Last year, Kelsey Grammer starred my number one worst Christmas movie. I may have visibly cringed when I saw he was doing another one, The 12 Days Of Christmas Eve, this year. Alas, it is my duty to watch all of the movies in order to tell you which ones are the most horriblest. I really hope this isn’t one of them.
Brian Conway (Kelsey Grammer) is a successful businessman, running the company his father started. However, he is not the best father himself. When he dies in a car accident on Christmas Eve, Santa gives him 12 Christmas Eves to rehabilitate his ways. But can someone really redeem themselves in one day?
This movie is pretty much Groundhog Day meets A Christmas Carol. Brian keeps reliving Christmas Eve, trying to repair all of his various relationships in order to figure out the “correct” way to be a good person. Of course, that means it hits all of the tropes - buying people’s love with money, trying to spend as much time with a loved one by going behind their back to make arrangements, doing what you think people want instead of asking what they want, making grand gestures thinking they will solve everything. Thankfully, The 12 Days doesn’t completely rely on this to make it a good movie. A decent amount of humor, mostly in the ways Brian keeps dying, has been sprinkled throughout the movie to keep it lighthearted. After all, no one wants their Christmas movie to be depressing.
Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying The 12 Days more than I thought I would. I’ve never been a fan of Grammer and last year’s bomb was so bad that I didn’t have a lot of hope for this one. But, somehow, the absurd comedy kept me chuckling long enough to actually like the darn thing.
Do I think you should watch it? Sure. Just keep in mind that there is no new material here. You have seen this all before. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t any fun.