors were even smiling. Then they cut back to applause. Huh?
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