Champagne Problems Review – The Streaming Giant’s Latest Holiday Romcom Lacks Fizz.

At the risk of come across as the Grinch, it’s hard not to lament the early arrival of holiday films prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Even as the weather cools, it seems too soon to fully indulge in the platform’s annual buffet of cheap holiday treats.

Similar to US candy which don’t contain genuine cocoa, the service’s holiday films are counted on for their brand of mediocrity. They provide rote familiarity – nostalgic casting, modest spending, fake snow, and absurd premises. At worst, these movies are unmemorable disasters; at best, they are forgettable fun.

Champagne Problems, the newest Christmas concoction, disappears into the broad center of the forgettable spectrum. Directed by the filmmaker, whose previous romantic comedy was utterly forgettable, this movie goes down like cheap bubbly – fittingly lackluster and context-dependent.

It begins with what appears to be a computer-made commercial for supermarket sparkling wine. This commercial is actually the proposal of the main character, played by Minka Kelly, to her colleagues at a financial firm. The protagonist is the construction paper cut-out of a career woman – underestimated, phone-obsessed, and ambitious to the detriment of her personal life. When her boss dispatches her to Paris to close a deal over the holidays, her sister makes her promise spend an evening in Paris to enjoy life.

Of course, the French capital is the perfect place to wrest one away from Google Maps, despite the city is draped with below-grade CGI snow. At a overly quaint bookstore, Sydney has a charming encounter with the male lead, who pulls her away from her device. Following the genre, she at first rejects this ideal guy for frivolous excuses.

Just as predictable are the film elements that proceed at sudden shifts, reflecting the turning of old sparkling wine in the cellars of the family vineyard. The catch? Henri is the heir to Chateau Cassel, reluctant to run it and bitter toward his dad for putting it up for sale. Maybe the movie’s most salient contribution to romantic comedies, he is highly critical of private equity. The problem? The heroine truly thinks she’s not dismantling this family-owned company for profit, competing against three stereotypical rivals: a severe French grand dame, a severe blonde German man, and an out-of-touch wealthy man.

The development? Her shady colleague the office rival appears without warning. The grist? The two leads look yearningly at each other in holiday pajamas, despite a huge divide in economic worldview.

The gift and the curse is that none of this lingers longer than a short-lived thrill on an unfilled belly. There’s a lack of real absorbent filler – the lead actress, most famous for her part in the TV series, delivers a strictly serviceable performance, superficially pleasant and gestures of care, almost motherly than romantic lead. Tom Wozniczka offers exactly the dollop of Gallic appeal with light inner conflict and little else. The gimmicks are unfunny, the love story is inoffensive, and the happy-ever-after is straightforward.

Despite its waxing poetic on the luxury of champagne, no one is pretending it is anything but a mass market item. The flaws are also the things to like. One might call a critic’s feelings about it a champagne problem.

• The Holiday Film can be streamed on the platform.