Stefan Brogren

(On TV, December 2022) December isn’t December without the TV listings being cluttered by undistinguishable made-for-TV Christmas movies (or, in this case, made-for-Tubi but later sold to TV channels) but A Chance for Christmas does have a slightly more ambitious premise than most, throwing an influencer with a penchant for fakery into a science-fictional Christmas Eve time loop with professional success and personal happiness on the line. The script is more clever than usual, which translates both into some moronic contrivances (live-streaming on Christmas Eve!) and halfway-witty material (such as two people stuck in a time loop rather than one). Of course, this being a Christmas movie made for undemanding audiences, you should expect from director Stefan Brogren not only a complete lack of existential dread from the looping characters, but also an utter lack of surprise at what needs to be done to escape the loop. As a result, expect to spend about an hour screaming at the characters, “No, this is not how you’re going to do it” as they chase professional excellence rather than personal contentment. But, hey, predictability is not known to be a problem for Christmas movies. Neither are dull dialogues, second-tier actors or awkward staging limited by low production budgets—so take all of that for granted. Both a better-than-average Christmas movie and a worse-than-average overall film, A Chance for Christmas is not the worst pick for December, but you still could be watching very many better things instead.