Hotel for the Holidays stars Riverdale's Madelaine Petsch as Georgia, the manager of a high-end hotel in New York City. Guests from all walks of life come to the hotel to escape their lives – there are heartbroken singles, an infamous pop star, and a European ex-prince who recently abdicated his throne.
Georgia's work and personal life become entangled when she has to choose between the earnest and romantic hotel chef Luke (Aladdin's Mena Massoud) and the aforementioned ex-prince — to whom she has submitted a business proposal, to boot. Who will she choose and what will her future be?
Frankly, it's hard to care. Hotel for the Holidays takes two quite charismatic and watchable actors and puts them through the most rote and base plot contrivances in order to artificially render romance and Christmas magic.
Yes, there are a lot of machinations necessary for a festive romcom to work, and almost all of them require a hefty dose of suspension of disbelief.
Unfortunately, there's a strange sensation that all the characters in this film are chewed up and spat out again by the sausage machine of story. They act and react in beyond strange, slightly threatening, over-the-top ways that would make even the most cynical and grinch-like moviegoer raise an eyebrow.
Georgia's dream to open her own more modern hotel feels like the kind of thing her friends could get behind; alas, no. They're all MAD at her for DARING to want to do more than manage the current hotel.
Then there's Luke, whose obsession with Georgia would make the hairs stand up on anyone's neck (trying to foist himself on her at lunch, purposefully acting out during an important meeting, etc). It's the kind of 'nice boy' behaviour that blurs the line between affection and something more sinister.
Massoud in particular deserves better than being shoehorned into these faux-romantic roles, where his charm is squeezed out in service of a plot that isn't even worth it. He does his best to imbue Luke with the kind of sincerity that makes you root for him, but even he can't escape the overwritten sappiness of the script.
There is such a huge roster of sub-plot characters that the film is overstuffed and becomes boring. Some romcoms manage to balance this well — Love Actually is the prime example, but the recent People You Hate at the Wedding also managed an ensemble cast and still delivered laughs; none of this can be said for Hotel for the Holidays.
The film is neither funny nor charming, but rather leaves one with the impression that an AI took examples from previous romcoms and churned out Hotel for the Holidays with a meticulous box-ticking, devoid of any real human soul.
Especially when you get to the end, which – SPOILER WARNING! – seems to make the strange choice of having Georgia give up her dream and potential for a future as an independent business owner, which was very attainable and likely life-changing, to stay at the hotel.
It's a move that beggars belief when it would be just as heart-warming to have her proceed with her business with the support of her coworkers and boss. None of that precludes her from settling down romantically with Luke, and while the film does try and right this wrong, the move feels hackneyed and too little too late, given the choice Georgia made.
Hotel for the Holidays is available on Amazon Freevee.
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