EXmas

If I could sum up EXmas in one sentence, it would be “there is no such thing as an ex-father-in-law or an ex-mother-in-law”.

When Graham Stroop (Robbie Amell) decides to travel at the last minute to surprise his family for Christmas, he just doesn’t imagine that the biggest surprise will be for him.

Ali (Leighton Meester), his ex-fiancée who broke his heart into little pieces, was invited by his family to celebrate in his place and replace him at the festivities.

Amidst an awkward atmosphere, they decide to compete and bet that by the morning of the 25th, one of them will have been kicked out of the Stroops’ Christmas.

EXmas is it good?

Evaluating a Christmas movie ends up being simple, we already know the ending: the good guy ends up with the good girl, Christmas is briefly ruined and fixed even faster, the script follows the same pattern as countless other movies. There is not much new to offer.

Here, we have a couple who ended a 5-year relationship without any dialogue or explanation. He did not get over it and, apparently, neither did his family.

After the breakup, Ali kept in touch with Graham’s parents by text, helped his sister move, and did study sessions with his younger brother via FaceTime. Unlike her ex, she remained present in their lives.

Graham, on the other hand, immersed himself even more in work, forgetting to live any other part of his life.

When the two meet for the first time after the breakup, there is a lot to be said, but little courage to say it.

They decide to resolve things in the most childish way possible: competing and sabotaging each other to see who is the family’s favorite.

EXmas brings up a discussion about the lack of dialogue between two people. While Graham worked to provide what he imagined Ali needed (a house, financial stability), the character felt increasingly unhappy about not receiving what she really wanted: a fiancé who paid attention to her, her dreams, and who helped her grow.

Despite the clichés, it is interesting to see how they resolve their issues, how they finally learn to listen to each other.

The film has good ideas to make viewers laugh quickly and manages to maintain the tone until its last scene, seconds before the credits roll.

The main characters have good chemistry, the family dynamics work very well. The only thing that made me a little bored during the film were the secondary characters added just so the couple could make each other jealous.

Otherwise, EXmas is a great film. If the metric is Christmas films, it gets a 4.5, in the general concept of films 3.0.

Watch the trailer:

In Brazil, the film EXmas is available on Prime Video only in english with subtitles.