Christmas Cupid Synopsis: Los Angeles publicist is forced to reconsider her life choices as she gets visited by ghosts of her ex-boyfriends on the eve of Christmas.
Sloan Spencer (Christina Milan) is an ambitious PR executive looking for a promotion to VP. She’s dating the son of the man who owns the company, which surely helps her case, but she’s also in charge of planning a movie premiere for her reckless, party-girl client, Caitlin Quinn (Ashley Benson). When Caitlin chokes to death on an olive, Sloan’s movie premiere turns into a premiere/memorial. The job becomes even more complicated when Caitlin visits Sloan from beyond the grave, warning her that three spirits will show her what her life will become if she doesn’t change her ways.
Christmas Cupid is a very (very, very) loose adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Clearly, Sloan is meant to be Scrooge, with Benson’s Caitlin as Marley. Instead of the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, Sloan is haunted by former exes.
That’s where Christmas Cupid’s similarities to the novel end. Milan’s Sloane is nowhere near the “Scrooge” level needed to make her transformation significant. Is she unlikable? Yes, of course. But the movie seems to think that if she yells at a lot of people and forgets to help out a friend, then she’s comparable to an iconic miser who needed a swift kick in the butt from three ghosts to avoid a doomed afterlife.
The thing that makes Scrooge’s transformation so believable and moving is that each spirit shows his memories or circumstances that touch his heart, even if he has trouble showing it. You see glimpses of a soul he had long since buried by the time he’s forced to face his own mortality; he’s ready to change and make amends.
Sloan, however, remains selfish and unaffected, even when faced with moments where she hurts someone else. It’s not until she sees herself unconscious and alone in a hospital that she’s ready to think about someone other than herself… although she’s still acting selfishly. She doesn’t want to die alone, so she’s willing to treat people better. Everything that came before that seemed to be dismissed.
Chad Michael Murray pops up several times as Patrick, Sloan’s college boyfriend, now a doctor. They were in love once, but Sloan waited for Patrick to go to class one day, emptying their apartment and dumping him in a note. In the present day, she goes out on a date with Patrick and then ignores him completely after her corporate boyfriend shows up to propose to her. How this guy decides to take her back is beyond me.
Christmas Cupid (who is Cupid, by the way?) is a cookie-cutter Christmas romance with a weak script and mediocre acting. The enjoyable parts were between Caitlin and Sloan, especially once Caitlin stopped being a vodka-drinking bubblehead and showed actual depth. Christmas Cupid is a cheesy movie with very few redeeming qualities. There is no doubt a gazillion other Christmas romances like this one, so I recommend watching those before giving this one a try.
Watched: 12/23/2020
Notable Song: Silent Night (Dance Version) by Big Swede Feat. Tali
