Frequently, I am bored by Christmas romance movies. Sometimes I am moved. I don’t think I have ever been so thoroughly confused as I have been by A New York Christmas Wedding.
Jennifer (Nia Fairweather) is about to get married to David (Otoja Abit). However, David’s mother, Alison (Tyra Ferrell), is pushing for a Christmas Eve wedding. Unfortunately, Jennifer has had a lot of personal trauma around the Christmas season. When she takes a late night run to clear her mind, Jennifer runs into Azrael (Cooper Koch), an angel who transports her to an alternate universe where her life is very different.
When I started watching this movie, I thought it was going to be an updated version of It’s A Wonderful Life. Instead, Jennifer is given this alternate life where almost everyone she had lost in her current life is alive again. Her father (David Anzuelo) and her former best friend, Gabrielle (Adriana DeMeo), are back but her mother is not. I’m not sure why the writer (Otoja Abit wrote and directed this, as well as played David) was so selective about who got to come back. I guess because it wasn’t about bringing back dead people, it was about putting Jennifer and Gabrielle into a romantic relationship. Mothers aren’t needed for those.
Ah, the Jennifer/Gabrielle relationship. In the beginning of the movie, we see the friends get into a big fight. Later in the movie, Jennifer says that she was hurt because she was going to confess her love but Gabrielle blew off their plans to hang out a boy. Before this moment, we don’t see anything that shows that Jennifer loved Gabrielle. She says she is sad that Gabrielle died but that is it. You can be sad about a former friend dying without being in love with them. It would have been nice to see some sort of hint about her feelings before having the women suddenly thrust into bed.
Then there is this angel Azrael. He kinda pops up whenever it’s convenient to...well, not really explain anything. He just pops Jennifer around in time without telling her anything. When it comes time for him to bring her back to her actual life, he reveals that he is Gabrielle’s dead baby. Apparently, Gabrielle had gotten pregnant the night she ditched Jennifer and the baby died. And he has been watching over Jennifer ever since. Um, what?
I can’t recommend watching this confusing mess. It is on Netflix so, if you do decide to turn it on, could you please let me know what you think the point is? Because it makes no sense to me.